PAGE 9
The Loves Of "The Lady Arabella"
by
[Footnote 324:
“She was the only child of Charles Stuart, fifth earl of Lennox, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Cavendish of Hardwick, in Derbyshire, and is supposed to have been born in 1577. Her father, unhappily for her, was of the royal blood both of England and Scotland; for he was a younger brother of King Henry, father of James the Sixth, and great-grandson through his mother, who was daughter of Margaret, Queen of Scots, to our Henry the Seventh.” Such is Lodge’s account of “this illustrious misfortune,” which made the life of a worthy lady wretched. ]
[Footnote 325:
A circumstance which we discover by a Spanish memorial, when our James the First was negotiating with the cabinet of Madrid. He complains of Elizabeth’s treatment of him; that the queen refused to give him his father’s estate in England, nor would deliver up his uncle’s daughter, Arabella, to be married to the Duke of Lennox, at which time the queen uso palabras muy asperas y de mucho disprechia contra el dicho Rey de ascocia; she used harsh words, expressing much contempt of the king. Winwood’s Mem. i. 4. ]
[Footnote 326:
See a very curious letter, the CCXCIX. of Cardinal d’Ossat, vol. v. The catholic interest expected to facilitate the conquest of England by joining their armies with those of “Arbelle;” and the commentator writes that this English lady had a party, consisting of all those English who had been the judges or the avowed enemies of Mary of Scotland, the mother of James the First. ]
[Footnote 327:
Winwood’s Memorials, iii. 281. ]
[Footnote 328:
This manuscript letter from William, Earl of Pembroke, to Gilbert Earl of Shrewsbury, is dated from Hampton Court, October 3, 1604.–Sloane MSS. 4161. ]
[Footnote 329:
Lodge’s “Illustrations of British History,” iii. 286. It is curious to observe, that this letter, by W. Fowler, is dated on the same day as the manuscript letter I have just quoted, and it is directed to the same Earl of Shrewsbury; so that the Earl must have received, in one day, accounts of two different projects of marriage for his niece! This shows how much Arabella engaged the designs of foreigners and natives. Will. Fowler was a rhyming and fantastical secretary to the queen of James the First. ]
[Footnote 330:
Two letters of Arabella, on distress of money, are preserved by Ballard. The discovery of a pension I made in Sir Julius Caesar’s manuscripts; where one is mentioned of 1600l. to the Lady Arabella.–Sloane MSS. 4160. Mr. Lodge has shown that the king once granted her the duty on oats. ]
[Footnote 331:
Winwood’s Memorials, vol. iii. 117-119. ]
[Footnote 332:
Winwood’s Memorials, vol. iii. 119. ]
[Footnote 333:
This evidently alludes to the gentleman whose name appears not, which occasioned Arabella to incur the king’s displeasure before Christmas; the Lady Arabella, it is quite clear, was resolvedly bent on marrying herself! ]
[Footnote 334:
Harl. MSS. 7003. ]
[Footnote 335:
It is on record that at Long-leat, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, certain papers of Arabella are preserved. I leave to the noble owner the pleasure of the research.]
[Footnote 336:
Harl. MSS. 7003. ]
[Footnote 337:
These particulars I derive from the manuscript letters among the papers of Arabella Stuart. Harl. MSS. 7003. ]
[Footnote 338:
“This emphatic injunction,” observed a friend, “would be effective when the messenger could read;” but in a letter written by the Earl of Essex about the year 1597, to the Lord High Admiral at Plymouth, I have seen added to the words “Hast, hast, hast, for lyfe!” the expressive symbol of a gallows prepared with a halter, which could not be well misunderstood by the most illiterate of Mercuries, thus
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[Footnote 339:
Lodge says she “was remanded to the Tower, where she soon afterwards sank into helpless idiocy, surviving in that wretched state till September, 1615,” when, with miserable mockery of state, she was buried in Westminster Abbey, beside the body of Henry Prince of Wales. Bishop Corbet wrote some lines on her death, very indicative of the poor lady’s thoughts:–
How do I thank ye, death, and bless thy power,
That I have passed the guard, and ‘scaped the Tower!
And now my pardon is my epitaph,
And a small coffin my poor carcass hath;
For at thy charge both soul and body were
Enlarged at last, secur’d from hope and fear.
That amongst saints, this amongst kings is laid;
And what my birth did claim, my death hath paid.
]