By ilie Fev. Canon J. E, Jackson, F.S.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, 

 i.e., 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. {Appendix, 

 No. xviii.) 



The secret marriage took place in an apartment in the Palace, 

 then at Greenwich, 1 at a very early hour of the day. Soon after its 

 discovery, they were committed to different prisons, but by concerted 



1 Lady Arabella, closely connected with the Court, had a set of rooms in the 

 old palace then at Greenwich. 



