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- Banquo is a character in the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. He is with Macbeth during the encounter with the witches near the beginning of the play. After predicting that Macbeth would be king, they predict that Banquo would never himself be king, but would beget a line of kings (the Stuart family of Scottish and English kings). Macbeth later sends murderers to kill him and his son Fleance. Fleance escapes, and the ghost of Banquo returns to haunt Macbeth at the Banquet in Act 3, Scene 4 (Banquet-Banquo word similarity). Although Macbeth was certainly a historical figure (a very different one from the character in the play), Banquo's actual historical existence is more questionable. He is mentioned by Holinshed, and other chroniclers, as an accomplice of Macbeth in his usurpation, and as being the ancestor of the Fitzalan High Stewards of Scotland, from whom the new King, James I, descended, but this descent was disproven in the 19th century, when it was discovered that the Fitzalans actually descended from a Breton family. Whether or not Banquo, Thane of the Scottish province of Lochaber, actually existed remains in doubt. (Wikipedia)
Banquo married daughter of Malcolm II. From them the House of FitzAlan and the Royal House of Stewart or Stuart, of the Scottish and English kings. The origin of the House of FitzAlan is shrouded in obscurity, and what we know of it is enveloped in mystery and surrounded by poetry, which take it almost out of the region of history. It is the more difficult to unravel the truth, that the master hand of Shakespeare has assisted in its development, and with a master's hand has presented it to the curious and the learned. Not that Shakespeare has directly touched upon the FitzAlan family, but he has incidentally introduced into his greatest drama a personage who, at his date, was not known to be in any way connected with the family, but who in all probability was its true founder--Banquo, Thane of Lochabar, who with Macbeth was a general in the army of King Duncan, whose mother was sister to Banquo's wife. (Macbeth was also a grandchild of Malcolm II, through his mother.) In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the witches promise Macbeth and Banquo that their children shall both mount the throne and for this reason Macbeth is jealous of Banquo and has him murdered, but Fleance, Banquo's son, escapes. Macbeth also murders King Duncan, but is King only a few years, when Malcolm III invaded Scotland and Macbeth is killed. Shakespeare knew that made Banquo the ancestor of the Stuarts, and the story in his hands became a matter of world-wide fame. He was careful not to make little mention that Banquo was of Macbeth's party in his play, because he was progenitor of the royal house which at length occupied the throne of England. Bonquo, according to Scottish accounts, was most nobly descended, being in direct line from the ancient kings of Ireland. (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 847)
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1020 - 1080 (~ 60 years)