ABSTRACT
Queen Elizabeth died on 24th March 1603, and James VI of Scotland succeeded without opposition. An alleged plot of 1604 to put Arabella Stuart on the throne, for which Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Ralegh were imprisoned, was widely suspected to have been manufactured, or at least grossly exaggerated, by Sir Robert Cecil to strengthen his own position. Cecil, later Earl of Salisbury, son of Elizabeth’s great minister, Burghley, had been largely responsible for James’s peaceful succession, and the King retained him as Secretary, advancing him to the office of Lord Treasurer in 1608.
