Last week Country Life had an article about a recently identified miniature of Lady Arbella Stuart. The researchers involved have assigned it to 1592 and argue that it was painted at Greenwich Palace when Arbella and her formidable grandmother Bess of Harwick were on an extended stay at Greenwich. Arbella was a possible candidate for the English and Irish thrones as a descendant through her other grandmother, the Countess of Lennox, of King Henry VII’s elder daughter Queen Margaret of Scots. As English born this might seem preferable as a claim to that of her first cousin King James VI. Moreover Arbella’s role as a potential bride for a European suitor, and a game of diplomatic bluff, may lie behind the commission.
Arbella’s fate was determined by her ancestry, by possible or an unwise marriage, and being in the shadow of the throne. Her personal tragedy was that she never escaped these constraints and was very much a pawn in other players political chess game.
The article about the beautiful miniature can be seen at 'But for a few twists of fate, she might well have been Queen of England': Who was the mystery woman in the Hilliard miniature?
Wikipedia has a biography of the luckless lady at Lady Arbella Stuart
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