Arbella Stuart was born in 1575 and she was the only child of Charles Stuart and Elizabeth Cavendish. Arbella's father died when she was still an infant. She was brought up single handed by her mother. Unfortunately her mother also passed away when Arbela was just seven. She then passed into the custody of Sir William Cecil.

For most of her life Arbella lived at Hardwick hall. This was her maternal grandmother's house. Elizabeth Talbot or Bess of Hardwick was the mother of Elizabeth Cavendish due to her marriage to Sir William Cavendish.

Arbella was kept sheltered from the court life. She was brought up in the countryside and was taken on regular yearly visits to the Queen. This was an arrangement that was made by the Queen herself.

For a long time Arbella was considered to be the next logical choice for the throne after Elizabeth I. However, the Cecils shifted their attention towards James I for such an important post and finally he ascended the throne.

There were some controversies and some schemes were planned to overthrow James and position Arbella as the Queen but she refused to participate in this controversy and instead reported the complete scheme to James.

There were many options and choices for Arbella's marriage. She was considered to be the logical heir to the throne for a very long time and that made it very important for her to marry a proper suitor.There were many high ranking lords and dukes who were interested in her but the Queen did not permit any of those choices.

There was also a rumour that the Pope had decided that Arbella should get married to the Pope's brother and he had decided to defrock his brother for the marriage. However, it did not happen.

Perhaps the most ardent of Arbella's suitors was William Seymour. Arbella also had some affectionate feelings for Seymour. It is rumoured that Arbella had tried to elope with him and had ran away from home in the disguise of a guy. However, Seymour never met her at their destined place and therefore the plan did not succeed.

However, it is said that they did get married but they were never allowed to get together and Arbella was trapped in the Tower of London where she starved herself to death pining for her husband.

Arbella's life was romantic enough that plenty of literary fictions and novels are portrayed around her character or her life story. Many of Arbella's letters have also been preserved and published.

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