The Story Of Arabella Stuart
Of royal blood was the lady here named, near to the English throne. Too
near, as it proved, for her own comfort and happiness, for her life was
distracted by the fears of those that filled it. Her story, in
consequence, became one of the romances of English history.
"The Lady Arabella," as she was called, was nearly related to Queen
Elizabeth, and became an object of jealous persecution by that royal
lady
the manger. She would not marry herself, and thus provide for the
succession to the throne, and she was determined that the fair Arabella
should not perform this neglected duty. Hence Arabella's misery.
The first thing we hear of this unfortunate scion of royal blood
concerns a marriage. The whole story of her life, in fact, is concerned
with marriage, and its fatal ending was the result of marriage. Never
had a woman been more sought in marriage; never more hindered; her life
was a tragedy of marriage.
Her earlier story may be briefly given. James VI. of Scotland, cousin of
the Lady Arabella, chose as a husband for her another cousin, Lord Esme
Stuart, Duke of Lennox, his proposed heir. The match was a desirable
one, but Queen Elizabeth forbade the banns. She threw the lady into a
prison, and defied King James when he demanded her delivery, not
hesitating to speak with contempt of her brother monarch.
The next to choose a husband for Arabella was the pope, who would have
been delighted to provide a Catholic for the succession to the English
throne. A prince of the house of Savoy was the choice of his holiness.
The Duke of Parma was married, and his brother was a cardinal, and
therefore unmarriageable, but the pope had the power to overcome the
difficulty which this created. He secularized the churchman, and made
him an eligible aspirant for the lady's hand. But, as may well be
supposed, Elizabeth decisively vetoed this chimerical plan.
To escape from the plots of scheming politicians, the Lady Arabella now
took the task in her own hand, proposing to marry a son of the Earl of
Northumberland. Unhappily, Elizabeth would none of it. To her jealous
fancy an English earl was more dangerous than a Scotch duke. Thus went
on this extraordinary business till Elizabeth died, and King James of
Scotland, whom she had despised, became her successor on the throne, she
having paved the way to his succession by her neglect to provide an heir
for it herself, and her insensate determination to prevent Arabella
Stuart from doing so.
James was now king. He had chosen a husband for his cousin Arabella
before. It was a natural presumption that he would not object to her
marriage now. But if Elizabeth was jealous, he was suspicious. A foolish
plot was made by some unimportant individuals to get rid of the Scottish
king and place Arabella on the English throne. A letter to this effect
was sent to the lady. She laughed at it, and sent it to the king, who,
probably, did not consider it a laughing-matter.
This was in 1603. In 1604 the king of Poland is said to have asked for
the lady's hand in marriage. Count Maurice, Duke of Guildres, was also
spoken of as a suitable match. But James had grown as obdurate as
Elizabeth,--and with as little sense and reason. The lady might enjoy
life in single blessedness as she pleased, but marry she should not.
"Thus far to the Lady Arabella crowns and husbands were like a fairy
banquet seen at moonlight opening on her sight, impalpable, and
vanishing at the moment of approach."
Several years now passed, in which the lady lived as a dependant on the
king's bounty, and in which, so far as we know, no thoughts of marriage
were entertained. At least, no projects of marriage were made public,
whatever may have been the lady's secret thoughts and wishes. Then came
the romantic event of her life,--a marriage, and its striking
consequences. It is this event which has made her name remembered in the
romance of history.
Christmas of 1608 had passed, and the Lady Arabella was still unmarried;
the English crown had not tottered to its fall through the entrance of
this fair maiden into the bonds of matrimony. The year 1609 began, and
terror seized the English court; this insatiable woman was reaching out
for another husband! This time the favored swain was Mr. William
Seymour, the second son of Lord Beauchamp, and grandson of the earl of
Hertford. He was a man of admired character, a studious scholar in times
of peace, an ardent soldier in times of war. He and Arabella had known
each other from childhood.
In February the daring rebellion of the Lady Arabella became known, and
sent its shaft of terror to the heart of King James. The woman was at it
again, wanting to marry; she must be dealt with. She and Seymour were
summoned before the privy council and sharply questioned. Seymour was
harshly censured. How dared he presume to seek an alliance with one of
royal blood, he was asked, in blind disregard of the fact that royal
blood ran in his own veins.
He showed fitting humility before the council, pleading that he meant no
offence. Thus he told the dignified councillors the story of his
wooing,--
"I boldly intruded myself into her ladyship's chamber in this court on
Candlemas-day last, at which time I imparted my desire unto her, which
was entertained, but with this caution on either part, that both of us
resolved not to proceed to any final conclusion without his Majesty's
most gracious favor first obtained. And this was our first meeting.
After this we had a second meeting at Brigg's house in Fleet Street, and
then a third at Mr. Baynton's; at both of which we had the like
conference and resolution as before."
Neither of them would think of marrying without "his Majesty's most
gracious favor," they declared. This favor could not be granted. The
safety of the English crown had to be considered. The lovers were
admonished by the privy council and dismissed.
But love laughs at privy councils, as well as at locksmiths. This time
the Lady Arabella was not to be hindered. She and Seymour were secretly
married, without regard to "his Majesty's most gracious favor," and
enjoyed a short period of connubial bliss in defiance of king and
council.
Their offence was not discovered till July of the following year. It
roused a small convulsion in court circles. The king had been defied.
The culprits must be punished. The lovers--for they were still
lovers--were separated, Seymour being sent to the Tower, for "his
contempt in marrying a lady of the royal family without the king's
leave;" the lady being confined at the house of Sir Thomas Parry, at
Lambeth.
Their confinement was not rigorous. The lady was allowed to walk in the
garden. The gentleman was given the freedom of the Tower. Letters seem
to have passed between them. From one of these ancient love-letters we
may quote the affectionate conclusion. Seymour had taken cold. Arabella
writes:
"I do assure you that 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 with too tedious kindness, for so I think you
will account so long a letter, yourself not having written to me this
good while so much as how you do. But, sweet sir, I speak not of this to
trouble you with writing but when you please. Be well, and I shall
account myself happy in being
"Your faithful, loving wife.
ARB. S."
They wrote too much, it seems. Their correspondence was discovered.
Trouble ensued. The king determined to place the lady in closer
confinement under the bishop of Durham.
Arabella was in despair when this news was brought her. She grew so ill
from her depression of spirits that she could only travel to her new
place of detention in a litter and under the care of a physician. On
reaching Highgate she had become unfit to proceed, her pulse weak, her
countenance pale and wan. The doctor left her there and returned to
town, where he reported to the king that the lady was too sick to
travel.
"She shall proceed to Durham if I am king," answered James, with his
usual weak-headed obstinacy.
"I make no doubt of her obedience," answered the doctor.
"Obedience is what I require," replied the king. "That given, I will do
more for her than she expects."
He consented, in the end, that she should remain a month at Highgate,
under confinement, at the end of which time she should proceed to
Durham. The month passed. She wrote a letter to the king which procured
her a second month's respite. But that time, too, passed on, and the day
fixed for her further journey approached.
The lady now showed none of the wild grief which she had at first
displayed. She was resigned to her fate, she said, and manifested a
tender sorrow which won the hearts of her keepers, who could not but
sympathize with a high-born lady thus persecuted for what was assuredly
no crime, if even a fault.
At heart, however, she was by no means so tranquil as she seemed. Her
communications with Seymour had secretly continued, and the two had
planned a wildly-romantic project of escape, of which this seeming
resignation was but part. The day preceding that fixed for her departure
arrived. The lady had persuaded an attendant to aid her in paying a last
visit to her husband, whom she declared she must see before going to her
distant prison. She would return at a fixed hour. The attendant could
wait for her at an appointed place.
This credulous servant, led astray, doubtless, by sympathy with the
loving couple, not only consented to the request, but assisted the lady
in assuming an elaborate disguise.
"She drew," we are told, "a pair of large French-fashioned hose or
trousers over her petticoats, put on a man's doublet or coat, a peruke
such as men wore, whose long locks covered her own ringlets, a black
hat, a black coat, russet boots with red tops, and a rapier by her side.
Thus accoutred, the Lady Arabella stole out with a gentleman about three
o'clock in the afternoon. She had only proceeded a mile and a half when
they stopped at a post-inn, where one of her confederates was waiting
with horses; yet she was so sick and faint that the hostler who held her
stirrup observed that the gentleman could hardly hold out to London."
But the "gentleman" grew stronger as she proceeded. The exercise of
riding gave her new spirit. Her pale face grew rosy; her strength
increased; by six o'clock she reached Blackwall, where a boat and
servants were waiting. The plot had been well devised and all the
necessary preparations made.
The boatmen were bidden to row to Woolwich. This point reached, they
were asked to proceed to Gravesend. Then they rowed on to Tilbury. By
this time they were fatigued, and landed for rest and refreshment. But
the desired goal had not yet been reached, and an offer of higher pay
induced them to push on to Lee.
Here the fugitive lady rested till daybreak. The light of morn
discovered a French vessel at anchor off the harbor, which was quickly
boarded. It had been provided for the escape of the lovers. But Seymour,
who had planned to escape from the Tower and meet her here, had not
arrived. Arabella was desirous that the vessel should continue at anchor
until he appeared. If he should fail to come she did not care to
proceed. The land that held her lord was the land in which she wished to
dwell, even if they should be parted by fate and forced to live asunder.
This view did not please those who were aiding her escape. They would be
pursued, and might be overtaken. Delay was dangerous. In disregard of
her wishes, they ordered the captain to put to sea. As events turned
out, their haste proved unfortunate for the fair fugitive, and the
"cause of woes unnumbered" to the loving pair.
Leaving her to her journey, we must return to the adventures of Seymour.
Prisoner at large, as he was, in the Tower, escape proved not difficult.
A cart had entered the enclosure to bring wood to his apartment. On its
departure he followed it through the gates, unobserved by the warder.
His servant was left behind, with orders to keep all visitors from the
room, on pretence that his master was laid up with a raging toothache.
Reaching the river, the escaped prisoner found a man in his confidence
in waiting with a boat. He was rowed down the stream to Lee, where he
expected to find his Arabella in waiting. She was not there, but in the
distance was a vessel which he fancied might have her on board. He
hired a fisherman to take him out. Hailing the vessel, he inquired its
name, and to his grief learned that it was not the French ship which had
been hired for the lovers' flight. Fate had separated them. Filled with
despair, he took passage on a vessel from Newcastle, whose captain was
induced, for a fair consideration, to alter his course. In due time he
landed in Flanders, free, but alone. He was never to set eyes on
Arabella Stuart again.
Meanwhile, the escape of the lady from Highgate had become known, and
had aroused almost as much alarm as if some frightful calamity had
overtaken the State. Confusion and alarm pervaded the court. The
Gunpowder Plot itself hardly shook up the gray heads of King James's
cabinet more than did the flight of this pair of parted doves. The wind
seemed to waft peril. The minutes seemed fraught with threats. Couriers
were despatched in all haste to the neighboring seaports, and hurry
everywhere prevailed.
A messenger was sent to the Tower, bidding the lieutenant to guard
Seymour with double vigilance. To the surprise of the worthy lieutenant,
he discovered that Seymour was not there to be guarded. The bird had
flown. Word of this threw King James into a ludicrous state of terror.
He wished to issue a vindictive proclamation, full of hot fulminations,
and could scarcely be persuaded by his minister to tone down his foolish
utterances. The revised edict was sent off with as much speed as if an
enemy's fleet were in the offing, the courier being urged to his utmost
despatch, the postmasters aroused to activity by the stirring
superscription, "Haste, haste, post-haste! Haste for your life, your
life!" One might have thought that a new Norman invasion was threatening
the coast, instead of a pair of new-married lovers flying to finish
their honey-moon in peace and freedom abroad.
When news of what had happened reached the family of the Seymours, it
threw them into a state of alarm not less than that of the king. They
knew what it meant to offend the crown. The progenitor of the family,
the Duke of Somerset, had lost his head through some offence to a king,
and his descendants had no ambition to be similarly curtailed of their
natural proportions. Francis Seymour wrote to his uncle, the Earl of
Hertford, then distant from London, telling the story of the flight of
his brother and the lady. This letter still exists, and its appearance
indicates the terror into which it threw the earl. It reached him at
midnight. With it came a summons to attend the privy council. He read it
apparently by the light of a taper, and with such agitation that the
sheet caught fire. The scorched letter still exists, and is burnt
through at the most critical part of its story. The poor old earl
learned enough to double his terror, and lost the section that would
have alleviated it. He hastened up to London in a state of doubt and
fear, not knowing but that he was about to be indicted for high
treason.
Meanwhile, what had become of the disconsolate Lady Arabella? The poor
bride found herself alone upon the seas, mourning for her lost Seymour,
imploring her attendants to delay, straining her eyes in hopes of seeing
some boat bearing to her him she so dearly loved. It was in vain. No
Seymour appeared. And the delay in her flight proved fatal. The French
ship which bore her was overtaken in Calais roads by one of the king's
vessels which had been so hastily despatched in pursuit, and the lady
was taken on board and brought back, protesting that she cared not what
became of her if her dear Seymour should only escape.
The story ends mournfully. The sad-hearted bride was consigned to an
imprisonment that preyed heavily upon her. Never very strong, her sorrow
and depression of spirits reduced her powers, while, with the hope that
she might die the sooner, she refused the aid of physicians. Grief,
despair, intense emotion, in time impaired her reason, and at the end of
four years of prison life she died, her mind having died before. Rarely
has a simple and innocent marriage produced such sad results through the
uncalled-for jealousy of kings. The sad romance of the poor Lady
Arabella's life was due to the fact that she had an unreasonable woman
to deal with in Elizabeth, and a suspicious fool in James. Sound
common-sense must say that neither had aught to gain from this
persecution of the poor lady, who they were so obstinately determined
should end life a maid.
Seymour spent some years abroad, and then was permitted to return to
England. His wife was dead; the king had naught to fear. He lived
through three successive reigns, distinguishing himself by his loyalty
to James and his two successors, and to the day of his death retaining
his warm affection for his first love. He married again, and to the
daughter born from this match he gave the name of Arabella Stuart, in
token of his undying attachment to the lady of his life's romance.
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The story of Tristram's valorous deeds, and of the high honor in which he was held at Camelot, in good time came to Cornwall, where it filled King Mark's soul with revengeful fury, and stirred the heart of La Belle Isolde to the warmest love. The ... The Tribunal Of The Holy Vehm
The ideas of law and order in mediaeval Germany were by no means what we now understand by those terms. The injustice of the strong and the suffering of the weak were the rule; and men of noble lineage did not hesitate to turn their castles into d... The Tyrants Of Corinth
We have already told what the word "tyrant" meant in Greece,--a despot who set aside the law and ruled at his own pleasure, but who might be mild and gentle in his rule. Such were the tyrants of Sicyon, spoken of in our last tale. The tyrants of C... The Vengeance Of Queen Olga
The death of Oleg brought Igor his ward, then nearly forty years of age, to the throne of Rurik his father. And the same old story of bloodshed and barbarity went on. In those days a king was king in name only. He was really but the chief of a ban... The Victory Of The Don
The history of Russia during the century after the Mongol conquest is one of shame and anarchy. The shame was that of slavish submission to the Tartar khan. Each prince, in succession, fell on his knees before this high dignitary of the barbarians... The Voyage Of The Argonauts
We are forced to approach the historical period of Greece through a cloud-land of legend, in which atones of the gods are mingled with those of men, and the most marvellous of incidents are introduced as if they were everyday occurrences. The Argo... The West Gothland Insurrection
Sweden never had a wiser or more judicious ruler than King Gustavus Vasa, but in that land of turbulent lords and ambitious mischief-makers the noblest and most generous of kings could not reign without secret plotting and rebellious sentiments. So ... The White Rose Of England
The wars of the White and the Red Roses were at an end, Lancaster had triumphed over York, Richard III., the last of the Plantagenets, had died on Bosworth field, and the Red Rose candidate, Henry VII., was on the throne. It seemed fitting, indeed... The Woes Of Two Lovers
Early on the third morning of the tournament the knights of Tristram's party were up and armed, they now being all arrayed in red, as was also Isolde and her maidens. And rare was the show they made as they rode gayly to the priory, where they lef... The Wonderful March Of The Freebooters
The March of the Ten Thousand, from Babylon to the Black Sea, is one of the famous events of history. The march of the three hundred, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, which we have here to tell, is scarcely known to history at all, yet it was mar... The Wooden Walls Of Athens
The slaughter of the defenders of Thermopylae exposed Athens to the onslaught of the vast Persian army, which would soon be on the soil of Attica. A few days' march would bring the invaders to its capital city, which they would overwhelm as a flig... The Wooing Of Clotilde
A beautiful, wise, and well-learned maiden was Clotilde, princess of Burgundy, the noblest and most charming of the daughters of the Franks. Such was the story that the voice of fame whispered into the ear of Clovis, the first of the long line of Fr... The Wooing Of Elfrida
Of all the many fair maidens of the Saxon realm none bore such fame for beauty as the charming Elfrida, daughter of the earl of Devonshire, and the rose of southern England. She had been educated in the country and had never been seen in London, b... The World's Greatest Orator
During the days of the decline of Athens, the centre of thought to Greece, there roamed about the streets of that city a delicate, sickly lad, so feeble in frame that, at his mother's wish, he kept away from the gymnasium, lest the severe exercise... The Yoke Of The Tartars
In Asia, the greatest continent of the earth, lies its most extensive plain, the vast plateau of Mongolia, whose true boundaries are the mountains of Siberia and the Himalayan highlands, the Pacific Ocean and the hills of Eastern Europe, and of wh... Theseus And Ariadne
Minos, king of Crete in the age of legend, made war against Athens in revenge for the death of his son. This son, Androgeos by name, had shown such strength and skill in the Panathenaic festival that AEgeus, the Athenian king, sent him to fight wi... Three Notable Women
In the year 503 began a long war between the princes of Wei and the emperors of China, which continued for nearly half a century. Of this protracted contest we have only three incidents to relate, in which, within a few years, three heroines rose to... Timoleon The Favorite Of Fortune
In the city of Corinth dwelt two brothers; one of whom, named Timoleon, was distinguished alike for his courage, gentleness, patriotism, lack of ambition, and hatred of despots and traitors; the other, named Timophanes, was noted for bravery and e... Toussaint L'ouverture And The Revolution In Hayti
The people of Europe have not stood alone in settling and ruling America, for the blacks of Africa, brought to the New World as slaves, have made themselves masters of one of the largest and most fertile islands of the West Indies, that attractive...