[2] As with other members of the family, including near contemporary and nephew Sir Ralph Hopton, he attended Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating in 1609.

In the 1630 Treaty of Madrid, Charles I agreed to end support for the Protestant Dutch Republic, in return for Spain doing the same with English Catholics.

However, Philip IV refused to back the restoration of Charles' aunt Elizabeth to the Palatinate, and the treaty was deeply unpopular in England.

When the Second English Civil War ended in 1648, Sir Arthur went to live in Wissett, Suffolk; on 7 June 1649, he was visited there by the diarist John Evelyn.

[a][6] Many of his despatches are included in Clarendon's papers held by the Bodleian Library, while the Tanner collection of manuscripts contains several of his letters relating to the 1640 Portuguese revolution.