FRANCIS RUSSELL, 4th earl of Bedford (1593-1641), was the only son of William, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, to which barony he succeeded in Aug. 1613. In May 1627 he became earl of Bed ford by the death of his cousin, Edward, the 3rd earl. When the quarrel broke out between Charles I. and the Parliament, Bedford supported the demands of the House of Commons as embodied in the Petition of Right, and in 1629 was arrested for his share in the circulation of Sir Robert Dudley's pamphlet, "Proposition for His Majesty's service," but was quickly released. The Short Parliament meeting in April 164o found the earl as one of the king's leading opponents. He was greatly trusted by John Pym and Oliver St. John, and is mentioned by Clarendon as among the "great contrivers and designers" in the House of Lords. In July 164o he was among the peers who wrote to the Scottish leaders refusing to invite a Scottish army into England, but promising to stand by the Scots in all legal and honourable ways; and his sig nature was afterwards forged by Thomas, Viscount Savile, in order to encourage the Scots to invade England. In the following September he was among those peers who urged Charles to call a parliament, to make peace with the Scots, and to dismiss his obnoxious ministers; and was one of the English commissioners appointed to conclude the Treaty of Ripon. When the Long Parliament met in Nov. 1640, Bedford was generally regarded as the leader of the Parliamentarians. Bedford was essentially a moderate man. He did not wish to alter the government of the Church, was on good terms with Archbishop Laud, and, although convinced of Strafford's guilt, was anxious to save his life. In the midst of the parliamentary struggle Bedford died of small-pox on May g, 1641. Bedford was the head of those who undertook to drain the great level of the fens, called after him the "Bedford Level." He spent a large sum of money over this work and received 43,00o acres of land, but, owing to various jealousies and difficul ties, the king took the work into his own hands in 1638, making a further grant of land to the earl.
See J. H. V6'iff en, Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell (1833) ; J. L. Sanford, Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion (1858) ; Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, passim (1888) .