#arbella stuart

[historicconfessions]

[thefreelancehistorywriter]

The Heirs Female, in remainder to the Crown, named in the Will of Henry VIII and the " Devise " of Edward VI

The Heirs Female, in remainder to the Crown, named in the Will of Henry VIII and the ” Devise ” of Edward VI

While doing some research on Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk and her daughters, I came across a book written by Richard Davey in 1912 about Katherine and Mary Grey, the sisters of Lady Jane Grey.  It’s impossible to write about these women without detailing their place in the succession to the throne of England.  Davey provides this explanation of Henry VIII’s will and Edward VI’s ‘Device’,…

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[widvile-blog]

Arbella Stuart, Duchess of Somerset (1575 - 25 September 1615)

[cassandravision]

Adelaide Kane as Arbella Stuart

While I think overall Adelaide Kane gave a really good performance in Reign, especially given all of the bull the writers threw at her, she doesn’t physically look like the real tall, pale, red-head Mary, Queen of Scots. Adelaide does, however, resemble Mary’s second husband’s [Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley] niece (who was born after his death), Arbella Stuart, another beautiful and doomed heir to the English throne. Arbella had dark eyes and brown hair (though most portraits paint her wearing an auburn or red wig, in honor of Queen Elizabeth). Though, oddly enough, Arbella’s possible status as future Queen of England was threatened by Mary’s own son, James I (of England and VI of Scotland). 

Some historians also consider Arbella as the inspiration for some of Shakespeare’s cross-dressing heroines, like Imogen from Cymbeline, because when Arbella tried to escape to France, she was disguised as a man during her journey at one point.

In another coincidence, Mary Stuart was known to dress as a man at times, though out of playful purposes, and being nearly 6 feet tall she was able to get away with it. Mary did disguise herself as a servant when trying to escape imprisonment in Scotland. 

It seems Mary Stuart and her brother-in-law’s daughter have a lot in common. Both aspired to the throne and both were made miserable by it. Both were related to the Lennox family. Both were Stuarts. Both were practically doomed from birth.

I’ve also read that they were buried in the same vault. I bet Mary would have liked her niece.

Great, now I want to read a book or see a (hopefully accurate) movie about Arbella....

By the way, I keep thinking her name is Arabella, but it’s actually the less beautiful name of Arbella....”Our Bella” is how you pronounce it, I think. It’s also sometimes written as Arabella by modern writers, so who knows. 

The more you know....

[historicconfessions]

[scansfrommagazinesandbooks]

[minervacasterly]

Arbella Stuart 101:

LADY ARBELLA STUART was the descendant of Margaret Tudor via her second marriage to Archibald Douglas, the Earl of Angus. That marriage produced one offspring, Lady Margaret Douglas who married Matthew Stuart, the Earl of Lennox. Margaret Douglas' second son, Charles Stuart married Elizabeth Cavendish who was the daughter of Sir William Cavendish and Elizabeth Talbot. The latter has now become known as Bess of Hardwick and was one of the richest and most influential women in England in Elizabethan times.  Arbella’s parents died when she was one and she came into the custody of her maternal grandmother. As she got older, she became a valuable chess piece for James VI of Scotland I of England’s enemies. The Stuarts had a legitimate claim to the throne after Bess I of England died, because they descended from Henry VII via his eldest daughter's first marriage to the King of Scotland. However, when Arbella started to show interest in Edward Seymour (son of the infamous Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford who had married Katherine Grey without royal permission and as a result the two were imprisoned in the tower, with him being released and his wife as well, but becoming mad with grief and dying in 1568), the King became nervous. She moved on to his younger brother, William Seymour who later became Duke of Somerset.

When she married William in 1610, this was the last straw for the Stuart King. He imprisoned Arbella and she fell ill at once, and refused to eat as a protest for her treatment. She died five years later on 25 September. Arbella's story is one of the saddest in Tudor and Stuart history and it parallels her husband's ancestress, Katherine Grey who also died because of her imprisonment. James as his predecessor feared what their offspring could do him. While he descended from Margaret's royal marriage, a child born out of the descendants of two Tudor sisters would outrank him and as it had happened many times before, nobles could view him or her as an alternative to James' rule. Some had already begun to view Arbella as such.

William Seymour survived Arbella dying forty five years later in 1660. For further reading, check out the link I posted from The Freelance History Writer on Arbella Stuart. Sarah Gristwood has a good biography on her titled: Arbella: England's lost Queen.