William Russell, Lord Russell (29 September 1639-21 July 1683) was an English politician and a founder of the Whigs. He was executed by King Charles II of England for his attempts to exclude James, Duke of York from the throne.
Biography[]
William Russell was born in 1639, the third son of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford. He became a baron in 1679, and he traveled extensively throughout Western Europe as a young man. In 1660, he became MP for Tavistock, but he was not recorded as speaking in Parliament until 1674. He married the cousin of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury's wife, and the two cofounded the Whigs in opposition to the policies of King Charles II of England's cabal of advisors and Charles' pro-French foreign policy. He opposed the persecution of Protestant Dissenters, called Catholicism as "ridiculous and nonsensical religion," opposed the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and spearheaded the impeachment of Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds in 1675. In 1678, he seconded the address that asked the king to declare war on France. In 1678, after the "Popish Plot" conspiracy theory took hold in England, Russell supported James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth's claim to the throne, and he also covertly communicated with Prince William of Orange, another potential candidate for the throne. He and other Protestants triggered the Exclusion Crisis by attempting to pass a law that would exclude King Charles' Catholic brother James, Duke of York from the throne, and he was forced to resign by the king in 1680. In 1681, he retured to his Hampshire estate after Parliament was dissolved. In 1682, he attended a meeting with the Duke of Monmouth that resulted in the Rye House plot, a failed attempt to ambush and murder Charles II and James that was discovered before it could be carried out. Russell was executed by beheading at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 21 July 1683, with Jack Ketch carrying out his sentence.