She conspired to have her husband, Thomas Arden of Faversham,[1] murdered so she could carry on with a long-term affair with a tailor, Richard Moseby.
The murder was described by Raphael Holinshed in his Chronicles and later had entries in both The Newgate Calendar and the Chambers Book of Days.
Holinshed simply mentions: "They employed as their confederates one John Green, a Faversham tailor; George Bradshaw, a goldsmith of the same town; and one Black Will, of Calyce (Calais), a murderer, which murderer was privily sent for to Calyce by the earnest sute, appoyntment, and confederate of Alice Arden and Thomas Mosbye.
Arden claimed the vicinity of his residence as part of his own property, successfully wresting control of Green's land.
Bradshaw was a local goldsmith and veteran soldier, having served under Sir Richard Cavendish during the Sieges of Boulogne.
Armed "with a sword and buckler", Will was apparently making his living as a highwayman since leaving military service.
"The conspirators watched Master Arden walking in Poule’s (St. Paul’s Cathedral, the nave of which was a public promenade in those days), but could not find an opportunity to murder him; they then lay in wait for him on Rainham Down, and a second time in the Broomy Close (two places near Faversham), but on all these occasions failed in obtaining an opportunity."
The servant was terrified of Black Will, making sure to bolt the doors of their lodgings at night, preventing Will or anyone else from entering.
[3] Arden had business with Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in South-East England.
Black Will and George Shakebag, a fellow highwayman, were instructed by Alice to ambush him on his way there "in a broom-close between Feversham and the Ferry".
Unfamiliar with the area, the highwaymen set their ambush at the wrong location, failing to meet Arden either at his journey to the Isle or on his return.
[3] Holinshed continues: "The wicked wife then laid a plot for murdering her husband in his own house.
She procured the services of Mosbye’s sister, Cicely Pounder, and of two of Arden’s domestic servants, Michael Saunderson and Elizabeth Stafford.
On a particular day selected Sunday, Black Will was hidden in a closet at the end of Arden’s parlour.
At a given signal in the game, Black Will came with a napkyn in his hand, and suddenly came behind Arden’s back, threw the said napkyn over his hedd and face, and strangled him; and forthwith Mosbye stept to him, and strake him with a taylor’s great pressing iron upon the scull to the braine, and immediately drew out his dagger, which was groat and broad, and therewith cut the said Arden’s throat.
Finishing the task, "the doubly wicked Alice and her companions danced, and played on the virginals, and were merrie."
Alice paid him his ten pounds and Green provided him with a horse to make his escape.
Alice feigned ignorance at the reasons her husband was taking so long to return home.
"[3] Alice made sure to keep her guests around as long as possible while constantly reminding them of the suspicious absence of her spouse.
Meanwhile, Alice, her daughter Margaret Arden, Cicely Pounder and the maid Elizabeth Stafford would transport the corpse outside the house.
They laid it down "about ten paces from the door of that garden", making it seem that Thomas was murdered outside.
[3] According to Holinshed, Alice waited until the following morning to alert the town that her husband had gone missing.
It was a cold winter night and there was fresh snow on the ground, but the body was only dressed in "its night-gown and slippers", making it seem unlikely that he was going about his business in town when killed.
But the people of the town conducted further searches near the house, discovering hair and blood of the victim, the bloody knife and the cloth, which was discarded but poorly hidden.
The two Arden ladies (mother and daughter), the servant and the maid were immediately arrested and sent to prison.
The rest of the accused claimed to have never even met the man, much less conversed or conspired with him, but his protests of innocence failed to convince the court.
[3] Alice Arden was found guilty of the crime of murder (Petty treason) and burnt at the stake in Canterbury.
Before he died, Green attempted to clear the name of Bradshaw, proclaiming the innocence of the long-dead goldsmith.
"It was long said that no grass would grow on the spot where Arden’s dead body was found; some, in accordance with the superstitions of the times, attributed this to the murder; while others declared that 'the field he hadde cruelly taken from a widow woman, who had curst him most bitterly, even to his face, wishing that all the world might wonder on him.'
The paternity of the play has been long disputed, with William Shakespeare being the most prominent of the candidates, and Thomas Watson purported to be the main author in 2020.