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RUSSELL, LORD WILLIAM (1639–1683)
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See also:RUSSELL, See also:LORD See also: With a passionate hatred and distrust of the Catholics, and an intense love of See also:political See also:liberty, he See also:united the See also:desire for ease to See also:Protestant Dissenters. His first speech appears to have been on the 22nd of See also:January 1673, in which he inveighed against the stop of the See also:exchequer, the attack on the See also:Smyrna See also:fleet, the corruption of courtiers with French See also:money, and " the See also:ill ministers about the See also: Danby was at once overthrown, and in See also:April 1679 Russell was one of the new privy See also:council formed by Charles on the See also:advice of See also:Temple. Only six days after this we find him moving for a See also:committee to draw up a See also:bill to secure See also:religion and See also:property in See also:case of a popish successor. He does not, however, appear to have taken part in the exclusion debates at this time. In See also:June, on the occasion of the See also:Covenanters' rising in See also:Scotland, he attacked See also:Lauderdale personally in full council. In January 168o Russell, along with Cavendish, See also:Capell, Powell, See also:Essex and Lyttleton, tendered his resignation to the king, which was received by Charles " with all my See also:heart." On the 16th of June he accompanied Shaftesbury, when the latter indicted James at See also:Westminster as a popish See also:recusant; and on the 26th of See also:October he took the extreme step of moving " how to suppress popery and prevent a popish successor "; while on the 2nd of November, now at the height of his See also:influence, he went still further by seconding the See also:motion for exclusion in its most emphatic shape, and on the 19th carried the bill to the See also:House of Lords for their concurrence. The See also:limitation See also:scheme he opposed, on the ground that See also:monarchy under the conditions expressed in it vpuld be an absurdity. The statement, made by Echard alone (Hist. of See also:England, ii.), that he joined in opposing the See also:indulgence shown to Lord See also:Strafford by Charles in dispensing with the more horrible parts of the See also:sentence of death—an indulgence afterwards shown to Russell himself—is entirely unworthy of See also:credence. On December 18 he moved to refuse supplies until the king passed the Exclusion Bill. The See also:prince of Orange having come over at this time, there was a tendency on the part of the opposition leaders to accept his endeavours to secure a See also:compromise on the exclusion question. Russell, how-ever, refused to give way a See also:hair's-breadth. On the 26th of March 1681, in the parliament held at See also:Oxford, Russell again seconded the Exclusion Bill. Upon the dissolution he retired into privacy at his country seat of Stratton in See also:Hampshire. It was, however, no doubt at his wish that his See also:chaplain wrote the Life of See also:Julian the Apostate, in reply to Dr See also:Hickes's sermons, in which the lawfulness of resistance in extreme cases was defended. In the wild schemes of Shaftesbury after the See also:election of Tory sheriffs for See also:London in 1682 he had no See also:share; upon the violation of the charters, however, in 1683, he began seriously to consider as to the best means of resisting the See also:government, and on one occasion attended a See also:meeting at which See also:treason, or what might be construed as treason, was talked. Monmouth, Essex, Hampden, See also:Sidney and See also:Howard of Escrick were the See also:principal of those who met to consult. On the breaking out of the See also:Rye House See also:Plot, of which neither he, Essex, nor Sidney had the slightest knowledge, he was accused by informers of promising his assistance to raise an insurrection and See also:compass the death of the king. Refusing to See also:attempt to See also:escape, he was brought before the council, when his attendance at the meeting referred to was charged against him. He was sent on the 26th of June 1683 to the See also:Tower, and, looking upon himself as a dying See also:man, betook himself wholly to preparation for death. Monmouth offered to appear to take his trial, if thereby he could help Russell, and Essex refused to See also:abscond for fear of injuring his friend's See also:chance of escape. Before a committee of the council Russell, on the 28th of June, acknowledged his presence at the meeting, but denied all knowledge of the proposed insurrection. He reserved his See also:defence, however, until his trial. He would probably have saved his life but for the See also:perjury of Lord Howard. The See also:suicide of Essex, the See also:news of which was brought into court during the trial, was quoted as additional See also:evidence against him, as pointing to the certainty of Essex's See also:guilt. On See also:July 19 he was tried at the Old See also:Bailey, his wife assisting him in his defence. Evidence was given by an in-former that, while at Shaftesbury's hiding-See also:place in Wapping, Russell had joined in the proposal to seize the king's guard, a See also:charge indignantly denied by him in his farewell See also:paper, and that he was one of a committee of six appointed to prepare the scheme for an insurrection. Howard, too, expressly declared that Russell had urged the entering into communications with See also:Argyll in Scotland. Howard's perjury is clear from other witnesses, but the evidence was accepted. Russell spoke with spirit and dignity in his own defence, and, in especial, vehemently denied that he had ever been party to a See also:design so wicked and so foolish as those of the See also:murder of the king and of See also:rebellion. It will be observed that the legality of the trial, in so far as the jurors were not properly qualified and the See also:law of treason was shamefully strained, was denied in the See also:act of r William & See also:Mary which annulled the See also:attainder. See also:Hallam maintains that the only overt act of treason proved against Russell was his concurrence in the project of a rising at See also:Taunton, which he denied, and which, See also:Ramsay being the only See also:witness, was not sufficient to See also:warrant a conviction.
Russell was sentenced to See also:die. Many attempts were made to See also:save his life. The old earl of Bedford offered £5o,000 or £1oo,000, and Monmouth, See also:Legge, Lady See also:Ranelagh, and See also:Rochester added their intercessions. Russell himself, in petitions to Charles and James, offered to live abroad if his life were spared, and never again to meddle in the affairs of England. He refused, however, to yield to the influence of See also:Burnet and Tillotson, who endeavoured to make him See also: A See also:suggestion of escape from Lord Cavendish he refused. He behaved with his usual quiet cheerfulness during his stay in the Tower, spending his last See also:day on See also:earth as he had intended to spend the following See also:Sunday if he had reached it. He received the See also:sacrament from Tillotson, and Burnet twice preached to him. Having supped with his wife, the parting from whom was his only See also:great trial, he slept See also:peace-fully, and spent the last See also:morning in devotion with Burnet. He went to the place of See also:execution in See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields with perfect calmness, which was preserved to the last. He died on the 21st of July 1683, in the See also:forty-See also:fourth See also:year of his See also:age. His attainder was reversed in 1689, and his son Wriothesley (168o-1711) succeeded his grandfather as 2nd duke of Bedford in 1700.
A true and moderate summing-up of his character will be found in his Life, by Lord See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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