The Destruction Of Duncan's Insane In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

The play Macbeth is about a man who slowly goes insane because of his poor and morally wrong decisions. In real life, Macbeth was not the crazy man that he is portrayed to be. The true crazy one was Duncan. He was power hungry, tyrannical, and could be classified as a poor decision maker that split his army to both northern and southern territories to attack different peoples. Macbeth and Duncan’s personalities were switched by Shakespeare in order to appease King James I of England who was extremely proud of his Scottish ancestry.
When Macbeth was young (around 15 years old) his cousins, Malcolm II and Gillecomgain, killed Macbeth’s father in 1020 because he was too close to the throne ("History - Historic Figures: Macbeth (c.1005 - 1057)."). Then, in 1032 Malcolm II ordered for Gillecomgain to be killed for killing Macbeth’s father. A little while afterwards, in 1034 Malcolm II died of natural causes and his son Duncan became king of Scotland; he poorly and tyrannically reigned for six years ("History - Historic Figures: Macbeth (c.1005 -
1057).").
Duncan, during his reign, had thirsted for power but was completely incompetent in battle tactics and fighting.
The major example of this was in 1038, when southern Scotland was invaded, but the invaders had been successfully repelled, he had been encouraged to launch a counterattack against the invaders, Northumbria. However, he also wanted to invade the Orkney Islands, so he split his army in two and placed them at opposite ends of the country, against his advisors warnings ("History - Historic Figures: Macbeth (c.1005 - 1057)."). Duncan put his nephew, Modden, as the leader of the charge into the Orkney Islands, but Macbeth joined with the Orkneys and fought the army and won ("Macbeth."). Then Macbeth and the Orkneys went and finished off the other half of the army at the other end of the country and ended with Macbeth killing Duncan in a duel. This spanned until 1040. Macbeth then ascended to the throne
("Macbeth.").
During Macbeth’s reign, he ruled fairly, acted as a brave leader, fought England and claimed some of their land, and he encouraged the spread of Christianity for 17 years. In 1046, Macbeth was challenged by a man named Siward on behalf of Duncan’s son, Malcolm, but was unsuccessful. While there was a power struggle happening in England with William the Bastard, later known as William the Conqueror, vying for the throne, Normans who were in England at the time began fleeing to Scotland in 1052 ("Macbeth."). According to Scotland traditions, any traveler was welcome in the court of the king, so the Normans came to Macbeth’s court. This did not set well with the English lords at the time and coincidentally Malcolm was lobbying English lords stating that he would be the best king for Scotland. Afterwards, in 1054, Macbeth had been forced to yield a part of southern Scotland to Malcolm and three years later Malcolm killed Macbeth in battle ("Macbeth.").
These three reasons are why Duncan’s and Macbeth’s personalities had been switched by Shakespeare in order to appease King James I of England who was extremely proud of his Scottish ancestry. They show how tyrannical and thirsty he was for power and territories, but also immensely unwise and utterly stupid he was with battle tactics and ruling in general. In the words of the wise John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton who was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”