Arbella: England's Lost Queen

A Christmas gift from the “Interesting Women” wishlist. Arbella Stuart (her name is often latinized to Arabella, but her contemporaries knew her as “Arbella” or “Arbel”) was Henry VIII’s great-grand niece, and in the confusing Tudor and Stuart lines of succession coupled with the early deaths of her father and mother, ended up second in line to the throne of England (after James VI of Scotland, who eventually did inherit as James I). You might think it’s romance novel fodder to be an heir to the throne, but the reality is more tragic than romantic; Arbella spent almost her entire life under house arrest or in the Tower, eventually dying there of self-starvation after an ill-advised marriage and an even more ill-advised show more escape attempt.


Unlike many of her contemporaries, Arbella left a considerable corpus of writing behind, probably because there wasn’t much else she could do for most of her life except write or embroider. Unfortunately, her letters are often disjointed or incoherent, leading author Sarah Gristwood to suggest she may have been mentally ill. Her existing portraits show her as attractive if a little dazed-looking, probably to be expected under the circumstances. Gristwood has a nicely readable style, and provides some interesting diversions on various topics, including the difficulty of writing history in an era where Robert Cecil, Sir Robert Cecil, Baron Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, and the Earl of Salisbury were all the same person; 16th century medicine (after you bled somebody, you forced several dried peas into the wound, then covered it with earthworm paste); and what was involved in dressing an Elizabethan lady for court.


In addition to the speculation that Arbella had mental problems, Gristwood offers a couple more interesting suggestions: that Arbella’s tutor “Morley”, who also acted as a spy to ensure that she wasn’t turning Catholic, was actually Christopher Marlowe; and that John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi is a disguised biography of Arbella. The jacket biography describes Sarah Gristwood as a journalist and broadcaster; I wonder how many Americans in those professions could turn out a book like this. Excellent index, excellent bibliography, good endnotes; could use a map or two, especially of London and south England (there’s contemporary illustrations of London and the Tower in the text and plates, but although interesting they don’t really serve to show who’s doing what where). show less

Taking what she can from the evidence this is an interesting account of the life and death of Arbella Stuart. A woman constrained by the fact that she was from the royal family and living in a period where her possible marriage would mean a contender for the throne.

Gristwood speculates about Porphyria being the cause of some of her issues, she had frequent bouts of illness and what would appear to be depression. I'm pretty sure these weren't helped by the constant suspicion that she was going to be the centre of a plot to take over the throne, willingly or unwillingly.

While Elizabeth willingly avoided marriage for politics sake, Arbella fell in love and her marriage was roundly condemned by James I, leading to her imprisonment in the show more Tower of London and subsequent to her escape and recapture, her death.

She's a woman about whom I had never heard before but I found quite interesting and had some pity for, she lived a very constrained, pressured life that had a continuous shadow of death.

I liked the story, the author seems to have a lot of sympathy for the character and her times. show less

It seems is was not easy to live under the shadow of Bess of Hardwick. Arbella's proximity to the throne was another hurdle she could not overcome. I enjoyed this book but do wish we knew more about her. One gets the impression she lived on the border of total hysteria for a good deal of her life. She honestly did have a "lost" life, and her story is quite sad.
This book is well written and seems a good deal of time was spent in research. For all that, Arbella's reasoning behind some of her behaviour is just not obvious, even with all her letter writing. She comes across as more of a drama queen, rather than revealing any deep insight into her personality.

2.75 stars

Arbella Stuart was the great-granddaughter of Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII’s oldest sister). She should have been a possibility to be queen, but was bypassed. Both Elizabeth I and James I kept her at bay, and wouldn’t even allow her to marry (in the line of succession, you need permission to marry since they will likely want a politically advantageous marriage). Eventually, she just gave up and chose who she wanted to marry and married in secret (to the great-great-grandson of Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s youngest sister)). It wasn’t long before they were found out and imprisoned.

This was nonfiction and felt a bit dense through much of it. As I tend to often mention in my reviews of historical biographies of women, even if show more they were royalty, there often seems to be little information on them, so much of the “action” is actually what’s taking place around them. Arbella’s marriage and attempt to escape the Tower were the most interesting part (and likely where there was the most information to use for this biography). I feel like a fictional account of her life might make things a bit more interesting. show less

This is an interesting read, if it doesn't quite cover the slightly provocative sub title.
Arbella Stuart was the niece of Mary, Queen of Scots and a cousin of James I. She was, for much of her youth, touted as a possible successor to Elizabeth I. That never happened for an entire array of reasons, a lot of which seem to be Arbella doing exactly the wrong things at just the wrong moment. It seems that she spends quite a long time apologising and trying to present her actions in an alternative light.
A lot of the evidence comes from extensive letters, from Arbella herself as well as from those around her. She was of interest to the court, so appears in those records at various times. It, therefore, seems somewhat cruelt hat she ended her show more days in the Tower of London and there remains very little information about her time there. She was, it seems imprisoned for who she was, not so much as for what she had done.
It has a lot of possible interpretation of her actions and these remain speculative, although acknowledged as such they are well reasoned.
An interesting character at an interesting time in history who seems somehow out of step with her times. show less

3.5 stars

This review was first published at the Just A Reader book review blog.

Arbella: England's Lost Queen by Sarah Gristwood is a biography of a less popularly known figure in the Elizabethan era. Arbella Stuart was third cousin (I think that's correct) to Elizabeth I and first cousin to James I. She was, at one time, a serious consideration as heir to Elizabeth's throne. For anyone interested in that era of British history, this biography is a good addition to the field and gives a great deal of detail on a person who hasn't been written about in as much detail as the more well known figures such as Elizabeth, James, Robert Dudley, and others whose names are recognizable to popular audiences even today.

Gristwood writes with an show more amazing amount of detail and uses a prodigious amount of source quotes. Arbella seems to have left a large number of letters from which to pull information and, as a possible contender to the throne, her name and events in her life were topics of gossip and letters by a variety of officials of the era - from Cecil to James to foreign ambassadors. Like most documentation from that time period, there are gaps in what has survived and conflicting information slanted by whoever wrote it for their own political purposes.

Arbella's life is a rollercoaster with seemingly more downs than ups. Her fate rests entirely in the hands of others and yet she attempts to take control of her own destiny several times. Her royal blood makes her both incredibly valuable and equally dangerous, cutting her off from both of the avenues for which she was raised - ruling and marriage. Her attempts to get won or the other are met with hostility by both Elizabeth and James. Arbella seems at all times to keep one eye on her political ambitions which can never help her marital cause. Her family member's ambition is an equal part of the problem as, much like Jane Grey, Arbella is blamed for the plots of others - though neither woman is without ambition.

Arbella: Englad's Lost Queen seems to be the first biography by Gristwood and she does a fair job of it - it's a well-written and engaging read but Alison Weir's works of the same time period remain my favorites to this point. It may simply be that Gristwood has not found her stride yet and I'm certainly going to read more of her work. show less

A most enjoyable book on a woman I never heard of. Sarah Gristwood does a remarkable job of bringing Arbella's story to life complete with wonderful illustrations and pictures to really make the story come alive. She has does an enormous amount of research on a painstaking subject and weaves it all together in a terrific story. A nice break from the reading of the traditionally well known people of the Tudor era.