Customer Reviews

Arbella: England's Lost Queen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book by accident when I was browsing through new items in a bookstore and the cover caught my attention. Since I'm interested in the Tudor and Stuart period and the introduction in the back seemed exciting, I bought it.

Because english is not my mother tongue I expected to have some trouble reading through this book since historical books often display language that is more complex than we use in every day life. However, the book is so well written that occasional trouble with unknown words didn't trouble me much and I suddenly found myself reading it for hours at a time!

The story in itself is very moving and exciting and Gristwood is able to clarify the complicated situations in England in the end of the Tudor reign and in the beginning of the Stuart reign quite well. Although the book is full of characters and anecdotes, it is easy to follow. Gristwood describes the court life, people, environment and situations so vividly that it makes the reader feel like almost being there. Even though Arbella's story is the kind that forces the writer to make assumptions since there are gaps in the story, Gristwood doesn't push her ideas. She is able to add even some humour to this tragic saga and despite the sad ending, you actually find yourself laughing at times.

The background and resources to this book are extensively displayed in the end of the book and the references are listed as well.
I warmly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical biographies and life in England in the 16th and 17th century. It's a must!!!

NOTE: There is one drawback in the paperback version though; the gilt on the cover seems to wear off easily.

What I enjoyed most about this book was that it tied together historical figures I had read about elsewhere -- the earls of Leicester and Essex, Bess of Hardwick, James I, Elizabeth I -- in a completely different context and from a widely different perspective. Sarah Gristwood did an excellent job placing Arbella and her struggles within the larger political stories of her day. Her writing, although mostly accessible, does have its moments of insiderism -- such as when she refers to Penelope Rich as Sidney's Stella, for seemingly no reason and without further elaboration. I think you're better off reading this book if you already have a working knowledge of the court of Elizabeth I.

Not sure why this is called 'Arabella' as the subject matter's name is 'Arbella', nevertheless...
It's a given that any one raised in a school in England is thoroughly grounded in Tudor history. I recall spending several years at a young age learning all about Henry VIII, his wives and Elizabeth I (plus the rest of the dynasty) so it came as a major surprise to learn of Arbella Stuart, claimant to the throne after 1603 whom history has effectively written out through Sarah Gristwood's excellently accessible scholarship. With a title (as the author notes) designed to capture the emotive intellect that surrounds our perception of England's glorious Tudor period, we plunge headfirst into the intricate and politically dangerous world of England's Tudor/Stuart hereditary tree in a manner that opens up a whole new view on the period. And a fascinating one at that....
Arbella Stuart was considered during the late sixteenth century as no less than the second claimant in line for the English throne, potentially the successor if the no foreign monarch can succeed `clause' was invoked, thereby negating the claim of Mary, Queen of Scots' son, James. It was to be a claim that was to cause Arbella no end of personal distress.
The book opens with Arbella's birth and the inherent dangers of her claim to the throne. As Gristwood wryly notes, Arbella's godparents where mainly aunts and uncles on the maternal side, rather than those on the royalty side, most of her ancestors having been decimated in the post Henry VIII melee. By the age of six her mother and father had died and she was under the considerable influence of one of the richest women of the Elizabethan, age, Bess Cavendish. We move on in the next few chapters to deal with Arbella's coming of age at the Elizabethan Court, her young faux pas with Elizabeth and her life growing up under Bess. She is portrayed as an adolescent fully aware of her part in the dynasty and is used as a pawn by the aging Elizabeth to dangle in front of the European nobility as a potential successor, highlighted by her swift removal from danger when the Spanish armada neared in 1588. However, as Gristwood acknowledges, the 1590's were a period that reflected the changing nature of Elizabeth's reign and correspondence on Arbella is somewhat silent until the last few months of Elizabeth's reign.
During the spring of 1603 the author has full access to a range of epic (in length) letters written by Arbella to the court in an attempt to escape her enforced `prison' at Hardwick. Effecting a lover, profoundly affected (as was Elizabeth) by the execution of Lord Essex and drawing on all manner of aspiring courtiers she enters the political game with what appears to a loose grip on reality, prompting a discussion on the effects of porphyria. It all comes to naught as the Tudor period comes to an end and the Stuart begins under the guise of James I. By the end of it the accession of James is very easy, backed as he is by Robert Cecil, and Arbella faded once more into the background, yet still bound to her close position to the throne to be a manipulated pawn. We delve into the two Cecil-uncovered conspiracies of July 1603, which recent findings imply Arbella's complicity more keenly, though she escaped untouched, with Ralegh and Lord Cobham sentenced for treason. From here Arbella's life spirals into a loss of control as she is sidelined during the increasingly patriarchal society of James. During 1608, from Bess' death to Arbella's survival of smallpox, her fortunes waned until we enter the final phase of her life from 1610 - 1615 during which she desperately tried to snatch some personal freedom and self-control and ended up failing and starving to death in the Tower.
Gristwood spends Part V looking at more detail at Arbella's letters and discussing her relationship with William Seymour, her daring to fall in love, secret marriage, King's fury and the last attempted flight to France that was reported on right at the beginning. Her fateful becalming and capture whilst William Seymour escaped led to her incarceration where she spent her remaining years wasting away.
If there was ever a historical lesson in how high birth can lead to personal misery then Gristwood has portrayed it. A total captive of her royal birth, a political pawn used without much personal regard, Arbella Stuart faded out of English royal history with the intended whimper that her stronger rivals intended to the degree that her name is uncommon to the Tudor/Stuart history class. What Gristwood has done, admirably, is redraw our attention to this almost-queen in a manner that explains much of the politics of not only a change in monarch, but a change in dynasty. Three appendicies go on to explain some more detail of Arbella, such as her potential porphyria and this piece of scholarship would have been further improved by inclusion of more of her letters (I think we only see one page template) in order to better verify the author's conclusions, but this aside anyone interested in Tudor/Stuart dynasties or English medieval succession should read this book.

Arbella Stuart is one of the tragic characters of history. Her closeness to the throne of England provided a strong reason for Elizabeth I and her court to imprison her from a very young age. This was an age of potential instability, Mary Queen of Scots had been the centre of many plots and had eventually been executed. Indeed Elizabeth had herself been imprisoned by her sister Mary before ascending to the throne. She had had to walk a very dangerous path to ensure her own survival let alone succeed the throne. And it was not unknown for coups to destabalise the country. Lady Jane Grey and her husband Dudley had been pushed on the throne following Edward I death in 1553 -if only for 9 days.

The machinations of Tudor/Stuart politics did make for sensitive treatment of children if they were political hot potatoes as Arbella was. She was brought up literally by Bess of Hardwick, but as a prisoner, her own parents died when she was young. The problems with knowing about Arbella is much of what can be researched is secondary, or social. Arbella is mostly known personally from her letters of 2003 - and they demonstrate a woman driven possibly made - although there is the possibility that she, like the later stuart descendents in the House of Hanover, suffered from Pophyria.

Sarah Gristwood writes well and Arbella, her life and times does indeed come alive. Gristwood knows her subject well and her times. From her ill-fated birth to her tragic death from starvation while still relatively young. I was reminded in some parts of the lives some 200 years later of the daughters of George III - they too were prevented from living their own lives but in slightly different circumstances, but their one ambition was to marry - and in the end that is all Arbella really wanted, to marry and be free.

A sad but sympathetic study of one of history's tragic has-beens.

If You Are Interested in Stuart/Tudor History,and the Machinations of same, i think you will find this book
of interest>i had never heard of arbella so was interested
to read about who she was.Arbella was in line to inherit
the throne but did not-James I did.Although her life
and death were sad,i would still recommend this. Sarah Gristwood
did a good job regarding the forces and turmoil in play at this
time.

Arbella Stuart has largely been forgotten by history. Born and raised in the C17 with the somewhat remote chance of inheriting the throne of Queen Elizabeth, Arbella's life was filled with turmoil, danger and tragedy.

Like many before her with claims to the throne, including Elizabeth herself, Arbella constantly found herself the 'cause' of rebellions and target of kidnapping plots. Raised by her maternal grandmother Bess of Hardwick, and granddaughter of the infamous Lady Lennox (if you have a chance to read anything on these admirable women then do so), Arbella was raised in relative obscurity for most of her short and predominantly miserable life. With her hopes of inheriting the throne falling through her fingers with each passing year, Arbella soon began to resent her cloistered life alone, and rebelled both against Queen Bess and the future King James.

And that's all I am going to tell you about the 'plot'. I applaud Sarah Gristwood for choosing to write about a lesser known, but equally important character of Tudor and Stuart England. As the saying goes, history is written by the victors, and as a result Arbella was slowly becoming a mere whisper in the pages of time until Gristwood rescued her from obscurity. I briefly heard about Arbella through other biographies of Elizabeth and James, but never did I realise just how chaotic and tragic her life was till picking up this book.

Gristwood's writing is compelling and absorbing, not unlike reading an incredibly good work of fiction. Some have complained about her apparent lack of scholarship, however I have to disagree. Her conclusions are well supported and she uses first hand accounts (including Arbella's own letters etc.) in order to tell this amazing story.

WARNING- I AM ABOUT TO RANT. YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO SKIP PAST THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH :)

To be perfectly honest, as much as I appreciate a brilliant, academically researched and well written account of history etc., I do at times get annoyed by the language involved. Some writers (not mentioning names) feel that in order to have a great biographical account they must use the most obscure and difficult words in the English language. I like to be able to understand what I'm reading, a book for me is an escape from reality, a way of calming down and relaxing- only rarely do I feel inclined to chew up, spit out and contemplate long complicated sentences, and for the most part I forget the information in the process. I don't understand why as a writer you would want to say something in the most complicated of ways just to sound intelligent and be favourably compared to the 'greats'. If you have researched your topic thoroughly and make logical, supportable conclusions then there is no problem. For the most part, excessive language and difficult sentence construction seems like a farce for poor research and bad writing, in my honest opinion.

RANT COMPLETE :)

So all in all, this book is a great read, and well worth adding to your collection. Arbella is one of the least known women in history and her story is well worth knowing. To be honest, the amount of 'trouble' she caused, knowingly or not, I am surprised that she has been largely ignored by biographers. There are colour photographs/ plates in throughout the book and the chapters are relatively small, but still a decent chunk of a book. I will be reading more from Sarah Gristwood.

4 stars.

In Arbella: England's Lost Queen, Sarah Gristwood quite ably caught the essence of Arbella Stuart's sad, train wreck of a life which reflected her "too royal of a lineage" and the English monarchy's paranoia of a rival claiming the throne.

This worry was reflected years earlier by the beheading of the Duke of Buckingham, Anne and Mary Boleyn's uncle, for offending Henry VIII(Elizabeth's father) with "too royal blood in his veins."

Throughout her life, she was considered a threat; first by her cousin Elizabeth I and then by Mary Queen of Scot's son, James I. Living her life under pseudo house arrest, she was prevented from marrying until well into her 30's for fear of producing a male heir who could claim the throne of England. Since Elizabeth was childless, the line of succession issue reached a fever pitch.

In an almost parallel universe, Arbella was kept isolated as was Mary Queen of Scots (the mother of James and cousin to Elizabeth). With Mary Queen of Scots a prisoner under the roof of her grandmother, Bess of Hardwick and her 4th husband, Arbella spent many hours with the displaced Scottish Queen tending their tapestry. After Mary's death, Arbella continued her lonely existence occasionally being invited to court only to be sent away again.

Finally, when she was in her 30's Arbella took it upon herself to marry a Seymour who was also of royal bloodlines not to mention 10 years her junior. By marrying without the monarchs' consent, both were considered traitors and she was sent to the country while Seymour was imprisoned in the Tower of London. A botched escape ended with her capture and his reaching freedom on the mainland.

It was never clear if she went truly mad as her rambling writings would point to but surely the years of confinement, boredom and an unfulfilled life had to have taken its toll. In the end, she died from starvation in the Tower of London, all the while hanging onto the simple hope that she and her husband would reunite and finally be allowed to live a normal life.

How sad that such potential would be wasted and even more tragic that most people do not know of her existence. Hopefully, this excellent book will change that.

I had come across Arbella Stuart briefly in other works on Tudor/Stuart history, so I read this book mainly to learn more details about her. Sarah Gristwood has done admirable research on Arbella, presenting the portrait of a woman who inspires both sympathy and frustration.

I can certainly sympathize with Arbella Stuart because of how she was denied the right to a normal life by two successive monarchs simply because of an accident of birth, which placed her too close for comfort in the line of succession to the throne. I can also empathize with any attempts Arbella made to claim her independence, however misguided these attempts might have been.

However, although Gristwood does her best to portray Arbella positively, it is also clear from the evidence that she was spoiled, arrogant, and mentally unstable. She would have been very unsuitable as queen if she had ever managed to succeed to the throne. She also had an exaggerated sense of her position, viewing her succession to the throne as a right instead of a possibility. For example, the first time she attempted to initiate marriage on her own, she chose Edward Seymour, a man she knew nothing about except that he also had royal blood, which would bolster her chances by combining two claims to the throne. When she finally did marry, she married his brother William.

Gristwood's research on her subject is very thorough, and she does a creditable job of speculating on the probabilities when documentary evidence is scanty. Her prose style is almost lyrical, making for a compelling read. However, she does seem to assume that her readers are already knowledgeable about the Tudor/Stuart periods and the history of the monarchy. More background information on certain topics would have been helpful for novices to this subject, such as that of porphyria, the disease which ran in Arbella's family and from which she may have suffered. This disease could have accounted for the physical symptoms she showed as well as her mental disturbance.

Note: some readers have discounted the idea that Arbella may have inherited porphyria because she was only a niece by marriage, not blood, to Mary Queen of Scots, who also may have suffered from it. However, as Gristwood points out in an appendix, Arbella and Mary did have a common ancestor (King Henry VII's daughter Margaret Tudor) who may also have had the disease. If this is true, then it is quite possible that Arbella also had it.

All in all, this is an interesting biography about an intriguing, if not entirely likeable, character in English history.

I read Arbella, England's Lost Queen by Sarah Gristwood becuase the subject matter interested me. Who was this woman perpetually kept as a prisoner by her relatives for most of her short life? Was she that much of a threat to the throne of King James I?
Sarah Gristwood provides lots of pertinent information about Arbella and her relations and sets the stage describing the royal personages and scandals of the day. Yet this biography is uneven at best. At times, it does not flow smoothly and the author consistently interjects her 21st century voice that often gets in the way of the story. Many of the author's comments either needed to be edited or written in a way that flowed in sync with the story and the setting. Here is an example from the book," Arbella may have been at once ill and actively scheming;just because they are after you doesn't mean you aren't paranoid" p.340. Is this last line necessary? Here is another line,"We know she was subject to depression, the "dumps". Is this a direct quote from a seventeenth century source? Somehow, using contemporary phrases and trite aphorisms does not work for a 16th/17th century royal biography. I also noticed there were some typos, unusual for a reputed publisher such as Houghton Mifflin, once again indicating this book needed a more careful editing job.
The author has clearly done her research and does give the reader many sources that give us clues as to who Arbella was, what her motivations were and how she attempted to live her life. However, due to a dearth perhaps of information on Arbella, one still feels something is missing here. I felt as if I really got to know the other characters in the history, such as Arbella's scheming aunt, Mary Talbot and her maternal grandmother, Bess of Hartwick.
Overall, the subject matter was more interesting than the presentation of the material. I think an editing job omitting the author's several cliched phrases that disrupted the flow of the story would have helped. She does pose some intriguing questions and theories and I learned alot about the time period. The Epilogue was certainly complete and well written.
Sarah Gristwood definitely did her research on Arbella. Her theories are thought provoking. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the interjection of her own voice disrupted the flow of the book, created unnecessary distractions and some of the worn out phrases could have been edited out.

Arbella England's Lost Queen is the story of Arbella Stuart, the presumed heir to the throne after Queen Elizabeth I. Sarah Gristwood meticulously traced Arbella's life from infancy through her last tragic moments. Arbella was groomed to be Queen Elizabeth's heir by her Grandmother, Bess of Hardwick. Elizabeth never declared Arbella her heir, but implied so on various ocassions. Therefore, Arbella grew up thinking she was destined for greatness, but her reality was something much different.

As the years passed and Arbella's patience grew thin, Arbella found herself cast aside and all but forgetten in her Grandmother's home of Hardwick. Arbella's "Hardwick Days" were the most fascinating to me. One can only imagine the desperation of this amazing woman. When her dreams of a life outside of Hardwick and marriage seemed a lost cause, Arbella began writing letters, which Sarah Gristwood describes as "bizarre and wonderful documents". These letters, one of which Gristwood states is over seven thousand words long, have caused posterity to question's Arbella'a sanity. The author, however, is not quick to adopt this theory. In Appendix B, Gristwood questions the theory that Arbella's letters were a result of Porphyria, which she calls a "royal malady" since the illness can be linked to various royals, such as George III.

Arbella was finally rescued from Hardwick after Queen Elizabeth's death by her cousin the now King James I, however her future circumstances can hardly be called a rescue. The King's paranoia kept him from approving a marriage for Arbella, who he feared could present a threat to his claim to the throne. Arbella, however, took matters in her own hands when she married William Seymour. The marriage of two of such royal blood sent the King into a frenzy. William was thrown into the tower, and Arbella was banished from court. The couple soon plotted an escape abroad, William's escape was sucessful, but Arbella was not as lucky. Arbella was imprisoned in the Tower, where she stayed until her death.

This book is definitely a keeper. The author took an obscure historical figure and transformed her story into a tale of very complex human being that even twenty first century readers can relate to. The wonderful illustrations of Arbella, Bess of Hardwick, Hardwick hall, among others vividly bring the characters to life. At the end of the book the author shares the news of somewhat recent discovery at Hardwick Hall. In 2003, a leather bound book was discovered in the walls of the Hardwick dining room. Could this book be connected to Arbella Stuart? The evidence linking Arbella to the book is flimsy at best. But Gristwood, eager for a connection to the long forgotten Princess, cleverly pieces together the evidence that allows for the possibility of an Arbella connection.