Fortinbras
Family: Norway · Role: former king · First appears: Hamlet · Act I, Scene I
Fortinbras, the former king of Norway, challenged Hamlet to combat after being driven by pride. Hamlet killed him, and under their sealed and ratified compact, Fortinbras forfeited his life and lands to the conqueror. His death left young Fortinbras seeking to recover those lands by force, prompting Claudius to send envoys to old Norway and to oppose the threatened campaign.
young Fortinbras later abandoned his attack on Claudius after being rebuked by old Norway, who granted him an annual fee and a commission to employ his soldiers against Poland instead. In the end, Hamlet gave his dying voice to Fortinbras, and young Fortinbras ordered Hamlet to receive a soldier’s funeral, declaring that “he was likely, had he been put on, / To have prov’d most royally.”
Relationship record
Life events
- Hamlet killed Fortinbras and gained his lands under their ratified combat compact.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene I)
- With: Horatio Hamlet
- “Our last King, Whose image even but now appear’d to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick’d on by a most emulate pride, Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet, For so this side of our known world esteem’d him, Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal’d compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands Which he stood seiz’d of, to the conqueror;”
- Claudius dispatches Cornelius and Voltemand to Norway to suppress Fortinbras’s military preparations.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene II · 📍 Norway)
- Fortinbras abandons military action against the King and receives Norway’s commission to fight the Polack.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene II)
- With: Norway Claudius
- “which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway; and in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’assay of arms against your Majesty. Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee, And his commission to employ those soldiers So levied as before, against the Polack”
- Fortinbras leads Norwegian forces into a campaign against Poland for a worthless patch of land.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene IV · 📍 Poland)
- “Enter Fortinbras and Forces marching. FORTINBRAS. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king. Tell him that by his license, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promis’d march Over his kingdom.”
- Fortinbras orders Hamlet's body honored with a soldier's funeral.(Hamlet · Act V, Scene II)
- With: Hamlet
- “FORTINBRAS. Let four captains Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have prov’d most royally; and for his passage, The soldiers’ music and the rites of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.”
Hamlet · Act I, Scene I
- child: young Fortinbras (Young Fortinbras is identified as the son of the Fortinbras who lost the lands.) “Now, sir, young Fortinbras, / Of unimproved mettle, hot and full, / Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, / Shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes, / For food and diet, to some enterprise / That hath a stomach in’t; which is no other, / As it doth well appear unto our state, / But to recover of us by strong hand / And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands / So by his father lost.”
- enemies with Hamlet “Our last King, Whose image even but now appear’d to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick’d on by a most emulate pride, Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet, For so this side of our known world esteem’d him, Did slay this Fortinbras”
Hamlet · Act I, Scene II
- elder kin: Norway “we have here writ / To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras”
- enemies with Claudius “Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, / He hath not fail’d to pester us with message, / Importing the surrender of those lands / Lost by his father”
Hamlet · Act II, Scene II
- patron: Norway “Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee, And his commission to employ those soldiers”
- enemies with Claudius “He truly found It was against your Highness; whereat griev’d, That so his sickness, age, and impotence Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests On Fortinbras”
- with Claudius (Fortinbras vows not to wage further arms against the King.) “Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’assay of arms against your Majesty.”
Hamlet · Act IV, Scene IV
- elder kin: old Norway (Fortinbras is explicitly identified as old Norway's nephew.) “The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.”
Hamlet · Act V, Scene II
- with Hamlet (Hamlet endorses Fortinbras's succession) “I do prophesy th’election lights / On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.”
- with Hamlet (Fortinbras orders a military honor for Hamlet) “Let four captains / Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, / For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have prov’d most royally; and for his passage, / The soldiers’ music and the rites of war / Speak loudly for him.”
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Extracted from the original text of Shakespeare's Tragedies. Made with Rho MD.