The Misfortunes of Arthur, written by Thomas Hughes and seven other members of Gray's Inn for performance before Queen Elizabeth in 1588 and printed in the same year, offers a uniquely complicated synthesis of Scottish and Arthurian interests. The Scottishness resides in the play's representation of Elizabeth's handling of the Mary Queen of Scots crisis in the previous year; however subliminal, this political context instigates and transforms the Arthurian narrative, providing more than background. The ‘Scottishness’, or Scottish interest, of this Arthurian text is therefore fundamental, even if masked. Criticism of the play, however, frequently erodes this connection. The emphasis has tended to fall either on Misfortunes as a political allegory relating to the Scottish Queen or on the thematic and narratological innovations of the play within the context of the Arthurian tradition. This essay seeks to uphold a stronger sense of connection between the play's Scottish interest and its Arthurian subject-matter. Why is the Arthurian world particularly apposite for a play exploring Anglo-Scottish politics of the Elizabethan period? How does Scottish political theory, in particular the writings of George Buchanan, provide a context for examining the play's focus on sovereignty, enacted through Mordred's challenge and Arthur's fall? Central to the connections between The Misfortunes of Arthur and its Anglo-Scottish historical and political context is the notion of inheritance, specifically royal succession, and it is therefore appropriate that this essay concludes with a play that seems in itself the ‘heir’ to Hughes’ play – Macbeth. Although not Arthurian, Macbeth is connected at deeper levels with Misfortunes, extending the political and contextual concerns of Misfortunes into the next generation of Mary's son, James VI and I. James’ absence from Misfortunes is as significant as Mary's failure to appear in Macbeth's vision of Banquo's descendants. Brought into critical dialogue, the two plays complete each other through the extension of their links with an historical narrative that bridges two generations.

‘Former guilte … [and] future doom’: The Senecanization of the Arthurian World in The Misfortunes of Arthur

The action of Misfortunes begins near the end of Arthur's reign, when he is returning to Britain from his wars with the Emperor Lucius of Rome in an effort to salvage his kingdom. Mordred, his illegitimate and incestuously conceived son, has usurped the crown and taken Guenevora (Guenevere) as his consort; the play ends with the deaths of Arthur and Mordred.