Important historical, social and cultural contexts

• Roman Catholic faith

  Faith practised in England before Henry VIII's divorce
• Henry VIII's reasons for divorcing Catherine of Aragon

  • He had not fallen in love with her
  • She was supposed to marry Henry's brother, Arthur, but he died
• Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon

  1. Henry appealed to the Pope in Rome to annul his marriage

  2. The Pope refused, saying marriage was a lifelong contract agreed in church in the presence of God

  3. Henry decided to divorce himself and the English kingdom from the Catholic church

  4. He established the Church of England and installed himself as the head
• Henry VIII set about dismantling the abbeys throughout his kingdom, seizing all the precious gold and silver, jewel-encrusted ornaments for himself
• Protestantism


  The new branch of Christianity that became known as Protestantism (because of the protests made to Rome regarding Henry VIII's divorce)
• Henry VIII's decision to split from the Catholic church


  Led to very deep divisions between people throughout England
• The recent Brexit campaign and result

  Is a comparable divide to the unrest caused by Henry VIII's decision, which remains the cause of some social and political tension, unrest, and disagreement in our society
• Succession after Henry VIII's death

  1. His daughter Elizabeth I became Queen

  2. Elizabeth was also a Protestant

  3. There were several assassination attempts and plots to overthrow her by Catholics who wished to return England to the supreme leadership of the Pope in Rome

  4. Elizabeth agreed to the execution of her Catholic cousin, Mary - Queen of Scots

  5. James VI of Scotland became James I of England after Elizabeth I's death
• Before ascending to the throne of England, James I had begun to build a trusting relationship with Elizabeth I, although English Catholics hoped he would show them more tolerance than she had
• James I was as intolerant of Catholics as Elizabeth I and consequently, Catholic plots to assassinate King James formed
• The Gunpowder Plot of 1605

  The most famous of the assassination attempts on King James I
• Commemorative medal for King James I's escape

  • A medal showing a snake concealed by flowers
• The medal's imagery

  Is mirrored in Lady Macbeth's line "Look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent under't"
• Everard Digby, a man involved in the Gunpowder Plot, had been a close friend of King James I
• The thane of Cawdor in Macbeth

  Is probably mirrored by the treacherous Everard Digby
• Equivocation

  Telling deliberately misleading half-truths
• The witches in Macbeth equivocate by informing Macbeth that "No man born of a woman" can harm him, leading him to imagine himself to be invincible
• Banquo warns Macbeth about the witches and their prophecies, advising that "Oftentimes, to win us to our harm the instruments of darkness tells us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence"
• In 1606, a Catholic priest named Henry Garnet was accused of treason for his role in the Gunpowder Plot and claimed the right to equivocate in self-defence
• Equivocation was a burning issue in England when Shakespeare was writing the play, and the play's events perhaps reflect Shakespeare's personal view that people who equivocate are not to be trusted
• Belief in witches and witchcraft in 16th and 17th century England


  • Hundreds of people - mostly women - were tortured, convicted and executed for this crime between 1560 and 1603
  • Witches were believed to possess diabolical powers such as flying, sailing in sieves, creating night during the day, causing fogs and storms, disease and even death by curse
  • Witches were believed to be able to conjure spirits by concocting a horrible brew
• In 1604, an Act of Parliament decreed that the punishment for those convicted of witchcraft would be execution, with confessions typically extracted by means of torture
• King James I's fascination with witches and witchcraft

  • In 1590, it was alleged that a group of witches had plotted to kill him
  • King James personally interrogated one of the accused, a man named Dr. Fian, before the trial
  • In 1597, King James published a book called 'Daemonologie' (meaning 'the study of demons')
• Jacobean audiences would have been very familiar with the 'signs' of demonic possession, which feature prominently in Macbeth
• Shakespeare presents Macbeth and his wife as damned people who invite and are seized by demonic possession, perhaps subtly reminding Jacobean audiences of the fate that they, too, can expect if they try to remove their Catholic king, James I, from the throne of England