Too Near the Throne

Arabella, the daughter of Charles Stuart and Elizabeth Cavendish, was by nature a tender, feminine woman. But the accident of her royal birth placed her dangerously near the royal throne of Scotland, and hers was to be a life of enforced discipline and loneliness. In this romantic story, the life and loves of "little Arabella" are dramatically told: her unfortunate attachment for the Earl of Essex, the angry response of the tyrant Queen Elizabeth, her involvment in the marriage of her friend Bess Throckmorton to Sir Walter Raleigh are all vivid excerpts from the fabric of Elizabethan history. And Arabella, herself, emerges as an appealing and pathetic heroine who bridges the gap between history and fiction with winning grace and pathos.