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In the Shadow of the Throne: The Lady Arabella Stuart

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In The Shadow Of The Throne: The Lady Arbella Stuart by historical biographer Ruth Norrington offers the reader an unusually insightful portrait of one of England's most overlooked princesses. Once the favored heir to the throne of Elizabeth I, the Lady Arbella Stuart was descended from Henry VII through his eldest daughter Margaret Tudor and was the niece of Mary Queen of Scots. But her life was marred by illness, and modern opinion is that she suffered from the hereditary disease of porphyria - a "vampire sickness" that made those afflicted horrendously sensitive to sunlight, among other blights. Her cousin King James I opposed her marriage to William Seymour, and eventually incarcerated her in the Tower of London, where Lady Arbella Stuart died from it in 1615. A fascinating saga of British royal family history, extensively researched and including numerous letters and correspondence, In The Shadow Of The Throne is enthusiastically recommended reading for anyone with an interest in British royal history in general, and the life and times of the doomed Lady Arbella Stuart in particular.