Lady Macbeth

Gruadh remembers the first time she saw Macbeth. She was just four years old in 1020, and Macbeth was fourteen. King Malcolm was holding a royal judicial hearing, and Macbeth had come to accuse his cousins, Gilcomgan and Malcolm mac Malbríd, of killing his father, Finlach, mormaer of Moray.

Gilcomgan and Malcolm mac Malbríd join Macbeth in front of King Malcolm. They do not deny murdering Finlach but explain that they worried Finlach was grooming Macbeth as his heir, when inheritance should have passed to them. They claim Finlach attacked them when he and his soldiers happened to encounter them and their soldiers.

Macbeth refutes this; he says his father was brave and strong. He adds “if Finlach had intended to kill his nephews […] they would be dead now.” He argues that “treachery killed Finlach,” not his father’s own ambition.

King Malcolm allows Malcolm mac Malbríd to keep his new title as mormaer of Moray, but he will have to pay 150 cows or 33 ounces of gold to be split between Macbeth and the crown. He will also have to give Macbeth certain properties. This is the highest possible fine, but Ailsa, who is watching the proceedings with Gruadh, argues, “this is not justice,” and believes Macbeth deserves more. Maeve, who has also come to watch the trial, explains that King Malcolm needs a strong warlord to rule Moray, and now the mormaer of Moray is indebted to him. Macbeth is too young to rule anyway, and so Malcolm’s ruling was intended only to increase his own power.

As Macbeth leaves the hill where judgment was passed, men in the crowd begin to beat their shields. This is a gesture of respect “reserved for great men and kings,” and a show of support for Macbeth’s rightful desire for revenge, and rightful claim of Moray.