THE LIFE OF WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY OF RUSSELL. THE FIRST EARL OF BEDFORD. FRANCIS, EARL OF BEDFORD. LIAM, EARL OF BEDford. WIL THE family of Russell seems to have been long in possession of a small landed property in Dorsetshire. In 1221 John Russell was constable of Corfe Castle. William Russell, in 1284, obtained a charter for a market at his manor of Kingston-Russell. In the first In the first year of Edward the Second, he was returned to parliament one of the knights for the county of Southampton. Sir John Russell, the lineal descendant of William, was Speaker of the House of Commons in the second and tenth years of the reign of Henry VI. His son John Russell lived at Bar wick, about four miles from Bridport.* A fortunate occurrence opened the way to wealth and honour. In the twenty-first year of the reign of Henry VII., Philip, Archduke of Austria, and in right of his wife, King of Castile, having encountered a violent storm on his passage from Flanders to Spain, was obliged to put into Weymouth. Sir Thomas Trenchard, who lived near the port, entertained him in the best manner he was able, till he could acquaint the King with his arrival. In the mean time he sent for Mr. Russell, who had travelled abroad, and was acquainted with foreign languages. The Archduke was so much pleased with Mr. Russell that he took him with him to court, and recommended him warmly to the King. He was immediately made one of the gentlemen of the privy-chamber. He afterwards attended Henry VIII. in his expedition in France, and was present at the taking of Therouenne and Tournay. He obtained for his services certain lands in Tournay. When the place was afterwards given up, the orders from the King to Ideliver it into the hands of the French were directed to him. In 1522, he was knighted by *Dugdale's Baronage, v. ii. p. 277. the Earl of Surrey for his services at the taking of Morlaix in Bretagne, and was created Lord Russell in 1539. * Lord Russell performed important services to the crown, and to his country. Besides having served with distinction at the taking of Tournay and of Morlaix, he was instrumental in negotiating with the Constable Duke of Bourbon, and *Mr. Burke has endeavoured to throw a slur upon the memory of the first Lord Russell, by saying that the first grant made to him by the crown was from the confiscated estate of the Duke of Buckingham. "Thus," he continues," the lion having sucked the blood, threw the offal carcase to his jackal in waiting." We have seen that the first grant was not from a confiscated estate, but a grant in fee of lands at Tournay taken from the enemy. Nor is there any ground for the rest of the imputation. The name of Lord Russell does not appear in the list of those to whom the estates of the Duke of Buckingham were given. The grant of the manor of Agmondesham to Lord Russell took place eighteen years after the execution of the Duke of Buckingham. Mr. Burke has likewise endeavoured to represent the first Lord Russell as a minion of Henry VIII. probably resembling his master in character. There seems no foundation whatever for this aspersion. Another charge of Mr. Burke is thus completely refuted by the Monthly Review:-" Calais was in the possession of the English about 300 years. Boulogne fell into their hands about the year 1544, Lord Bedford being one of the captors; yet Mr. Burke ascribes to the cession of Boulogne, which had been in the hands of England about six years, the fall of Calais, which had been safe nearly 300 years, without this outguard."" Monthly Review Enlarged, 1796, vol. xix. p. 318. |