Macbeth, who ruled Scotland in the 11th century, was almost certainly maligned by Shakespeare. Admittedly, he was a character in a drama, but art affects historical concepts just as history affects the way art is practiced. Macbeth did not kill Duncan in bed or his enemies by treachery but in battle. He was an usurper, but he probably had as good a claim on the crown as Malcolm, the man who eventually defeated him. This Macbeth is decidedly in the Shakespearean mold.

King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) named lord Harold his successor. Harold had sworn allegiance to William of Normandy and upon Edward's death William invaded England. Harold had previously been campaigning successfully against the invading Dane Harald Hardrada, whom he repulsed at Stamford Bridge. Harold was defeated and killed in battle by the Normans in 1066 at Hastings (southern England). Here he is dying of an arrow to his head.

Christianity was introduced in Iceland by the Norwegian king Olaf I ca1000, but Norway was only partly Christianized and it was Olaf II (1015-1028) who completed the process. It is said of Olaf that he bludgeoned pagan idols, as in this representation in which the fleeing rats had been feeding on food offerings.

The kingdom of Wales was maintained until the death of Gruffydd Ap Llewelyn in 1063. William the Conqueror (1066-1087) set up earldoms on the borders of Wales to control the clans. In 1093 the vale of Glarmogan in south Wales fell to the Normans. Edward I accomplished the final conquest of Wales in 1282.

When Henry III assumed full authority in the Holy Roman Empire (1073) he was faced by Saxon rebellion, which he quelled in the battle of Homburg (1075). At the time the emperors and the popes were at odds over lay investiture, which was the imperial practice of naming laymen as bishops. Henry marched on Italy and in Milan named a bishop on his own authority. The reformist pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) was incensed and he ex-communicated Henry. In this picture the excommunication is dramatized as an actual physical confrontation between the two personages.