William Russell, Lord Russell
Encyclopedia
For the M.P. murdered in 1840, see Lord William Russell.

William Russell, Lord Russell (29 September 1639 – 21 July 1683) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. He was a leading member of the Country Party, forerunners of the Whig
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

s, who opposed the succession of James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 during the reign of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, ultimately resulting in his execution for treason.

Early life and marriage

Russell was the third son of William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage and sat in the House of Lords...

 later created Duke of Bedford, and Lady Anne Carr. His maternal grandfather was Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...

. After the death of his elder brother Francis (1638—1679), he was known by the courtesy title Lord Russell
Earl of Bedford
Earl of Bedford is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1138 in favour Hugh de Beaumont. He appears to have been degraded from the title three or four years after its creation. However, the existence of the title altogether has been...

.

He and Francis were at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 in 1654. They then travelled abroad, visiting Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 and Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, and residing for a time at Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

. Russell's account is noted for its colourful depiction of their travels. The two made their way to Paris by 1658, and had returned to Woburn
Woburn, Bedfordshire
Woburn is a small Saxon village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is situated about southeast of the centre of Milton Keynes, and about south of junction 13 of the M1 motorway and is a popular tourist attraction.-History:...

 by December 1659.

At the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 in 1660, when Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 took the throne, Russell was elected as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Tavistock
Tavistock (UK Parliament constituency)
Tavistock was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Devon between 1330 and 1974. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the town of Tavistock; it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, when its...

, a seat 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, and is not recorded as speaking until 1674. In 1663 and 1664 he was engaged in two duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

s; 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
Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton
Sir Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, KG , styled Lord Wriothesley before 1624, was a 17th century English statesman, a staunch supporter of Charles II who would rise to the position of Lord High Treasurer after the English Restoration...

, and widow of Lord Vaughan (c. 1639-1667), elder son of Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery
Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery
Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery KB, PC , styled The Honourable from 1621 until 1628 and then Lord Vaughan until 1634, was a Welsh soldier, peer and politician...

. He thus became connected with Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC , known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1631, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1631 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1672, was a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles...

, who had married Southampton's niece. They had a close and affectionate marriage. She corresponded with John Tillotson
John Tillotson
John Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...

 and other distinguished men, and a collection of her letters was published in 1773.

Parliament

It was not until the formation of the country party (the fore-runner of the Whig party), which opposed the policies of the Cabal (an inner group of advisers to the king) and Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

's Franco-Catholic policies, that Russell began to take an active part in affairs. With a passionate hatred for and distrust of Catholics, and an intense love of political liberty, he opposed persecution of Protestant Dissenters
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....

. His first speech in Parliament appears to have been on 22 January 1674, when he inveighed against the Stop of the Exchequer, the attack on the Smyrna fleet
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....

, 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
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...

. In 1675, Russell moved an address to the king for the removal from royal councils and impeachment of the Earl of Danby
Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds
Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, KG , English statesman , served in a variety of offices under Kings Charles II and William III of England.-Early life, 1632–1674:The son of Sir Edward Osborne, Bart., of Kiveton, Yorkshire, Thomas Osborne...

.

On 15 February 1677, in the debate on the 15 months' prorogation (being an extremely lengthy period between sessions of Parliament), he moved the dissolution of Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...

; 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
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

, 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
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

. 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 cousin), who came over with money for distribution among members of parliament. By the testimony of Barillon
Paul Barillon
Paul Barillon d'Amoncourt, the marquis de Branges was the French ambassador to England from 1677 to 1688. His dispatches from England to Louis XIV have been useful to historians of the period, though an expected bias may be present...

, however, it is clear that Russell himself refused to take any French payments.

The alarms which culminated in the "discovery" in 1678 of the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...

 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
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...

, 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
Prince of Orange
Prince of Orange is a title of nobility, originally associated with the Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France. In French it is la Principauté d'Orange....

.

Exclusion debates

On 4 November 1678, 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. Parliament's insistence on the impeachment of Danby led to it being prorogued on 30 December and dissolved in January. At the ensuing election, Russell was again elected to Parliament, this time as a representative for Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Bedfordshire was a United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency, which elected two Members of Parliament from 1295 until 1885, when it was divided into two constituencies under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.-History:...

, as well as for Hampshire
Hampshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Hampshire was a county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832...

 (for which he chose not to sit). 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 Ministry
Privy Council Ministry
The Privy Council Ministry was a short-lived reorganization of English government that was reformed to place the Ministry under the control of the Privy Council in April 1679, due to events in that time.-Formation:...

 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, rather than advocating his exclusion from the succession. In June 1679, on the occasion of the Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...

s rising in Scotland, he attacked Lauderdale
John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale
Sir John Maitland, 1st Duke and 2nd Earl of Lauderdale, 3rd Lord Thirlestane KG PC , was a Scottish politician, and leader within the Cabal Ministry.-Background:...

 personally in full council.

In January 1680, Russell, along with Cavendish
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire KG PC was a soldier and Whig statesman, the son of William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth Cecil.-Life:...

, Capell
Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Tewkesbury
Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Tewkesbury KB, PC was a seventeenth century English politician.-Background:...

, Powle
Henry Powle
Henry Powle was Speaker of the House of Commons of England from January 1689 to February 1689. He was also Master of the Rolls and represented the constituency of Windsor...

, and Essex
Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex
Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex PC , whose surname is sometimes spelled Capel, was an English statesman.-Early life:...

, 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 exclusion bill to the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. He opposed the limitation scheme on the ground that monarchy under its conditions would be an absurdity. Laurence Echard
Laurence Echard
-Life:He was son of the Rev. Thomas Echard or Eachard of Barsham, Suffolk, by his wife, the daughter of Samuel and Dorothy Groome, and was born at Barsham. On 26 May 1687, at the age of seventeen, he was admitted a sizar of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1692 and M.A. in 1695...

 (History of England, ii.) stated that he opposed the indulgence shown by Charles to Lord Stafford
John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale
Sir John Maitland, 1st Duke and 2nd Earl of Lauderdale, 3rd Lord Thirlestane KG PC , was a Scottish politician, and leader within the Cabal Ministry.-Background:...

 (dispensing with the more horrible parts of the sentence of death — an indulgence afterwards shown to Russell himself), but this is disputed. On 18 December, he moved to refuse supplies until the king passed the Exclusion Bill
Exclusion Bill
The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1678 through 1681 in the reign of Charles II of England. The Exclusion Bill sought to exclude the king's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland because he was Roman Catholic...

. The Prince of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

 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 26 March 1681, in the parliament
Oxford Parliament (1681)
An English Parliament assembled in the city of Oxford for one week from 21 March 1681 until 28 March 1681 during the reign of Charles II of England.Succeeding the Exclusion Bill Parliament, this was the fifth and last parliament of the King's reign. Both Houses of Parliament met and the King...

 held at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, Russell again seconded the Exclusion Bill. Upon the dissolution of parliament, he retired into privacy at his country seat of Stratton
Stratton Park
Stratton Park, in East Stratton, Hampshire, was an English country house, built on the site of a grange of Hyde Abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries; it was purchased with the manor of Micheldever in 1546 by Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton...

 in Hampshire. It was probably at his wish that his chaplain wrote the Life of Julian the Apostate, in reply to Dr Hickes
George Hickes
George Hickes was an English divine and scholar.-Biography:Hickes was born at Newsham, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1642...

's sermons, defending the lawfulness of resistance in extreme cases.

Rye House Plot

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. In October 1682, he (with Monmouth, Essex and attended a meeting at which what might be construed as treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

 was talked. Monmouth, Essex, Hampden, Algernon Sidney, Lord Howard of Escrick
William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Escrick
William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Escrick was an English Parliamentarian soldier, nobleman, and plotter.-Life:He was the second son of Edward Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Escrick. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1646, and was then admitted to Lincoln's Inn...

 and Sir Thomas Armstrong
Sir Thomas Armstrong
Sir Thomas Armstrong was an army officer and MP executed for Treason.During the Interregnum he was a supporter of Charles II, participating in the plot to seize Chester Castle in 1655, and carrying funds from Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford to Charles in exile. He was possibly imprisoned for a...

 were at this meeting at the house of one Sheppard, a wine merchant. There they met Richard Rumbold
Richard Rumbold
Richard Rumbold was a Cromwellian soldier who took part in the Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II of England and his brother James.The pattern of his character and the details of his life have to be pieced together from scanty evidence...

, the owner of Rye House
Rye House
Rye House may refer to:*Rye House , a Registered Historic Place in Litchfield, Connecticut*Rye House Cobras, a speedway team*Rye House Kart Circuit, karting circuit in Rye House, Hertfordshire, England...

, a fortified mansion in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.

This was followed by the Rye House Plot
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....

, a plan to ambush Charles II and his brother James near Rye House, Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...

, on their way back to London from the Newmarket races. However the plot was disclosed to the government. Unlike several of his co-conspirators, Russell refusing to escape to Holland. He was accused of promising his assistance to raise an insurrection and bring about the death of the king. He was sent on 26 June 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. However, he was tried and convicted of treason and sentenced to death by beheading.

Execution

Russell was executed by Jack Ketch
Jack Ketch
John Ketch was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II. An immigrant of Irish extraction, he became famous through the way he performed his duties during the tumults of the 1680s, when he was often mentioned in broadsheet accounts that circulated throughout the Kingdom of...

 on 21 July 1683 at Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...

. 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
Attainder
In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime . It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs...

 under William III of England
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK