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See also: great See also: English Whig See also: house of the Russells, earls and See also: dukes of See also: Bedford, See also: rose under the favour of See also: Henry VIII
.
Obsequious genealogists have traced their
lineage from " Hugh de Rozel,"
See also: alias " Hugh Bertrand, See also: lord of le Rozel," a companion of the Conqueror, See also: padding their fiction with the See also: pedigree of certain Russells who are found holding See also: Kingston See also: Russell in Dorset as early as the reign of See also: King
See also: John
.
But the first undoubted ancestor of the Bedford
See also: line is Henry Russell, a See also: Weymouth See also: merchant, returned as a See also: burgess for that See also: borough in four parliaments between 1425 and 1442
.
He may well have been the son of See also: Stephen Russell, another Weymouth merchant, whose name is just before his in the See also: list of those men of substance in See also: Dorsetshire who, in 1434, under the See also: act of parliament, were to be sworn not to maintain breakers of the See also: peace
.
Stephen Russell, having served the office of See also: bailiff of Weymouth; was returned as burgess to the parliament of 1395, and one See also: William Russell was returned for King's Melcombe in 1340
.
Both Stephen and Henry were in the
See also: wine See also: trade with See also: Bordeaux, and in 1427 Henry Russell was deputy to the chief See also: butler of
See also: England for the See also: port of Melcombe
.
In 1442 a See also: pardon under the privy See also: seal significantly describes Henry Russell of Weymouth, merchant, as alias Henry Gascoign, gentleman, and it is therefore probable that the ducal house of Bedford springs from a See also: family of Gascon wine-merchants settled in a port of Dorsetshire, a county remarkable for the number of such French settlers
.
Henry Russell of Weymouth made a See also: firm footing upon the See also: land by his See also: marriage with See also: Elizabeth Hering, one of the two daughters and co-heirs of John Hering of Chaldon Hering, a Dorsetshire
See also: squire of old family, heir of the Winterbournes of Winterbourne Clenston and of the Cernes of Draycot Cerne
.
John Russell, eldest son of this match, See also: born before 1432, and returned to parliament for Weymouth in 1450, had his seat at See also: Berwick in Swyre, he and his son and heir, See also: James Russell, being buried in the parish
See also: church of Swyre
.
Thus John Russell, son and heir of James, was born in a family of squire's
See also: rank, whose younger branches went on for many generations as merchants and shipowners at Weymouth
.
A happy accident is said to have brought him to See also: court
.
The archdukeSee also: Philip, son of the emperor
See also: Maximilian, was driven by heavy weather into Weymouth, whence See also: Sir See also: Thomas
See also: Trenchard had him escorted to the king at Windsor
.
According to tradition, John Russell, Trenchard's See also: young kinsman, was lately home from his travels with a knowledge of See also: foreign tongues, those travels being probably made in the See also: mercantile interests of his family
.
As travelling companion, or as a See also: spy upon the See also: strange guests, young Russell was sent with the archduke, who is said to have commended him to King Henry
.
Certain it is that on the accession of Henry VIII
.
John Russell advanced rapidly, serving the See also: crown as soldier and as See also: diplomatic See also: agent
.
He fought well at Therouanne, saw the See also: Field of
See also: Cloth of Gold and the French disaster at See also: Pavia, lost an See also: eye by an arrow at See also: Morlaix
.
In 1523 he was knight-marshal of the king's See also: household
.
In 1526 he married a See also: rich widow, See also: Anne, daughter and co-heir of Sir See also: Guy Sapcotes by the co-heir of Sir Guy Wolston, a match which brought to the Russells the Buckinghamshire estate of Chenies, in whose See also: chapel many generations of them lie buried
.
His See also: peerage as Lord Russell of Chenies dated from 1539, and in the same See also: year he had the Garter
.
Having held many high offices—lord high See also: admiral, lord president of See also: Devon, See also: Cornwall, Dorset and See also: Somerset, and lord privy seal—he was named by Henry VIII. as one of his executors
.
At the crowning of See also: Edward VI. he was lord high steward, and after his defeat of the western rebels was raised, in 1550, to the earldom of Bedford
.
See also: Queen Mary, like her See also: brother, made him lord privy seal, although he is said to have favoured that See also: Reformation which enriched him
.
He died in See also: London in 1555, leaving to his son a vast estate of church lands and lands forfeited by less successful navigators of the troubled See also: sea of Tudor politics
.
In the west he had the abbey lands of See also: Tavistock, which give a See also: marquess's title to his descendants
.
In See also: Cambridgeshire he had the abbatial estate of Thorney, in See also: Bedfordshire the Cistercian house of See also: Woburn, now the chief seat of the Russells
.
In London he had Covent Garden with the " Long See also: Acre." Thus the future See also: wealth of his house was secured by.those " immoderate grants " which madea text for Edmund Burke's furious attack upon a duke of Bedford
.
He See also: left an only son, See also: Francis, second See also: earl of Bedford, K.G
.
(c
.
1527-1585), who, being concerned in See also: Wyatt's See also: plot, escaped to the Continent and joined those exiles at See also: Geneva whose religious sympathies he shared
.
He returned in 1557, and was employed by Queen Mary before her See also: death
.
Under Queen Elizabeth he governed Berwick, and was lord-See also: lieutenant of the See also: northern counties
.
Three of his four sons died before him, the third, killed in a border fray, being See also: father of Edward, third earl of Bedford, who died without issue in 1627
.
The See also: fourth son, William, created Lord Russell of Thornhaugh in 1603, was a soldier who fought fiercely before See also: Zutphen beside his friend Sir Philip See also: Sidney, whom he succeeded as governor of See also: Flushing, and was from 1594 to 1597 lord-deputy of See also: Ireland
.
He died in 1613, leaving an only son, Francis, who in 1627 succeeded his See also: cousin as fourth earl of Bedford
.
This earl built the square of Covent Garden, and headed the " undertakers " who began the scheme for draining the great Fen Level .. He op-posed the king in the House of Lords, but might have played aSee also: part as mediator between the See also: sovereign and the popular party who accepted his leadership had he not died suddenly of the smallpox in 1641 on the See also: day of the king's assent to the See also: bill for Strafford's attainder
.
William, the eldest surviving son, succeeded as fifth earl, Edward, the youngest See also: soli, being father of Edward Russell (1653-1727), admiral of the See also: fleet, who, having held the chief command in the victory of La Hogue, was created in 1697 earl of See also: Orford
.
The fifth earl of Bedford, after fighting for the parliament at Edgehill and for the king at See also: Newbury, surrendered to See also: Essex and occupied himself with completing the drainage of the Bedford Level
.
He carried St Edward's staff at the crowning of See also: Charles II., but quitted
See also: political See also: life after the execution of his son, Lord Russell, in 1683
.
In 1694 he was created duke of Bedford and marquess of Tavistock, titles to which his See also: grandson, Wrothesley Russell, succeeded in 1700
.
The " patriot " Lord Russell had added to the family estates by his marriage with See also: Rachel, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Wrothesley, the fourth earl of Southampton, from whom she finally inherited the earl's See also: property in Bloomsbury, with Southampton House, afterwards called Bedford House
.
Her son, the second duke of Bedford, married the daughter of a rich citizen, John Howland of See also: Streatham, a match strangely commemorated by the See also: barony of Howland of Streatham, created for the bridegroom's grandfather, the first duke, in 1695
.
The third duke, another Wrothesley Russell (1708-1732), died without issue, his brother John (1710-1771) succeeding him
.
This fourth duke, opposing Sir Robert Walpole, became, by reason of his rank and territorial importance, a recognized See also: leader of the Whigs
.
In the duke of Devonshire's administration he was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and he served as lord high See also: constable at the See also: coronation in 176o
.
His son Francis, styled marquess of Tavistock, was killed in 1767 by a fall in the hunting field, and Lord Tavistock's son Francis (1765-1802) became the fifth duke
.
This was the peer whom Burke, smarting from a See also: criticism of his own pension, assailed as " the See also: Leviathan of the creatures of the crown," enriched by grants that " outraged See also: economy and even staggered credibility." He pulled down Bedford House, built by Inigo See also: Jones, Russell Square and Tavistock Square rising on the site of its gardens and courts
.
Dying unmarried, he was succeeded by his brother John, the
See also: sixth duke (1766-1839), whose third son was the statesman created in 1861, Earl Russell of Kingston Russell, better known as Lord John Russell
.
Lord See also: Odo Russell, a See also: nephew of " Lord John," and ambassador at Berlin from 1871 to his death in 1884, was created Lord Ampthill in 1881
.
Herbrand Arthur Russell (b
.
1858), the See also: eleventh duke and fifteenth earl, succeeded an elder brother in 1893
.
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