Lord William Russell

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Lord William Russell

Lord William Russell 1639-83, English statesman; younger son of the 1st duke of Bedford. He entered Parliament in 1660. Contempt for the dissolute court and fear of Roman Catholicism and of France led him to join the opposition to Charles II. However, he was prepared to negotiate (1678) with his relative, the marquis de Ruvigny, agent of Louis XIV, for aid to secure the dissolution of Parliament and the overthrow of the earl of Danby . In the excitement over the Popish Plot (1678) he joined the 1st earl of Shaftesbury in demanding the indictment of the duke of York (later James II) and in pressing the bill to exclude him from the succession. With the temporary Whig success he became (1679) a privy councilor, but he was arrested (1683), tried, and convicted of treason for his supposed implication in the Rye House Plot . Executed in 1683, he was exonerated by the reversal of attainder under William III.

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Russell, Lord William

A Dictionary of British History | 2004 | | Â© A Dictionary of British History 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Russell, Lord William (1639–83). Russell, son of the earl of Bedford, entered Parliament in 1660 for Tavistock and became a leader of the Shaftesbury Whigs. In 1678 he moved an address asking Charles II to remove his brother James, duke of York, from his counsels and in 1680 he joined in presenting the duke as a notorious papist. But the court took its revenge. In 1683 Russell was accused of complicity in the Rye House plot to assassinate James and Charles and was beheaded in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

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JOHN CANNON. "Russell, Lord William." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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JOHN CANNON. "Russell, Lord William." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-RussellLordWilliam.html

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