ANDREW McKie in his perceptive article on the monarchy and its future ("Should we skip over King Charles and go for King William?", The Herald, February 8), could have found a more convincing list of “bad” kings. Surely he does not believe that Shakespeare’s presentation of Macbeth bears even the remotest resemblance to the ascertainable historical facts?

Macbeth’s 17-year reign was a period of peace and prosperity unusual for any 11th-century North European kingdom: as an Irish chronicle of the following century puts it, “Brimful of food was Scotland east and west during the reign of the ruddy, the brave king”. England’s Richard III, too, owes his bad reputation mostly to Shakespeare: whether he was responsible for the murder of the Princes in the Tower remains uncertain, though I gather that recent scholarly opinion is that his guilt in this is convincingly established; but he assuredly did not poison his wife or frame his brother Clarence on a false charge of treason (Clarence’s treachery to the reigning king Edward IV was entirely real, and it was Edward who had him executed; though possibly not by drowning in a wine-butt).

Unhistorical as they are (some more than others), Shakespeare’s plays about kings are among the glories of literature; and we have worthy counterparts of our own, such as Robert McLellan’s Jamie the Saxt, Liz Lochhead’s Mary Queen of Scots got her Head Chopped Off and of course Rona Munro’s plays about James I, II and III: we look forward eagerly to her forthcoming dramatic treatment of James IV. If the institution of monarchy has provided inspiration for literary works of this calibre, that is surely a small point in its favour.

Derrick McClure, Aberdeen.

SCOTLAND'S FIRST ELIZABETH

AS an amateur but keen student of Scottish history – especially the Wars of Independence – I feel that I must respond to the letter from Ken MacVicar (February 8).

When Robert Bruce was crowned King of Scots at Scone in March of 1306 his then second wife (married in 1302) was Elizabeth de Burgh – daughter of the Earl of Ulster, making her in effect Queen Elizabeth of Scotland.

The fact that her father was a close friend of Edward possibly saved her life after she was captured near Kildrummy.

Unfortunately this did not turn out so well for the rest of the Bruces. Bruce paid dearly for ascending the throne.

Wallace, Bruce, Douglas, Randolph, MacDonald, et al were violent men in a savage time. Each of them had “feet of clay” in varying degrees.

Bruce to his eternal credit became a good king and a brilliant general.

Tom Irvine, Strathaven.

* MY father-in-law and his friends were supporters of the Queen but when it came to the Loyal Toast it was always "Queen Elizabeth, second to none, God bless her".

They were also horrified when she came to receive the Honours of Scotland in a cocktail dress.

Alasdair Speirs, Barnyards, Fife.

* IN your feature on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, two photographs were wrongly captioned. One, of the Queen at her Coronation, gave the date of this event as June 2, 1963. It was, of course, 10 years earlier. Another, of the Queen with Prince Andrew, refers to him as “her youngest son”. Prince Andrew was born in 1960, Prince Edward in 1964.

On the other hand, I was impressed with the mental acuity and perspicacity of Murdo Fraser. In his piece on the jubilee, he makes two deeply philosophical statements: first, that “Queen Elizabeth has been a fixture in the lives of the great majority of of the British population for decades” (seven, actually – the whole point of the jubilee); and, second, that “anyone under the age of 70 will have no memory of any other monarch". Wow, great arithmetic, Mr Fraser.

Jean Park, Irvine.

MEDIEVAL CONCEPT

I SURELY am not alone in thinking that there is something medieval about an elderly Queen proclaiming who will be the next Queen Consort ("Queen marks 70 years on throne with crowning wish for Camilla", The Herald, February 7), and that it is a bit creepy that an old lady in her nineties should style herself as "your servant", bringing to mind bygone times of parlour maids and old nannies. And how very unfair that a little boy of eight has apparently been told that his future has already been decided for him, and like it or not, one day he will be King.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

THE DEMISE OF THE NEANDERTHALS

I AM in almost total agreement with Elizabeth Allen (Letters, February 8), when she gently admonishes Iain Macwhirter for his use of the word Neanderthal as an epithet. I don’t, however, totally accept that Neanderthal extinction was down purely to their inability to adapt to climate change. Although in recent years geneticists have concluded that non-African modern humans have traces, approximately three per cent, of Neanderthal DNA, implying interbreeding, I believe that the most likely cause of their demise was the advance of modern humans.

Whether this was because of an inability to compete with us, or to the arrival of novel diseases brought by us, or to genocide perpetrated by us, or to a combination of all three one can only speculate. However, history has many examples of similar outcomes within our own species. This was, if I remember correctly, the theme of William Golding’s much-acclaimed 1955 novel The Inheritors.

Jim Meikle, Killearn.

SMARTING FROM METER PAIN

I SYMPATHISE with Bill Eadie (Letters, February 4) on his smart meter problems.

I think it is a great idea to be able to check your use of energy on the in-home display from your smart meter. That, of course, is when it is working, as mine was until September last year. Sadly, since then, SSE has been unable to restore the service. Many emails and phone calls to and from have not helped, despite sending details requested from my smart meter. It did not help when they assured me that they were able to read my usage from the smart meter.

In December of last year there was an apology, but the account "is in the process of migrating to OVO”. In January I received OVO’s welcome with an assurance that “your service will remain friendly and reliable”.

It is now February – do I have an in-home display that works? No.

Bill Wilson, Kirkwall.

HATS OFF TO PANAMA

MAY I add to the palindromic revival (Letters, February 5, 7 & 8)? James Thurber in an essay gave us “a man a plan a canal – Panama”.

In another essay he advised us not to “put our Decartes before our Horace”. Wise advice.

Simon Paterson, Glasgow.