Macbeth lies with Scottish kings like Duncan, in the Abbey's Royal Cemetery at Iona, Inner Hebrides.
Shakespeare's source for Macbeth was Holinshed's Chronicles, which drew on the Scotorum Historiae (1527) by Hector Boece. However, Shakespeare's Macbeth differs greatly from the historical 11th century Scottish king, who was born around 1005 to Finlay, Mormaer (earl) of Moray. In 1040 the King of Alba (Scotland), Duncan, had been defeated by the English in a battle at Durham. Macbeth was a rival warlord, eligible for the high kingship by marriage to Kenneth III's grand-daughter Gruoch, and by his own royal blood of the House of Loarn. In 1040 they clashed near Elgin, in the heart of Moray and Duncan died, so Macbeth became king. Shakespeare mentions Iona, under one of its other names, as the burial place of such Scottish kings. When Ross asks "Where is Duncan's body?" Macduff replies "Carried to Colmekill/ The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,/ And guardian of their bones." (II.iv.32-5)
Macbeth's kingship was peaceful. He maintained order and Christianity with laws protecting women and children, and his queen gave lands to the Church. Macbeth felt secure enough in 1050 to visit Rome, where he gave silver to the poor. He made minor forays into Northumbria, and in 1054 he was challenged by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, seeking to return Duncan's son Malcolm Canmore, his nephew, to the Scottish throne. In 1057, Macbeth was defeated by Malcolm III and probably killed at the Battle of Lumphanan. Macbeth's step-son by Gruoch, Lulach, appears next in the king lists, but he too was killed by Malcolm after a few months, ending the Celtic high kingship in Scotland, based on alternating families in the succession. As in the play, Malcolm thus succeeded in English hereditary style: though the kingship went to his brother Donalbane upon his death, it then passed back to Malcolm's son and in patrilineal fashion from then on. So we can answer L. C. Knight's famous question ridiculing A. C. Bradley's literalism: "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" with the fact that Macbeth's historical queen had at least one, Lulach (as Lady Macbeth explicitly confirms, I.vii.54-5).
Shakespeare blackened Macbeth and his wife and stressed the witches perhaps to interest King James I, whose Scottish ancestors seemingly included Banquo. Like Old Hamlet the historical Macbeth lived when royal succession was often decided by physical conflict, but he seems a successful King and his wife a worthy queen. Harsh details in the play may come from elswhere, including Catherine de Medici's involvement in the St. Batholemew Day's Massacre in France. The play seems written in the vein of Titus Andronicus, by its murder of women and children, and the final grotesque display of Macbeth's head, which usually provokes nervous laughter. The script has been cut and reworked: Hecate (IV.i) was probably added by Middleton, who may have done some cutting. Courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License.
