Arbella : England’s Lost Queen by Sarah Gristwood

Taking as its background what is
arguably everyone’s favourite period of history, Sarah Gristwood’s historical
biography focuses on a hitherto forgotten figure: Arbella Stuart, the niece
of Mary Queen of Scots and first cousin to James VI of Scotland. Orphaned as
a baby, brought up by her powerful and ambitious grandmother, the four times
married Bess of Hardwick, introduced at court as a young girl where she was
acknowledged as her heir by Elizabeth I, Arbella’s right to the English
throne was equalled only by James. Kept under close supervision by her
grandmother, first at Chatsworth, and later at Hardwick Hall, but still
surrounded by plots – most of them Roman Catholic in origin – she became an
important pawn in the struggle for succession, particularly during the long,
tense period when Elizabeth I lay dying. But the best was yet to come. At
thirty-five and upon Jame’s succession, Arbella was invited back to court,
and fell in love with her cousin, William Seymour, a man twelve years her
junior. Notwithstanding the fact that their union was forbidden, and that
relationships that did not carry with the the Royal seal of approval was
considered treasonous, they married secretly and were immediatly imprisoned.
Underterred, Arbella set about organising their escape. Dressed up in men’s
clothing, she set out for Dover, arranging to meet her husband en route. He
did not make their rendez-vous, and she was later intercepted off the coast
of Calais, and escorted back to the Tower, where she died some years later,
alone and, most probably from starvation.