How a sixteenth-century Scottish historian accidentally shaped Shakespeare's vision of Macbeth

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Hector Boece was a philosopher and the first principal of the University of Aberdeen. His 1527 history of Scotland became a sensation, blending fact with patriotic myth. Though modern scholars have dismantled his accuracy, his vivid, flawed account of Macbeth became the primary source for William Shakespeare's famous tragedy.

Born in Dundee around 1465, Hector Boece studied in Paris, where he befriended Erasmus at the Collège de Montaigu. In 1500, he returned to Scotland to lead the newly founded University of Aberdeen under the patronage of Bishop William Elphinstone. Boece was a man of his time, favoring a sweeping, humanistic narrative style over the more critical, rigorous methods employed by his contemporary, John Mair.

His magnum opus, the 1527 Historia Gentis Scotorum, was the second scholarly history of the Scots ever written. It was a massive success, earning royal favor and wide circulation across Europe. However, the work is now recognized for its heavy bias. Boece intentionally flattered the ancestors of King James IV, which resulted in a deeply distorted portrayal of the real Macbeth. This version of history was later translated into Scots by John Bellenden and eventually integrated into Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, providing the foundational plot for Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Boece’s credibility has long been debated. He claimed to rely on obscure sources like Veremundus and Cornelius Hibernicus, though no physical records of these texts exist. While sixteenth-century critics like Humphrey Lhuyd attacked his sourcing, recent scholarship has been more nuanced; for instance, Boece was once accused of inventing the Battle of Luncarty, yet earlier references to the conflict in Walter Bower’s 1440 Scotichronicon suggest he may have been drawing on existing, albeit lost, traditions. By the eighteenth century, Thomas Innes effectively dismantled the historical validity of Boece’s early accounts.

Despite these inaccuracies, Boece’s influence was profound. His work served as a primary reference for later historians like George Buchanan and Polydore Vergil. Beyond his historical writing, Boece remains a significant figure in Scottish academia, having established the structure of the University of Aberdeen and lectured on medicine and divinity until his death in 1536.

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