Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell

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Lord Russell 2003

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell (born April 15, 1937 in Harting , West Sussex , England , † October 14, 2004 ), was a British historian and politician .

Origin and education

Russell was a third marriage son of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and a great-grandson of former Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell .

He received his education at Eton College and Merton College at Oxford University . Like many of his ancestors, Russell was a passionate advocate of liberalism .

Russell married Elizabeth Franklin Sanders in 1962, with whom he had two sons. After his death from complications associated with emphysema , his eldest son Nicholas inherited the title of nobility. John, another son of Russell, is also a politician.

Academic career

Russell was a leading historian on the English Civil War . His main works include Crisis of Parliaments: English history 1509-1660 (1971), Origins of the English Civil War (edited, 1973), Parliaments and English politics, 1621-1629 (1979), Unrevolutionary England, 1603-1642 (1990) , and Fall of the British monarchies, 1637-1642 (1991). He argued that the English Civil War was much less a result of long-term constitutional conflicts and that its origin should be sought in the years before the outbreak of war (1642).

Russell was a lecturer at Bedford College (1960 to 1979), Professor of History at Yale University (1979 to 1984), Professor of British History at University College London (1984 to 1990) and Professor of British History at King's College London , University of London (1990 to 2003). Since 1971 he was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society . In 1991 he was elected a member of the British Academy . In 2003 he also retired.

Political career

In his younger years, Russell's allegiance wandered between the Labor Party and the then very weak Liberal Party . In the 1966 election he ran as a Labor candidate in Paddington South , but could not win.

Russell inherited the title Earl Russell in 1987 and thus the hereditary seat in the House of Lords with the death of his half-brother, John Russell, 4th Earl Russell . He was the first MP of the Liberal Democrats , which were founded in 1988. Russell was a long time spokesman for the new party in various areas. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, Russell remained as one of 92 elected hereditary peers in the House of Lords until his death.

He was a frequent contributor to debates, well respected on all sides of the House of Lords, and widely known for being able to weave historical analogies into his speech. In 1996 he received the Peer of the Year award from the British magazines Highland-Park and The Spectator . Russell was Vice President of the Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (1993 to 1994) and Honorary President of the Liberal Democrat History Group (1998 to 2004).

literature

  • Pauline Croft: Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 1937-2004 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 138 , 2006, p. 339-359 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

predecessor Office successor
John Russell Earl Russell
1987-2004
Nicholas Russell