Far out of frame this Midsummer moone

Arabella Stuart

These fragments form an overview of the life of Arabella Stuart, cousin to James I, and niece to Mary, queen of Scots. An illegal marriage, followed by an attempted escape to France in men's clothing, and finally committal to the Tower of London where she subsequently starved to death, Arabella Stuart's life makes for intriguing reading.

Arabella Stuart was the daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox, and his wife Elizabeth. She was born c.10th November 1575; Arabella's grandmother, Margaret Douglas, dowager countess of Lennox, wrote to Arabella's aunt, Mary, queen of Scots, after her birth, thanking her ‘for your good remembrance and bounty to our little daughter’. Arabella's father died of tuberculosis in 1576 and his title unfortunately passed down the male line. Two years later, Arabella's grandmother died; all her property and estate passing to Elizabeth I. So by the age of three, Arabella's income had all but disappeared. But she was still a person of considerable status. She was first cousin to James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, which put her in line for both the English and Scottish thrones. There were some political commentators at the time who even went so far as to suggest Arabella should succeed Elizabeth I if she died without issue, since her grandmother had been first cousin to the Queen, and Arabella, unlike James VI, had been born in England.

After the death of her mother in 1582, the 7-year-old Arabella was brought up by her maternal grandmother, Bess of Hardwick, at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. She had an excellent classical education, learning Latin, Greek, Italian, Hebrew, French and Spanish. Both Mary, queen of Scots, who was by then a prisoner under the care of Bess's husband, and Bess campaigned fiercely to have the Lennox earldom restored to Arabella without success.

Hardwick Hall

A year later, marriage plans were devised to ensure Arabella's match with a suitably well-placed husband. Given her dynastic importance, she was a highly desirable bride, and in 1583-4, at the age of 8 or 9, Bess arranged Arabella's betrothal to Robert, Lord Denbigh, three-year-old son of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Unfortunately Robert died in 1584, and despite talk of Arabella as a possible wife for James VI himself, a suggestion which did not come to fruition, and several other potential marriage candidates, Elizabeth I vetoed every suitor, possibly out of fear that any children Arabella bore would become rivals for her throne.




In 1588, aged 13, Arabella became a lady in waiting at Elizabeth's court. She was described at the time as an 'elaborately dressed girl with reddish fair hair, a heart-shaped face, large, bright, dark blue eyes, and a neat little mouth.' But her position was short-lived. Seen conversing in a rather friendly way with the Earl of Essex, Arabella was sent home in disgrace. For the next twelve years she was confined to pursuing her studies at her grandmother's home in Derbyshire. Over the course of time Arabella grew increasingly frustrated with her strict grandmother, and following several bitter quarrels, she eventually decided to escape. In December 1602, she sent a message to Edward Seymour, first Earl of Hertford, advising him she intended to accept the marriage proposal of his grandson Edward Seymour. This was a disastrous move on the part of Arabella. The Seymours had a rival claim to the English throne and any involvement with Arabella would hint at a direct plot against Elizabeth I. Wisely, Seymour denied all knowledge of Arabella's marriage plans, and reported the affair to the court. A courtier was dispatched to interview Arabella, and satisfied by her answers, he reported back to the queen that Arabella's plans were nothing more than an unhappy attempt at attention-seeking. By early 1603, Arabella was once again agitating to leave home, announcing she had a secret lover, refusing to eat and drink, and finally divulging her lover's identity as the already married James VI. The Earl of Salisbury wrote on the back of one of her agitated letters ‘I think that she hath some vapours on her brain’.

A young Arabella

Elizabeth I died in March 1603, and with the accession of James I, Arabella's situation should have improved. James was initially inclined to be kind towards her, but it wasn't long before a scandal broke in which Lord Cobham was accused of plotting to murder James and the Earl of Salisbury, and marry Arabella off to Thomas Grey to place her on the throne. Fortunately for Arabella she had not been personally involved in this treason; indeed she claimed she had only received one letter about the plot, which she had laughed at and passed on to the king. James must have believed her because she was subsequently invited to court, given a handsome pension, and made carver to his wife, Anne. Arabella hated life at court but she was glad of the income, and in 1605 she seems to have impressed the queen sufficiently to be named godmother to the princess Mary.

In 1607, the Venetian ambassador noted that Arabella, was ‘not very beautiful but highly accomplished, for besides being of the most refined manners, she speaks fluently Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, reads Greek and Hebrew and is always studying’. Most of Arabella's time was spent at court, with occasional visits to Hardwick Hall. After her grandmother's death in 1608, Arabella bought a house in the precinct of Blackfriars. Following an attack of smallpox at Christmas, she travelled north to take the waters at Buxton and visit friends in the area. She was still harbouring hopes the king would find her a suitable husband, but when it became apparent he was as unwilling to encourage a match as Elizabeth I had been, she once again turned unwisely to the Seymour family.

William Seymour (1588-1660)

At 4am on 22nd June 1610, 35-year-old Lady Arabella Stuart secretly married another grandson of Edward Seymour, 22-year-old William, in her apartments at Greenwich Palace. It took seventeen days for the marriage to be discovered. Seymour was sent to the Tower, and Arabella was held in Lambeth. Despite this, they somehow arranged to meet, since in September Arabella suffered a miscarriage. As a result of the marriage, James exiled her to Durham. Her keepers claimed ill health prevented her from making the journey; a report to court dated early 1611 claims 'Lady Arabella dressed herself as well as her extreme weakness would permit, and showed 'readiness to remove', but she then 'had a violent attack in the head' which prevented her from undertaking the journey. Two days before she was due to depart, she disguised herself as a man and escaped. An eye witness reported her appearance: 'a large pair of French-fashioned hose, a man's doublet, a large peruke with long locks, a black hat, black cloak.' Another describes her as wearing 'russet boots with red tops, and a rapier by her side.' Seymour was also in disguise. Despite being imprisoned in the Tower, he somehow managed to sneak out, planning to meet Arabella at an agreed location before they fled to France.

By some means he obtained a disguise consisting of a peruque and beard of black hair, and a tawny suit. A labourer came to the great west gate of the Tower with a cart, bringing his billets of wood, and Seymour  walked alone without suspicion from his lodging, following this cart as it returned. He walked along by the Tower Wharf, by the Warders of the South Gate, and so to the iron gate, where he found Rodney waiting with a boat for him'. 

Tower of London (1640)

William had arranged to meet Arabella at Blackwall, but when he failed to appear, her servants encouraged her to board a ship for France without delay. However, Arabella insisted on waiting for William, and as the ship lingered in the Channel, it was overtaken and intercepted by an English naval vessel. Arabella was immediately transported to the Tower, and, in an ironic twist, William escaped and sailed safely over to Ostend. On her arrival at the Tower, the keeper searched Arabella and found large amounts of precious jewellery, and over three hundred thousand pounds in cash.

Letters exchanged at the time detail the belongings Arabella was allowed to keep with her for comfort in the Tower. An inventory includes a cup worth £40 (almost four thousand pounds), six silver dishes, four candlesticks, bedding, a basin and jug, wall hangings, and assorted books. She was initially kept in the Queen's lodgings with three or four rooms to walk in and eventually allowed to have servants. To celebrate the royal wedding in 1612 she was even permitted a spot of shopping; a report to court states Arabella 'has shown her joy' at the royal wedding 'by buying four new gowns, one of which cost 1500l' (c.£150,000).

Queen's House, Tower of London

While she was imprisoned, Arabella wrote pleading letters to court, and worked on a piece of embroidery as a gift for the king, which he eventually refused. She also wrote to her husband, who was living in exile in Paris:

Sir, I am exceeding sorry to hear you have not been well. I pray you let me know truly how you do and what was the cause of it for I am not satisfied with the reason Smith gives for it.But if it be a cold I will impute it to some sympathy betwixt us, having myself gotten a swoln cheek at the same time with a cold. For God's sake, let not your grief of mind work upon your body. You may see by me what inconveniences it will bring one to. And no fortune, I assure you, daunts me so much as that weakness of body I find in myself, for 'si nous vivons Vage d'un veau' as Marot says, we may by God's grace be happier than we look for in being suffered to enjoy ourselves with his Majesty's favour. But if we be not able to live to it, I, for my part, shall think myself a pattern of misfortune in enjoying so great a blessing as you so little a while. No separation but that deprives me of the comfort of you for wheresoever you be, or in what state it sufficeth me you are mine. Rachel wept, and would not be comforted, because her children were no more; and that indeed is the remediless sorrow, and none else. And therefore God bless us from that, and I will hope well of the rest, though I see no apparent hope. But I am sure God's book mentioneth many of his children in as great distress that have done well after, even in this world. I assure you, nothing the State can do with me can trouble me so much as this news of your being ill doth. And you see when I am troubled, I trouble you too with tedious kindness, for so I think you will account so long a letter, yourself not having written to me for this good while so much as how you do. But sweet sir, I speak not this to trouble you with writing but when you please. Be well, and I shall account myself happy in being your faithful loving wife,

Arabella 

By 1615, Arabella realised the authorities were unlikely to relent and issue her with a pardon, and she became dangerously ill, her condition most likely compounded by her refusal to eat. Described in 1614 as 'far out of frame this Midsummer moone', by the following year Arabella had starved herself to the point of death. She collapsed and died on 25th September 1615, and was buried in Westminster Abbey two days later in the royal vault beneath the coffin of Mary, queen of Scots. All ceremony was forbidden.

Mary, queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey

William Seymour remained in exile until January 1616. His appointment to the Order of the Bath the following November signalled his return to court, and he became chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1643. Having served in the Civil War, he eventually died the second Duke of Somerset in 1660.

Sources: Rosalind Marshall at the DNB; Elizabeth Cooper, The Life and Letters of Arabella Stuart, Vol 2 (1866); Calendar of State Papers Domestic.