William Russell, Lord Russell

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William Russell, Lord Russel

William Russell, Lord Russell (born September 29, 1639 - July 21, 1683 in London ) was an English nobleman and politician .

Life

William Russell was born on September 29, 1639, the third son of Wiiliam Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford and his wife Anne Carr. His father was raised to Duke of Bedford in 1694 . His mother's father was Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset . His eldest brother John died as a toddler and since his second eldest brother Francis died in 1678, William Russell used the title of courtesy Lord Russell as his father's apparent marriage .

After extensive instruction, he studied at the University of Cambridge around 1654 . After leaving university, he went on an extensive trip abroad with his older brother Francis. They visited Lyon and Geneva and stayed for a while in Augsburg . Russell's preserved accounts are a living description of her travels back then. In 1658 both made their way to Paris and returned to Woburn in December 1659. At the Restoration in 1660, when Charles II ascended the English throne, William Russell was elected to the House of Commons . He was from 1660 to 1679 MP for the Borough of Tavistock .

William Russell did not appear to have actively intervened in public debates for several years, but allowed himself to intrigue court. In 1663 and 1664 he was involved in two duels , in which he was wounded the second time. In 1669 he married Rachel Wriothesleyn (1623-1723), the second daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton , and the widow of John Lord Vaughan. Her marriage to Rachel Russell had five children. He became friends with Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury , who married the niece of Wriothesley. The two had a close and hearty marriage to their wives. Rachel Russell corresponded with John Tillotson and other distinguished men. A collection of her letters was published in 1773. One of her grandchildren came to Germany as an English war commissioner during the Seven Years' War and founded one of the ancestral families of the German-English merchants in the Emsland in Papenburg .

Until the establishment of the Land Party - a forerunner of the Whig Party, which opposed the policies of the Cabal and King Charles II's pro-Catholic French policies - William Russell took no active part in public debates. However, he then allied with the king's adversaries such as Cavendish, Birch, John Hampden , Powell, Lyttleton, and others. With a passionate hatred and suspicion of Catholics and a deep penchant for political freedom, he pointed out the persecution of Protestant dissenters. He gave his first speech in parliament on January 22, 1673, in which he denounced the budget freeze , the attack by the Smyrna fleet in the Second Dutch-English War , the corruption of the courtiers of Charles II with French money and the misguided ministers of the king . He also supported the crackdown on George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham . In 1675 he addressed an open note to the king protesting against the impeachment of the Earl of Danby from all royal councils and his indictment.

In the debate about the fifteen-month break in parliament, which took place on February 15, 1677, he requested an adjournment. In March 1678 he supported a public note asking the king to declare war on France. The rural party felt a greater aversion to Jacob , the Duke of York, brother and Catholic heir to the throne of Charles II. The rural party favored the Protestant Danby as heir to the throne. She also wanted Parliament to be postponed and the army to be dissolved. So it was easy for the French King Louis XIV to forge a temporary alliance with Russell, Holles and the other opposition leaders in order to weaken the power of the English king to attack France and to force him to re-approach France search. This rapprochement was, of course, tied to the condition that Louis XIV supported the other goals of the rural party. William Russell came into close contact with the Marquis de Ruvigny, who was also his wife's maternal uncle and who came to England to scatter money among the members of Parliament. In any case, it became clear in Barillon’s will that William refused to accept the French funds for himself.

The exposure of the alleged papal conspiracy, also known as the Popish Plot , in which it was falsely alleged that the Pope was preparing a conspiracy to assassinate the king and eradicate Protestantism in the country, touched William Russell more than his sober judgment would suggest. William Russell threw himself into the party work that James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , selected as a representative of Protestant interests, which in retrospect was a mistake and led William Russell to secretly in contact with the Dutch and above all Protestant William of Orange who was married to a daughter of Charles II from his first marriage.

On November 4, 1678, William Russell addressed a note to the king demanding that his Catholic brother, the Duke of York, be excluded from the line of succession. After the dissolution of the rump parliament, William Russell was re-elected, this time he was Knight of the Shire for Bedfordshire from 1679 to 1681 . The success of the new Whig party in the 1679 election resulted in the separation of its then-current leaders from Danby. In April 1679, William Russell became a member of the new Privy Council founded by Charles II. He left the council only six days later when it came to signing a bill to ensure the eligibility of a Catholic heir to the throne. It appears that he did not attend the closed meetings during this time. In June 1679 he personally attacked John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale , in front of a full house.

In January 1680 William Russell filed with Cavendish, Capell, Powell, Essex and Lyttleton his resignation to the king, which Charles II. Wholeheartedly accepted. On June 16, he was with Shaftesbury when he tried Jacob as papal agent in Westminster. On October 26th, he took the difficult step of banning papal membership in general and a papal heir to the throne. On November 2, 1680, at the height of his power, he went even further by tightening the motion by banning Catholics from all public office. On November 19, 1680, the Catholic succession to the throne in the House of Lords , the House of Lords, was excluded by law. On December 18, he refused to make any amendments as long as the king had not signed the exclusion law . While other opposition leaders were open to compromise, William Russell categorically ruled out such a compromise.

On March 26, 1681, he again supported the Exclusion Act in Parliament, which was held in Oxford. After the adjournment of Parliament he went to his country house in Straton, Hampshire, to rest . It is likely that his minister, at his direction, wrote the life of the apostle John in response to sermons given by Dr. Hickes wrote to legitimize resistance in extreme cases. William Russell began to look seriously at the possibilities of opposing the government, and a meeting may have been an opportunity to discuss treason. Monmouth, Hampden, Essex, Sidney and Howard of Escrick were present at the meeting.

Lord Russell 1683 in the Tower of London - painting Mather Brown, 1811

When the Rye House conspiracy broke out , he was accused of offering his support in an armed insurrection and having the king assassinated. William Russell refused to flee and was thrown into the Tower of London on June 26, 1683 , where he was preparing for his death. Monmouth offered to return to England to free William Russell. Essex refused to go into hiding, fearing that it would limit his friend's escape opportunities.

William Russell was executed by Jack Ketch on July 21, 1683 . He was hailed by the Whigs as a martyr who tried to exclude Jacob from the line of succession until his death. William Russell was later under William III. rehabilitated in full honor.

Since his father survived his title of nobility fell as 2nd Duke of Bedford in 1700 to Russell's eldest son Wriothesley Russell (1680-1711).

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personal data
SURNAME Russell, William, Lord Russell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1639
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1683
Place of death London