Both were formerly friends of the Queen, but according to Oxford's biographer Charleton Ogburn Jr., Howard spent the balance of the year 1581 under restraint.
[12] Arundell was reported to have pawned his valuables to raise money for an armed landing in England to be led by the Earl of Westmorland in support of Mary, Queen of Scots.
[13][14] Arundell was a cousin of Douglass Howard, Lady Sheffield, the wife of Sir Edward Stafford (1552–1605), the English ambassador in Paris, and had a role in putting Stafford into secret contact with Bernardino de Mendoza (c. 1540–1604), the ambassador in Paris of Philip of Spain.
[15] Arundell died in Paris in 1587—in the year of the Singeing the King of Spain's Beard, during the Anglo-Spanish War which had begun in 1585—perhaps having been poisoned.
[16] It is sometimes claimed that his knighthood was bestowed on him by Philip of Spain, but he died in possession of the manor of South Petherton, which was inherited by his brother, Sir Matthew, and in the inquisition post mortem taken on 12 March 1588 he is named as "Sir Charles Arundell of London, Knt.