STUART, Arabella, commonly called the LADY ARABELLA : b. Chatsworth, 1575; d. Lon don, 27 Sept. 1615. This unhappy and innocent victim of jealousy and state policy was the only child of Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox younger brother to Henry Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. She was, therefore, cousin-german to James I, to whom, previously to his having issue, she was next in the line of succession to the crown of England, being the great-great-granddaughter of Henry VII, whose daughter Margaret, having been first married to James IV of Scotland, became by a second marriage the mother of Margaret Douglas, mother of Darnley, and Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox. She received an ex cellent education. Her proximity to the throne was the source of her misfortunes. Elizabeth. for some time before her decease, held the Lady Arabella under restraint, and refused the request of the king of Scotland to give her in marriage to the Duke of Lennox, his kinsman, with a view to remove her from England. The Pope had likewise formed the design of raising her to the English throne, by espousing her to the Duke of Savoy; which project is said to have been listened to by Henry IV of France, from a wish to prevent the union of England and Scotland. The detection of a plot of some
English nobles to set aside James in favor of Arabella Stuart, of which she was altogether innocent, ultimately proved her destruction; for although left at liberty for the present, when it was some time after (in 1610) discovered that she was secretly married to William Sey mour, son of Lord Beauchamp and grandson of the Earl of Hertford, both husband and wife were placed in confinement, the husband being committed to the Tower. At the end of a year they both contrived to escape at the same but the unhappy lady was retaken. She was then herself committed to the Tower, the re mainder of her life was spent in close confine ment, which finally deprived her of her reason. Consult Bradley, E. T., (Life and Letters of Lady Arabella Stuart' (London 1889).