This article is about the character in Shakespeare's Macbeth. For other uses, see King Duncan (disambiguation).
Fictional character
King Duncan
Macbeth character
Lady Macbeth at the bedside of King Duncan (Lady Macbeth by George Cattermole, 1850)
Created by
William Shakespeare
Based on
Donnchad mac Crinain (Duncan I) of Scotland
In-universe information
Children
Malcolm, elder son and heir Donalbain, younger son
King Duncan is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth. He is the father of two youthful sons (Malcolm and Donalbain), and the victim of a well-plotted regicide in a power grab by his trusted captain Macbeth. The origin of the character lies in a narrative of the historical Donnchad mac Crinain, King of Scots, in Raphael Holinshed's 1587 The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Unlike Holinshed's incompetent King Duncan (who is credited in the narrative with a "feeble and slothful administration"), Shakespeare's King Duncan is crafted as a sensitive, insightful, and generous father-figure whose murder grieves Scotland and is accounted the cause of turmoil in the natural world.
KingDuncan is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth. He is the father of two youthful sons (Malcolm and Donalbain), and the victim of a well-plotted...
Crìonain; anglicised as Duncan I, and nicknamed An t-Ilgarach, "the Diseased" or "the Sick"; c. 1001 – 14 August 1040) was king of Scotland (Alba) from...
Gaelic: Donnchadh mac Mhaoil Chaluim; anglicised as Duncan II; c. 1060 – 12 November 1094) was King of Scots. He was son of Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac...
one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders KingDuncan and takes the Scottish throne...
grandfather of his successor Duncan I of Scotland, through his daughter Bethóc, and according to some sources, of Macbeth, King of Scotland, (about whom William...
father became king. KingDuncan I however, perished in 1040 when Donald was still a boy, killed by Thane Macbeth, yet another grandson of King Malcolm II...
the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of KingDuncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved...
Lantern (2011); he had the voice role of Benjamin King in the video game Saints Row (2006). Duncan was born in Chicago and raised in a single-parent household...
media and the arts through pieces like Macbeth (Macbeth's killing of KingDuncan). In Western Christianity, regicide was far more common prior to 1200/1300...
Roy in Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Abba ji, (based on Shakespeare's KingDuncan) in Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Macbeth; Maqbool (2004). He is widely...
Lindsay Vere Duncan CBE (born 7 November 1950) is a Scottish actress. She is the recipient of three BAFTA nominations and one Scottish BAFTA nomination...
recital at the age of five. Duncan started her entertainment career at age 12, working in a local production of The King and I for $150 a week. In the...
of King Malcolm III, and certainly the sixth and youngest borne by Malcolm's second wife, Margaret of Wessex. He was the grandson of KingDuncan I. In...
Captain John DuncanKing (1789 – 1863) was an Irish army officer and landscape-painter. King was born in 1789, entered the British Army in August 1806...
A further rising in 1181 involved Donald Meic Uilleim, descendant of KingDuncan II. Donald briefly took over Ross; not until his death in 1187 was William...
Timothy Theodore Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent his entire 19-year career with the San Antonio...
Thane of Cawdor was captured and executed for treason against KingDuncan. The historical King Macbeth fought a Thane of Cawdor who died in battle, but he...
Middle Irish Uilleam mac Donnchada) was a Scottish prince, the son of KingDuncan II of Scotland by his wife Ethelreda of Dunbar. He was a territorial...
father Duncan I became king in late 1034, on the death of Malcolm II, Duncan's maternal grandfather and Malcolm's great-grandfather. One Scottish king-list...
Global Information