From a photo by Richard Keene, Ltd., Derby, after the painting at Hardwick Hall
By permission of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire
ARABELLA STUART
Page [330]
“Sheffield this 6th day of May.
“Your L. most assured loving friend,
“E. Shrewsbury.
“To the right honourable and my very good Lord the Lord Burghley, L. Treasurer of England.”
To this Arabella, aged seven, adds her pretty French postscript:—
“Je prieray Dieu Monsr. vous donner en parfaicte en entiere santé, tout heureux et bon succes, et seray tousjours preste a vous faire tout honneur et service.
“Arbella Steward.”
The new Hardwick, the present hall, was not actually finished till seven years after the Earl’s death, and there and at the older house the Dowager and the semi-royal grandchild spent many years together. The former was, as has been instanced, busy betimes with making matches for the child. After the disappointment about Lord Leicester’s little son, the old ambitious spirit flares up gloriously in the proposal that Arabella, who was just ten years old, should marry James of Scotland. She was suggested by Walsingham, presumably at the Queen’s desire, as an alternative bride to a Danish princess. James was not inclined to make up his mind at the moment, and in the following year another bridegroom was suggested—Rainutio, son of the Duke of Parma. Since the Duke was suspected of laying claim to the English throne, these negotiations were carried on secretly, not so secretly, however, that they escaped the knowledge of Burghley. State papers show that he was well aware that a servant of Sir Edward Stafford was employed “from beyond the sea, to practise with” Arabella about this marriage. “He was sent once before for her picture, and has been thrice to England this year,” is the conclusion of the secret information sent to Court. It is likely that the picture named might be a copy of one of the two hanging now in the great gallery at Hardwick Hall. Both are deeply interesting, and one, in which she is shown as a little, dignified, grandly dressed child of two holding a gay stiff doll, is very moving. The other, of which the original seems to be at Welbeck, shows her “in her hair,” in the old phrase. Part of her hair is drawn over a puff above her forehead and adorned with a drop jewel, and the rest hangs down fine and straight like a soft veil behind her shoulders. Her dress is white, with sleeves either of ermine or white velvet with black spots; her gold fan has a dull red cord, and a girdle of jewels is about her waist. On either side of her hangs a portrait of James VI as a little boy. In one he carries a hawk—symbol of the passion for sport which seems to have been, save for his obstinacy, his only strong point; in the other he is in correct fashionable dress and plumed cap, and wears a tiny sword—symbol of the courage he never possessed, and forerunner of the full-grown weapon which he could carry with swagger, but dared not use on his mother’s behalf. Even as his little presence hedges Arabella in this gallery on both sides, so in life his position dominated hers most cruelly in years to come.
