Stuart, Arabella

views updated Jun 11 2018

Stuart, Arabella (1575–1615). The niece of Darnley, first cousin to James VI and I, and a possible successor to Elizabeth on the throne of England. She avoided implication in the Bye and Main plots in 1603 but her secret marriage in 1610 to William Seymour (Somerset), who had royal blood through his grandmother Lady Catherine Grey, alarmed the king and she spent most of her remaining years in the Tower.

J. A. Cannon

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