was present at the battle of Pavia. He went twice again into France in a military capacity, and on the last occasion commanded the vanguard. For these services in various capacities he undoubtedly obtained very splendid rewards. He held the important office of Lord Admiral of England and Ireland. He was made Marshal of the Marshalsea, Lord Warden of the Stannaries in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, and Knight of the Garter. In 1540, on the dissolution of the monasteries, he obtained a grant of the rich abbey of Tavistock, and of a very large estate belonging to it. Three years afterwards he was made Lord Privy Seal. When a council was appointed to govern the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, he was named its president. And the King on his death-bed appointed him one of the sixteen executors of his will. In the same year he obtained, by a grant from King Edward, the dissolved monastery of Woburn.

The beginning of the reign of Edward the Sixth was disturbed by insurrections, which had their origin in a general inclosure bill; but were afterwards converted by the priesthood to a religious purpose. The rising which took place in Devonshire was one of the most formidable. The insurgents, joined by Humphrey Arundel, governor of St. Michael's Mount, demanded that

the mass should be again performed, and half the abbey-lands restored. Lord Russell, who was sent against the rebels, was at first too weak to prevent their laying siege to Exeter. But having received reinforcements, he attacked and routed them at Fenniton Bridge.* Lord Russell took no part in the cabals of this reign. When a conspiracy was formed against the power of Somerset, he remained neuter, and did not join the party of Warwick, till Somerset had submitted, and asked pardon of his enemies. Three months afterwards he was made Earl of Bedford.

On the accession of Queen Mary, he was sent to Spain, to attend Philip to England. A few months after this, he died at his house in the Strand, on the 14th of March, 1555.

Francis, the second Earl of Bedford, was present at the battle of St. Quintin, and held many great offices under Queen Elizabeth., He married a daughter of Sir John St. John, sister to the first Lord St. John of Bletsoe. He was succeeded by his grandson, Edward, who died without issue, in 1627.

Sir

The title then passed to the issue of Sir William Russell, the fourth son of Francis. William was a person of considerable talents and

* Hume, c. 35. Collins's Peerage.

enterprise. In 1580, he was knighted for his services in Ireland. He afterwards went with the Earl of Leicester to the assistance of the Dutch. His conduct at the battle of Zutphen is thus quaintly described by Stowe. "He charged so terribly, that after he had broke his lance, he so played his part with his cuttle-axe, that the enemy reported him to be a devil, and not a man; for where he saw six or seven of the enemies together, thither would he, and so behave with his cuttle-axe, that he would separate their friendship."

He was afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he made himself very conspicuous for prudence as well as valour.

He took great pains to prevent the excesses of the army. He directed, by his general orders, that the soldiers should give money or a ticket for their diet; that there should be no charge on the country for more men than there really were; that they should not ask for more than a breakfast and supper; and that their quarters should be assigned by the civil magistrate. These regulations were well calculated to conciliate the lower orders. Had the court taken his advice, another measure which he recommended, would probably have gained over the nobility. He proposed that the lands of the church which had been confiscated, should be

given equally to the leading men of both religions. Had the catholics accepted the spoils of their own church, it is evident they would have become attached to the government from which they had obtained them. On the accession of James, he was created Baron Russell of Thornhaugh. He died in 1613, leaving an only son, Francis, who, fourteen years afterwards, succeeded to the title of Earl of Bedford.

Francis, Earl of Bedford, engaged, in 1630, in the great work of draining the fens, in the counties of Northampton, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Norfolk, and Lincoln: these fens have since been called from him the Bedford Level.

He was the first of the peers who signed the famous petition in 1640, setting forth "the apprehensions they had of the dangers of the church and state, and to his person, and the means to prevent them; and advised the King to call a parliament, whereby the causes of their grievances may be taken away, and the authors and counsellors punished."

When parliament met he was the leader, in the House of Peers, of those who were for assert ing the liberty of the subject; but at the same time, he would not consent to many of the vio

* Whitelocke, p. 35.

lent measures proposed. Mr. Pym, who was member for the borough of Tavistock, followed a similar line in the Commons.

When the King admitted some of the popular leaders to his councils, he resolved to make the Earl of Bedford Lord High Treasurer, and Mr. Pym Chancellor of the Exchequer; but Lord Clarendon says the Earl was determined not to enter into the Treasury, till the bill for tonnage and poundage was granted for life; and he, with the rest of those who were first offered places, declined to take them, till the rest of their party should also be admitted to the confidence of the King.

When a discovery was made to the Earl of Bedford, Lord Say, and Lord Kimbolton, of a design, real or pretended, to bring the army from the North to London, such was their temper and moderation that they did not publish it; but contenting themselves with preventing its execution, the whole plot was kept secret till long after the Earl of Bedford's death.

And when Lord Strafford was tried, the Earl of Bedford told Lord Clarendon, that it was the rock upon which they should all split: that he had in vain endeavoured to prevail upon his friends to accept the King's offer, that Lord Strafford should be banished for life: and that he did not see how the King, who was firmly