What is "fleance"

Fleance (or Fléance) is a figure in legendary Scottish history. He was depicted by 16th-century historians as the son of Lord Banquo, Thane of Lochaber, and the ancestor of the kings of the House of Stuart. Fleance is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, in which the Three Witches prophesise that Banquo's descendants shall be kings. Some screen adaptations of the story expand on Fleance's role by showing his return to the kingdom after Macbeth's death.

Shakespeare's play is adapted from Holinshed's Chronicles, a history of the British Isles written during the late sixteenth century. In Holinshed, Fleance escapes Macbeth and flees to Wales, where he fathers a son who later becomes the first hereditary steward to the King of Scotland.

In real life, 'Steward' eventually became the name 'Stewart' (later changed to French 'Stuart'), and Walter Stewart married Princess Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce. Their son, Robert II, began the Stewart/Stuart line of kings in Scotland. James VI and I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was the ninth Stewart/Stuart monarch (eighth king) of Scotland and the first of the six Stuart monarchs of England and Ireland.

James VI & I was the reigning monarch when William Shakespeare is believed to have written and first produced Macbeth, which may have been in the new king's honour.