By the Rev. Canon J. E, Jackson, F.S8.A. 159 
which I referred to a few moments ago, as having re-awakened the 
anger of Queen Elizabeth on her death bed. Mr. William Seymour, 
though very young, had, in the matter of marriage, committed an 
indiscretion precisely similar to that of his grandfather, Edward Earl 
of Hertford. He had betrothed himself, just before the Queen’s 
death, to a lady very near the throne, the Lady Arabella Stuart. 
This lady was first cousin to King James I., and if that King had 
died without children, Lady Arabella would certainly have been 
Queen of England. She was of a very independent, honest, and 
original mind: had no taste for courts, their grandeur, vices, or 
follies: but was, from her position, looked upon by others as a proper 
and convenient person to be made use of for their own intrigues 
and plots, though she herself knew nothing about them, and was 
only too glad to keep out of the way. She formed a strong attach- 
ment to young William Seymour, and they were clandestinely married, 
z.é., without the knowledge of King James, 
So the story becomes simply a repetition of that of Katharine 
Grey. Though they had been betrothed (as I have said) just before 
the Queen’s death, they were not actually married till seven years 
afterwards; but King James was quite as unrelenting as his pre- 
decessor, and the treatment which this accomplished and unfortunate 
Princess, his own first cousin, met with, cannot be read without 
indignation. 
There is a letter of some importance in her history, which could 
not be known to any of her biographers, having only lately come to 
light. It is a message from William Seymour to her before the 
marriage, calling her attention to the inequality of their stations, 
and suggesting the prudence of breaking it off altogether, on account 
of the great peril of incurring the King’s displeasure. (Appendiz, 
No, xviii.) 
The secret marriage took place in an apartment in the Palace, 
then at Greenwich,! at a very early hour of theday. Soon after its 
discovery, they were committed to different prisons, but by concerted 
1Lady Arabella, closely connected with the Court, had a set of rooms in the 
old palace then at Greenwich. 
i) 
