Edward Arden of Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare. He was the head of a Warwickshire family; his father William died in 1545, and Edward succeeded his grandfather Thomas Arden in 1563. He kept to the old faith and maintained in his home, Park Hall at Castle Bromwich, a priest named Hall, in the disguise of a gardener. This priest influenced John Somerville, Edward Arden's son-in-law, who had had indirect contact with Mary Queen of Scots (she had visited Coventry in 1569). Somerville talked of shooting the Queen of England, and set out for London. He was arrested, put to the rack,
Mary Arden, Lady Arden Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) at the same time. Her husband joined the Queen's Bench Division in October 1993, making them the first married couple to sit on the High Court bench. That feat has now been matched by Sir Peter Openshaw and Dame Caroline Swift. Arden was chairman of the Law Commission from 1996-99. Her husband became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1999. On 2 October 2000, she was also appointed to the Court of Appeal. The couple became the first married couple both to sit on the Court of Appeal. Other posts