Heiress To The English Throne
For some time before 1592, Arbella was considered one of the natural candidates to succeed her first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth. However, between the end of 1592 and the spring of 1593, the influential Cecils – Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley, and his son, Secretary of State Sir Robert Cecil – turned their attention away from Arbella towards her cousin James VI of Scotland, regarding him as a preferable successor.
She was at times invited to Elizabeth's court, but spent much of her time away with her grandmother. Continuing her education into her twenties, she studied several languages and could play the lute, viol and virginals.
In 1603, after James's accession as James I of England, those involved in the Main Plot (allegedly including Sir Walter Raleigh) conspired to overthrow him and put Arbella on the throne. When she was invited to participate by agreeing in writing to Philip III of Spain, however, she immediately reported it to the authorities.
Read more about this topic: Lady Arbella Stuart
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—17th-century English proverb, pt. 1, quoted in Isaac d’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature (1834)
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