Why do you suppose Macbeth did not kill Banquo with his own hands as he killed Duncan and his two guards?

Answer 1

Well there is a theory that actually Macbeth was there when Banquo was killed, and Macbeth was actually the third murderer. (Kind of unlikely since the other two murderers know Macbeth and would have recognized him) Also if you don't accept this theory, Macbeth might have not killed Banquo with his own hands because by that time he was already king, and he had the finance and the oppurtunity to hire murderers.

As Macbeth himself says in Act 3 scene one from line 125, he does have the power to openly have Banquo destroyed, "yet I must not, for certain friends that are both his and mine, whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall who I myself strike down." Yet this is just an excuse, a lie because Macbeth knows that there is no good reason for Banquo and Fleance to be killed and so he could not have him openly accused of anything. Macbeth knows that Banquo and Fleance are innocent. He orders their murder out of fear that the throne will be taken away from him and that Banquo's decendants will inherit it.