We must now introduce the story of a lady who has had repeated mention already—Arabella Stuart. Lady Arabella was descended from Henry VII.'s eldest daughter Margaret, like James himself, and therefore was to him an object of suspicion. Her proximity to the crown had drawn upon her the attention of both princes and conspirators at various times. When she was only about ten years of age, Elizabeth used to show her at court as the person she meant to make her heir. This she did to provoke James, whose pretensions were nearly as odious to her as those of his mother. But in after years Elizabeth treated her with extreme severity. James, indeed, contributed to this, by asking her in marriage for his favourite, Esme Stuart, duke of Lennox, who was Arabella's cousin, also of the same royal descent. Elizabeth was extremely chagrined at such a proposal, reprimanded James sharply, forbade the marriage, and imprisoned the unoffending maiden. Again, Raleigh and Cobham were accused on their trial of having designed to depose James and place her on the throne in his stead. Lady Arabella did not wait to be questioned on the subject, but on receiving a letter of such purport from Cobham, immediately sent it to the king, and only laughed at the proposal. Again her name was mentioned in the gun-powder plot. James does not seem to have had any fear of her on these occasions. But he was more afraid of aspirants to her hand than of conspirators; and had, no doubt, settled in his mind that she should never marry. Like Elizabeth, he repulsed all offers of the kind both from subjects and foreign princes, lest from the marriage should issue claimants to his throne. Cecil took care, on the death of Elizabeth, to secure the person of Arabella till James had been proclaimed, and had taken possession of the throne. The king himself appeared disposed to act liberally towards her, except in not permitting her to marry, He settled a pension upon her, allowed her apartments in the palace, and she was recognised whilst the princess Elizabeth was in her tutelage as first lady of the court. The year after James's accession, the king of Poland sent an ambassador to demand her in marriage; but even Poland was not distant enough for royal fears. Next came a proposal from count Maurice, titular duke of Guilders, but James would not listen to it; and lady Arabella, who was a clever woman, made it her policy—both under Elizabeth and James—to appear averse to any marriage whatever. She devoted herself to literature, poetry, and even theology, which became fashionable at court from the predilections of James.
Queen Anne appears to have had a great regard for the lady Arabella, who was handsome, of a lively and affectionate disposition, and ready to enter into all the taste for masques and pageants which distinguished her royal mistress. She was, in fact, the great ornament of the court of James; but her attractions were only the more dangerous to her safety, considering her descent. The feeling that she excited increased James's alarm, and she was kept under the close surveillance of Elizabeth Cavendish, the countess of Shrewsbury, who was her aunt. The countess appears to have treated her with much harshness, and James to have paid her salary very badly. On the whole, no situation, with all its splendour, could be more miserable than that of lady Arabella. No wonder, then, that she sought to escape from it.
In her childhood she had been acquainted with William Seymour, the son of lord Beauchamp. They now met again at court, and their early attachment was renewed and rapidly grew into love. The lady Arabella was now watched and harassed more than ever by her shrewish guardian, lady Shrewsbury, and matters came to such a pass betwixt them that James was obliged to interfere. He paid up the arrears of her pension to enable her to pay her debts, and to soothe her, made a present of a cupboard of plate, worth two hundred pounds. The chief cause of lady Arabella's discontent, says Lodge, was supposed to arise from her pressing necessities; but there was a deeper cause, the restraint upon her affections; and it was not long before some officious court spy conveyed to James the alarming intelligence that there was an engagement of marriage plighted betwixt Seymour and lady Arabella. Seymour was also descended from Henry VII., and such a marriage in prospect was enough to terrify James beyond conception. He instantly summoned the offenders before his council, where they were severely snubbed, and forbidden to marry without the king's permission. They both promised to abandon the idea, but this was only to disarm suspicion till they could effect their marriage. In July, 1610, it was discovered that they were already wedded, and James issued an immediate order for their arrest. Seymour was committed to the Tower, and Arabella to the keeping of Sir Thomas Parry, at Lambeth.
The youthful couple were so much pitied that they did not find it difficult to meet. Seymour bribed his keeper so effectually, that he suffered him frequently to go out of the Tower, and he met lady Arabella in the garden at Lambeth, and even in the house, unknown to Sir Thomas Parry. Meantime, the friends of the young people were not inactive. They used all the means they could imagine to soften the mind of the king towards them; and the queen, who loved Arabella, and received the most eloquent letters from her, praying her to exert her influence in her behalf, did her utmost to procure the liberation of her and her husband. Unfortunately, whispers of their stolen interviews reached James, and he sent instant orders to guard Seymour better, and to remove lady Arabella to Durham, where she was to be in the keeping of the bishop. When the order reached lady Arabella, she positively refused to go; but the officers carried her forcibly out in her bed, placed her in a boat, and rowed her up the river. Spite of her resistance, her keepers set forward on their journey; but by the time that they reached Barnet, her agitation of mind had thrown her into a fever, and the doctor called in declared that nothing but the discontinuance of the journey could save her life. He waited on the king himself, and assured him of this. But though James confessed that carrying her away in her bed was enough to make her ill if she had been well, he was peremptory in his commands that she should proceed. To Durham she should go, he said, if he were king. To this the physician replied that the lady would obey if the king required it. "Obedience!" repeated James; "is that required?" But when his first anger was over he relented, and allowed her to remain for a month at Highgate, in the house of the earl of Essex. There she was closely watched; but on the 3rd of June, 1611, the very day that the bishop
