# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Stuart, Arabella

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STUART, ARABELLA,
Was the daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox, brother of Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the Countess of Shrewsbury, commonly called "Old Bess of Hardwick." She was born about the year 1577. Her affinity to the throne made her an object of jealousy, even in infancy, to Queen Elizabeth, who took great offence at the marriage of her parents. She, however, permitted her to remain under the charge of the old Countess of Shrewsbury, her grandmother, who brought her up, her parents having both died early. Arabella, when quite a child, was made the object of dark intrigues; the Catholic party plotting to carry her off, and educate her in that faith, for the purpose of placing her on the throne upon the death of Elizabeth. An active watch was in consequence constantly kept over her during that queen's reign, who nevertheless frequently threw out hints that she intended to declare the Lady Arabella her successor. Upon the accession of James to the throne, the Lady Arabella was received at the new court, and treated as one of the family. James, however, in the position in which she stood, could not fail to look upon her with eyes of suspicion, which must have been confirmed by the breaking out of that unfortunate conspiracy, into which Raleigh was accused of having entered, the main object of which was to place her on the throne. Her innocence was proved upon the trial, and it appears that the king was persuaded of her ignorance of the plot.
James, after he ascended the throne, seems to have adopted the policy of Queen Elizabeth, in desiring to prevent the marriage of the Lady Arabella. Many offers of marriage were made to her, many alliances proposed, to none of which he gave heed. Surrounded by numerous difficulties, alone, with no one to enter into her interests—for her grandmother was now dead—Arabella accepted the hand of Sir William Seymour, second son of Lord Beauchamp, and grandson of the Earl of Hertford, to whom she was warmly attached. Anticipating the king's denial, they took the rash step of marrying privately. It was not long before their secret was divulged: the bride was placed in safe keeping, and the bridegroom was hurried to the Tower. The unhappy pair were not kept so closely confined as to prevent their secretly corresponding; but when this was discovered by the king, he angrily ordered Arabella to be removed to a place of greater security. On her journey to Durham, Arabella was taken ill, and while resting on the road, she contrived to escape, to communicate with her lover, who also escaped, and get on board a vessel bound to France. Here, while waiting to be joined by her husband, she was taken prisoner by one of the king's ships in pursuit ​of her, and re-conducted to London, where she was placed under strict guard in the Tower; Seymour meanwhile escaping safely lo Flanders, where he remained for many years a voluntary exile. The unhappy Arabella, unpitied by the king, languished in prison, the victim of deferred hope, till her reason sank under her accumulated sorrows. She died in the Tower, a maniac, after four years" confinement, on the 27th. of September, 1615. Her unfortunate husband, Seymour, though he afterwards married again, preserved inviolably his tender affection for his first love, and gave her name to his daughter, who was called Arabella Stuart, in memory of his attachment and misfortunes.