Editing Lady Arbella Stuart (section)

== Heiress to the English throne==
{{further|Succession to Elizabeth I of England}}
[[File:Nicholas Hilliard Lady Arbella Stuart 1592 large.jpg|thumb|right|[[Arbella Stuart]] in 1592, [[Nicholas Hilliard]].]]
[[File:Arbella-Stuart.jpg|thumb|Arbella Stuart]]
For some time before 1592, Arbella was considered one of the natural candidates to succeed her first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I.<ref>Marshall, p.601</ref> However, between the end of 1592 and the spring of 1593, the influential Cecils – Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley, and his son, Secretary of State [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]] – turned their attention away from Arbella towards her cousin [[James VI of Scotland]], regarding him as a preferable successor.<ref>Handover, ''The Second Cecil'', 55-6; 297; Read, ''Lord Burghley'', 484</ref>

Sometimes she was invited to Elizabeth's court, but much of her time she spent away living with her grandmother. Continuing her education into her twenties, she studied several languages and could play the [[lute]], [[viol]] and [[virginals]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Bess of Hardwick, First Lady of Chatsworth | last=Lovell | first=Mary S. | author-link=Mary S. Lovell | pages=408–409 | year=2005 | publisher=Little, Brown }}</ref>

In 1603 James became James I of England at the [[Union of the Crowns]]. Arbella came to court in August 1603.<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 82 no. 112.</ref> There was plague in London, and the court moved west to [[Basing House]] and [[Winchester]] in October. Arbella wrote letters to the [[Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury|Earl of Shrewsbury]] criticising a masque, ''[[Prince Henry's Welcome at Winchester]]'' produced by [[Anne of Denmark]] for her son, [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales|Prince Henry]], and also the childish singing and games in the queen's household.<ref>Sara Jayne Steen, ''Letters of Arbella Stuart'' (Oxford, 1994), p. 193.</ref>

In November 1603 those involved in the [[Main Plot]] were said to have conspired to overthrow King James and put Arbella on the throne. Arbella had been invited to participate and agree in writing to [[Philip III of Spain]], however, she immediately reported the invitation to the king.<ref>Gristwood, pp. 267–269</ref> In March 1604 the royal family celebrated their Entry to London, which had been delayed because of the plague. There was a procession, and Arbella followed Anne of Denmark in a carriage with some of the queen's maids of honour. This was a public acknowledgement of her royal status.<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 139 no. 201.</ref>

The Venetian ambassador [[Nicolò Molin]] described her in 1607, writing that she was 28 (''sic'')<ref>Being born in 1575, Stewart was, in fact, at least 31 years old in 1607.</ref> years old, not very beautiful, but highly accomplished in several languages, with refined manners, and always studying.<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 514 no. 739.</ref>