cing an Italian cardinal on the English throne. It had
always been the state interest of the French cabinet to favour any
scheme which might preserve the realms of England and Scotland as
separate kingdoms. The manuscript correspondence of Charles the Ninth
with his ambassador at the court of London, which I have seen, tends
solely to this great purpose, and perhaps it was her French and Spanish
allies which finally hastened the political martyrdom of the Scottish
Mary.

Thus we have discovered _two_ chimerical husbands of the Lady Arabella.
The _pretensions_ of this lady to the throne had evidently become an
object with speculating politicians; and perhaps it was to withdraw
herself from the embarrassments into which she was thrown, that,
according to De Thou, she intended to marry a son of the Earl of
Northumberland; but, to the jealous terror of Elizabeth, an English Earl
was not an object of less magnitude than a Scotch Duke. This is the
_third_ shadowy husband.

When James the First ascended the English throne, there existed an
Anti-Scottish party. Hardly had the northern monarch entered into the
"Land of Promise," when his southern throne was shaken by a foolish
plot, which one writer calls "a state riddle;" it involved Rawleigh, and
unexpectedly the Lady Arabella. The Scottish monarch was to be got rid
of, and Arabella was to be crowned. Some of these silly conspirators
having written to her, requesting letters to be addressed to the King of
Spain, she laughed at the letter she received, and sent it to the king.
Thus for a _second_ time was Arabella to have been Queen of England.
This occurred in 1603, but was followed by no harsh measures from James
the First.

In the following year, 1604, I have discovered that for the _third_ time
the lady was offered a crown! "A great ambassador is coming from the
King of Poland, whose chief errand is to demand my Lady Arabella in
marriage for his master. So may your princess of the blood grow a great
queen, and then we shall be safe from _the danger of missuperscribing
letters_."[328] This last passage seems to allude to something. What is
meant by "the danger of missuperscribing letters?"

If this royal offer were ever made, it was certainly forbidden. Can we
imagine the refusal to have come from the lady, who, we shall see, seven
years afterwards, complained that the king had neglected her, in not
providing her with a suitable match? It was at this very time that one