Gruoch, ‘Regina Scotorum’: The Woman Behind Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth by Robyn Wallace

Lady Macbeth has prevailed as one of Shakespeare’s most iconic villains for centuries. Her ambitious and tragic character is so evocative that it has almost completely overshadowed the life of the historical Lady Macbeth, so much so that even her real name, Gruoch, has almost faded into obscurity. Relating the story of her life is difficult and often fraught with unreliable or poorly surviving source material: much of the pivotal details of Gruoch’s life, such as her year of birth and death, are lost to history. However, it is important to separate her historical character from the fictional and uncover what we do know about this early medieval Scottish queen. To begin to uncover Gruoch’s life, it is important to establish the geo-political scene of eleventh century Scotland. Scotland, then known as Alba, was at this time made up of various earldoms, each of which was ruled by a mormaer, a minor king of sorts. Power was decentralised to these earldoms by a ‘high king’ of Alba, which gave mormaers significant political power and influence. Gruoch was descended from the ancient ruling house of Alpin. She was the daughter of Boite, whose father or grandfather, Cinaed, had once been king of Scotland, making her an attractive bride for anyone seeking to add legitimacy to their claims of kingship. Macbeth, in comparison, was son to Findlaech, the mormaer of Moray, the largest and most powerful mormaership in Alba. Although royal succession has historically been determined through primogeniture, this was not the case in early medieval Scotland. While power was usually transferred within the same ruling family, it did not necessarily always pass smoothly from father to son. When a king died, power could pass over those sons deemed weak or immature in favour of stronger and more attractive leaders. However, being in such a position of power was inherently dangerous, and much of the eleventh century was fraught with violence for political leaders. An unnamed brother of Gruoch was slain by political enemies in 1033, and in 1020 the Irish Annals of Tigernach reported that Findlaech, Macbeth’s father, was murdered by his two nephews, Maelcoluim, and Gillacomgain, the latter of whom became the new mormaer, and on an unknown date, married Gruoch. Although the year of their marriage is unknown, it can be surmised that it occurred after Gillecomgain became the mormaer of Moray. A central motivation driving royal and elite marriages during the eleventh and twelfth centuries was the need to strengthen alliances and secure a persona’s political position. Cnut the Great married Aelfigu of Northampton around 1013 upon his father’s invasion of England to secure the allegiance of elites in northern England. Similarly, Edmund Ironside married Ealdgyth, the widow of Sigeferth, a powerful thane and leader, around 1015 to secure the loyalty of her former husband’s supporters in his rebellion against his father. By marrying Gruoch, Gillecomgain was able to gain support as mormaer through his wife’s powerful royal ancestry. At some point, Gruoch gave birth to her only child, Lulach. He was an inherently powerful figure through being descended from the ruling house of Alpin, and from the ruling family of Moray. For royal and elite women, their title and the power given by it was only ever temporary, and largely subject to the survival of her husband or son. For Gruoch, this culminated in 1032, when the Annals of Ulster recorded that Gillecomgain was ‘burned, along with fifty of his men’. It has long been presumed that his murder was orchestrated by Macbeth, in an act of revenge for his father’s death. Upon Gillecomgain’s death, Macbeth succeeded him as mormaer of Moray and married his widow. The date of Gruoch and Macbeth’s marriage is unknown, but it is likely to have occurred not long after the death of her first husband. There was an existing precedent of usurpers marrying the wife of a previous ruler to further legitimise their rule: in 1017, Cnut, upon his invasion of England, had married Emma of Normandy, the widow of former Anglo-Saxon king Aethelred the Unready. The marriage certainly benefitted both Gruoch and Macbeth. Gruoch and her son were made vulnerable after Gillecomgain’s death and faced the risk of falling victim to violence themselves. Marriage to the new mormaer of Moray therefore provided Gruoch and her son with protection and security from other political enemies. For Macbeth, his authority as mormaer was bolstered through his marriage to the former mormaer’s wife, and her royal ancestry also strengthened his claim to kingship of Alba.

In 1040, Duncan, the king of Alba, marched into Moray with an army, and engaged with Macbeth and his men at the Battle of Pitgaveny and was killed. Afterwards, Macbeth successfully assumed the title of king of Alba. There is no record of any immediate large-scale dissention or conflict after becoming king, suggesting Macbeth and Gruoch were not necessarily an unpopular choice as rulers. The role of Scottish queens before the twelfth century is unclear in comparison to England or Germany. While a formal coronation ceremony had only been practiced in Europe from the ninth century onward; the responsibilities of a queen consort were well established. Alongside childbearing, queens were expected to possess a strong moral and intellectual reputation, uphold relationships with ecclesiastical figures, engage in patronage and the signing of charters. No surviving model of queenship in Scotland survives until Bishop Turgot’s biography of Queen Margaret of Scotland in the first decade of the twelfth century. Does this indicate that an office of queenship did not exist in Scotland before Margaret? Not at all: it is far more likely that such evidence has not survived. While it is difficult to construct a clear image of early medieval Scottish queenship, it is certainly not impossible. A clear indication that such an office existed prior to Queen Margaret comes from a charter drawn up by both Gruoch and Macbeth. The document records the donation of land at Kirkness to the Culdees at Lochleven, an ascetic religious order who had various monastic houses across Scotland. Exactly when this charter was drawn up is uncertain and can only be narrowed down to the period of 1040-1057, as the couple are named as ‘rex et regina Scotorum’ (king and queen of Scotland). Not only does the document indicate that an office of queenship existed, but highlights that the donation of land to religious orders was indicative of a Scottish royal tradition which was copied by Malcolm III and Margaret several decades later, who also gave a donation of land to the Culdees at Loch Leven. Although certainly a significant document for any historian, the problematic nature of relying heavily upon early medieval Scottish source material arises here. The original Gaelic charter from the eleventh century has been lost and only a mid-twelfth century Latin translation survives. Gruoch is named alongside her husband as ‘regina’ (queen), but it is impossible to know if the original Gaelic titled her so, or if this was a change or addition made by the later translator who assumed marriage to the king automatically equated to queenship. While in this case it may be difficult to ascertain if the title of ‘queen’ was bestowed upon a king’s wife, it does suggest that king’s wives were expected to perform a specified role, even if an official title of ‘queen’ was not in use. The joint donation is an unusual one for royal medieval charters of this time, as queens mainly appeared as witnesses to their husband’s grants. It has been suggested that Kirkness was possibly part of Gruoch’s own lands, or perhaps land owned by her natal family, that was used to secure loyalty and support for Macbeth’s rule from the Culdees. The charter also raises the possibility that Gruoch may have been far closer to exerting power as a regnant rather than a consort than is first thought. From the later tenth century, Ottonian queen consorts were given the title of ‘consors regni’ (‘sharers in rule’) which indicated a queen’s ability to engage in active rulership and politics. A potential example of female rulership closer to home comes from Duncan, the kingly predecessor to Macbeth, and his mother Bethoc, who may have taken on an active role in rulership during her son’s reign. The Annals of Tigernach record that Duncan died in 1040 ‘at an immature age’, and a twelfth or thirteenth century king’s list can be argued to suggest the mother and son may have co-ruled for at least part of his reign. The eleventh century Irish chronicler Marianus Scottus records that in 1050, Macbeth went on pilgrimage to Rome and ‘scattered money like seed to the poor’, a trip that would have taken around two months; a significant amount of time for a king to be absent from his kingdom. This was especially notable for Macbeth, whose rule was not necessarily always peaceful: Crinan, the abbot of Dunkeld and father to Duncan, had raised a rebellion against Macbeth in 1045 and in 1054, Siward, earl of Northumbria, invaded Scotland in support of Duncan’s son Malcolm’s claim to the kingship. Therefore, Macbeth must have had great confidence in the figure he chose as his regent to rule in his absence. Gruoch stands as the obvious choice of regent: she likely possessed significant experience of rulership and knowledge of Scottish politics both in her ten years as queen of Scotland and her time as wife to a mormaer of the largest earldom in Scotland. Although taking on regency duties did not form part of a queen’s main responsibilities, there are several occurrences of female regents throughout the eleventh century in central and northern Europe. Gunnor, the wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy, was appointed regent of Normandy in the late tenth century, as was Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror, who ruled as regent of Normandy multiple times after William’s invasion of England in 1066. Cunigunde, the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, acted as an interim regent after his death in 1024, and Anne of Kiev ruled on behalf of her young son after the death of her husband in 1060. Even if Gruoch may not have been officially styled as queen during her life, she certainly appeared to be performing the roles and responsibilities attached to medieval queenship in the eleventh and twelfth centuries within a wider European context.

Macbeth was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in August 1057 after the future Malcolm III’s forces invaded from England. While her husband’s precise date of death is recorded, the details surrounding Gruoch’s death are entirely unknown; she may have predeceased her husband or outlived him. While her last known appearance in surviving sources is her joint donation to the Culdees, it is important to remember that most of early medieval women’s lives go largely undocumented and therefore a source’s silence should not be interpreted as evidence of her death. Malcolm, who had killed Macbeth and raised an army of his own to invade Scotland and reclaim his right to kingship, appeared as the most likely candidate for kingship. Ultimately however, Malcolm was seemingly passed over and instead Lulach, Gruoch’s son from her first marriage, was chosen as the next king of Scotland. If we consider the possibility that Gruoch was still alive in 1057, the smooth transfer of royal power from Macbeth to Lulach makes more sense, particularly as Lulach was not Macbeth’s child. Gruoch was a symbol of continuity between the ancient kings of Alba and her son, in which Lulach represented unity between the earldoms of Scotland, which was significant during a time in which Scotland was vulnerable to attacks from England. It is not impossible to imagine that Gruoch may have had a role in securing her son’s succession by exerting her influence as former wife to the king, as well as her own dynastic lineage to the ancient line of Alpin. If such events were to have occurred, it was ultimately in vain, as Lulach was killed only eight months later by Malcolm III in March 1058. With the death of her husband or son, eleventh century queens typically retreat from society and disappear entirely from the historical record. Ealdgyth disappears after the death of her husband Edmund Ironside in 1016, as does Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor, who retreated into religious life after the death of her husband in 1075. If Gruoch was still alive by 1058, it is likely that she would have followed a similar path, which protected her from violence or possibly being forced into another marriage. Gruoch’s life was seemingly a tumultuous one: while much of her life is cloaked in obscurity and largely left to the imagination, the Gruoch that appears within the sources is undoubtedly an intelligent, resourceful, and influential figure in Scottish history, whose actions undoubtedly had a role in shaping the nature of Scottish medieval queenship.