Everything about William Russell Lord Russell totally explained
» For the M.P. murdered in 1840, see Lord William Russell.
William Russell, Lord Russell (
29 September 1639–
21 July 1683), was an
English politician.
Early life and marriage
Russell was the third son of
William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford later created Duke of Bedford, and Anne Carr. His maternal grandfather was
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. He entered
Cambridge University around 1654.
After leaving university Russell and his older brother Francis travelled abroad, visiting
Lyon and
Geneva, and residing for a time at
Augsburg. Russell's account is noted for its colorful depiction of their travels. The two made their way to Paris by 1658, and had returned to
Woburn by December 1659. At the
Restoration in 1660, when
Charles II took the throne, Russell was elected as a Member of Parliament for the borough of
Tavistock, a post traditionally held by a member of his family.
For many years, Russell appears not to have been active in public affairs, but to have indulged in court intrigue. In 1663 and 1664 he was engaged in two
duels; he was wounded in the second one. In 1669, at age 30, he married Rachel (1636–1723), second daughter of
Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, and widow of
Lord Vaughan. He thus became connected with
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who had married Southampton's niece. They had a close and affectionate marriage. She corresponded with
John Tillotson and other distinguished men, and a collection of her letters was published in 1773.
Parliament
It wasn't until the formation of the country party (the fore-runner of the Whig party)
(External Link
), which opposed the policies of the Cabal (an inner group of advisers to the king) and
Charles II's Franco-Catholic plots, that Russell began to take an active part in affairs. He then joined Cavendish, Birch,
Hampden,
Powell, Lyttleton and others in vehement antagonism to the king's advisors and policies. With a passionate hatred for and distrust of Catholics, and an intense love of political liberty, he opposed persecution of Protestant
Dissenters. His first speech in Parliament appears to have been on
January 22,
1673, when he inveighed against the stop of the exchequer, the
attack on the Smyrna fleet, the corruption by French money of Charles' courtiers, and the ill-intended ministers of the king. He also supported the proceedings against the
Duke of Buckingham. In 1675, Russell moved an address to the king for the removal from royal councils and impeachment of the
Earl of Danby.
On
February 15,
1677, in the debate on the 15 months'
prorogation (an extremely lengthy period between sessions of Parliament), he moved the dissolution of
Parliament; and in March 1678 he seconded the address asking the king to declare war against France. The enmity of the country party towards James, the Duke of York and Charles' brother, and towards Danby, and the party's desire for a dissolution and the disbanding of the army, were greater than the party's enmity towards
Louis. The French king therefore found it easy to form a temporary alliance with Russell,
Holles and the opposition leaders. They sought to cripple the king's power of hurting France and to compel him to seek Louis's friendship; that friendship, however, was to be given only on the condition that Louis support their goals. Russell entered into close communication with the
Marquis de Ruvigny (Lady Russell's maternal uncle), who came over with money for distribution among members of parliament. By the testimony of
Barillon, however, it's clear that Russell himself refused to take any French payments.
The alarms which culminated in the "discovery" in 1678 of the
Popish Plot to murder
King Charles II and replace him with James, his Roman Catholic brother, appear to have affected Russell more than his otherwise sober character would have led people to expect. Russell threw himself into the party which looked to
Monmouth, the (illegitimate but recognized) son of Charles, as the representative of
Protestant interests, a grave political blunder, though Russell afterwards was in confidential communication with
Orange.
Exclusion debates
On
November 41678, Russell moved an address to the king to remove the Duke of York from his person and councils, including removal from the line of succession. After the dissolution of the pensionary parliament, Russell was again elected to Parliament, this time as a representative for Bedfordshire. The success of the new Whig party in the elections of 1679 led to Danby being overthrown, and in April 1679 Russell became a member of the new privy council formed by Charles on the advice of Temple. Only six days after this, Russell moved for a committee to draw up a bill to secure religion and property in case of a popish successor. He does not, however, appear to have taken part in the exclusion debates at this time. In June 1679, on the occasion of the
Covenanters rising in Scotland, he attacked Lauderdale personally in full council.
In January 1680, Russell, along with Cavendish, Capell, Powell, Essex and Lyttleton, tendered his resignation to the king, which was received by Charles "with all my heart." On
June 16 he accompanied Shaftesbury when the latter indicted James at Westminster as a popish recusant; and on
October 26 he took the extreme step of moving to suppress popery and prevent a popish successor; while on
November 2, now at the height of his influence, he went still further by seconding the motion for exclusion in its most emphatic shape, and on the 19th carried the bill to the
House of Lords. He opposed the limitation scheme on the ground that monarchy under its conditions would be an absurdity.
Laurence Echard (
History of England, ii.) stated that he opposed the indulgence shown by Charles to Lord Stafford (dispensing with the more horrible parts of the sentence of death — an indulgence afterwards shown to Russell himself), but this is disputed. On
December 18 he moved to refuse supplies until the king passed the
Exclusion Bill. The
Prince of Orange having come over at this time, the opposition leaders were open to a compromise on the exclusion question. Russell, however, refused to give way.
On
March 26,
1681, in the parliament held at Oxford, Russell again seconded the Exclusion Bill. Upon the dissolution of parliament he retired into privacy at his country seat of Stratton in Hampshire. It was probably at his wish that his chaplain wrote the Life of Julian the Apostate, in reply to
Dr Hickes's sermons, defending the lawfulness of resistance in extreme cases. He had no share in the schemes of Shaftesbury after the election of Tory sheriffs for London in 1682; upon the 1683 violation of the charters, however, he began seriously to consider the best means of resisting the government, and on one occasion attended a meeting at which what might be construed as treason was talked. Monmouth, Essex, Hampden, Sidney and
Howard of Escrick were at this meeting.
Rye House Plot
On the outbreak of the
Rye House Plot he was accused of promising his assistance to raise an insurrection and bring about the death of the king. Refusing to attempt to escape, he was sent on
June 26,
1683 to the Tower of London, where he prepared himself for his death. Monmouth offered to return to England and be tried if doing so would help Russell, and Essex refused to abscond for fear of injuring his friend's chance of escape.
Execution
Russell was executed by
Jack Ketch on
July 21 1683. The execution was said to have been conducted quite poorly by Ketch. Ketch later wrote a letter of apology. Russell was lauded as a martyr by the Whigs, who claimed that he was put to death in retaliation for his efforts to exclude James from succession to the crown. Russell was exonerated by the reversal of attainder under
William III of England.
Further Information
Get more info on 'William Russell Lord Russell'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://william_russell__lord_russell.totallyexplained.com">William Russell, Lord Russell Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
