JOHN RUSSELL, 1st earl of Bedford (c. 1486-1ss5), was a son of James Russell (d. 1509). In 1513 he took part in the war with France. He was with Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and, returning to military service, when the French war was renewed, lost his right eye at the siege of Morlaix in 1522. In 1523 he went secretly to France, where he negotiated a treaty between Henry and Charles, duke of Bourbon, who was anxious to betray the French king, Francis I. After a short visit to England, Russell was sent with money to Bourbon, joining the constable at the siege of Marseille. In 1524 he visited Pope Clement VII. at Rome, and, having eluded the French, who endeavoured to capture him, was present at the battle of Pavia in Feb. 1525, returning to England about the close of the year. In Jan. 1527 he was sent as ambas sador to Clement, who employed him to treat on his behalf with Charles de Lannoy, the general of Charles V. The next few years of Russell's life were mainly spent in England. He entered Parlia ment for Buckingham in 1529, and although an opponent of the party of Anne Boleyn, retained the favour of Henry VIII. He took an active part in suppressing the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, and was one of the commissioners appointed to try the Lincoln shire prisoners. He now received many high honours and offices. In when Charles V. and Francis I. were threatening to invade England, he was sent into the west, and crossed to France when Henry attacked Francis in 1544. He was in command of an army in the west of England in 1545, and when Henry died in Jan. was one of the executors of his will. Under Edward VI. Russell was lord high steward and keeper of the privy seal, and the defeat which he inflicted on the rebels at Clyst St. Mary, near Exeter, in Aug. 1549, was largely instrumental in suppressing the rising in Devonshire. In Jan. 155o he was created earl of Bedford, and was one of the commissioners appointed to make peace with France in this year. He opposed the proposal to seat Lady Jane Grey on the throne; supported Queen Mary, who reappointed him lord privy seal; and assisted to prevent Sir Thomas Wyat's rising from spreading to Devonshire. In 1554 he went to Spain to conclude the marriage treaty between Mary and Philip II., and, soon after his return, died in London on March By extensive acquisitions of land, Bedford was the founder of the wealth and greatness of the house of Russell. Among the many properties which fell into his hands was Covent Garden, and seven acres of land in London formerly the property of the protector Somerset. He left an only son, Francis, who succeeded him in the title.
See State Papers during the Reign of Henry VIII. (1831-52) ; J. H. Wiffen, Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell (1833) ; Calendar of State Papers, Edward VI. and Mary (i861) ; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. (1862-1901) ; J. A. Froude, History of England, passim (1881 fol.).