Dukedom of Bedford | |
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Creation date | 11 May 1694 |
Creation | Sixth |
Created by | William III and Mary II |
Peerage | Peerage of England |
First holder | William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford |
Present holder | Andrew Russell, 15th Duke |
Heir apparent | Henry Russell, Marquess of Tavistock |
Remainder to | 1st Duke's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten |
Subsidiary titles | Marquess of Tavistock Earl of Bedford Baron Russell Baron Russell of Thornhaugh Baron Howland |
Seat(s) | Woburn Abbey |
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1414 for Henry IV's third son, John, who later served as regent of France. In 1433 he surrendered the title and it was re-granted to him. The title became extinct on his death in 1435. The third creation came in 1470 in favour of George Neville, nephew of Warwick the Kingmaker. He was deprived of the title by Act of Parliament in 1478. The fourth creation came in 1478 in favour of George, the third son of Edward IV. He died the following year at the age of two. The fifth creation came in 1485 in favour of Jasper Tudor, half-brother of Henry VI and uncle of Henry VII. He had already been created Earl of Pembroke in 1452. However, as he was a Lancastrian, his title was forfeited between 1461 and 1485 during the predominance of the House of York. He regained the earldom in 1485 when his nephew Henry VII came to the throne and was elevated to the dukedom the same year. He had no legitimate children and the titles became extinct on his death in 1495.
John Russell, a close adviser of Henry VIII and Edward VI, was granted the title of Earl of Bedford in 1551, and his descendant William, 5th Earl, was created Duke in 1694, following the Glorious Revolution. The Russell family currently holds the titles of Earl and Duke of Bedford.
The subsidiary titles of the Duke of Bedford, all in the Peerage of England, are Marquess of Tavistock (created 1694), Earl of Bedford (1550), Baron Russell, of Cheneys (1539), Baron Russell of Thornhaugh in the County of Northampton (1603), and Baron Howland, of Streatham in the County of Surrey (1695). The courtesy title of the Duke of Bedford's eldest son and heir is Marquess of Tavistock .
Every Duke from the 5th Duke onwards is descended from Charles II of England. The family seat is Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. The private mausoleum and chapel of the Russell Family and the Dukes of Bedford is at St. Michael's Church in Chenies, Buckinghamshire (photo). [2] The family owns The Bedford Estate in central London.
John Russell was born c. 1485 probably at Berwick-by-Swyre, Dorset, the son of Sir James Russell (d. Nov. 1505) [6] and his first wife Alice Wyse, daughter of Thomas Wyse of Sidenham, near Tavistock, Devon. [7] James's father was possibly Sir William Russell, but more likely his brother John Russell (d. pre-November, 1505) by his wife Alice Froxmere, daughter of John Froxmere of Droitwich, Worcestershire, because his coat of arms quarters Froxmere. [8] The elder John Russell was the son of Sir Henry Russell (d. 1463/4), and Elizabeth Herring, daughter of John Herring of Chaldon Herring. Henry, a great-grandfather of the 1st earl, was a substantial wine merchant and shipper, who represented Weymouth in the House of Commons four times. [9] [10]
The Russell pedigree can only be traced back with certainty to Henry Russell's father, Sir Stephen Russell, the evidence being contained in a deed of April 1440 [11] in which Henry Russell made over to his daughter Christina and her husband Walter Cheverell of Chauntemarle, a tenement in Dorchester to be held of himself and his heirs upon the rent of a red rose. In the deed, Henry referred to himself as son and heir of Sir Stephen Russell and of Alice, his wife. [12] This Alice appears to have been the heir general of the De la Tour family, [13] which had long owned Berwick-by-Swyre, and by whom therefore the manor was brought into the Russell family.
Both Sir Henry and Sir Stephen were referred to as Gascoigne as well as Russell, possibly due to their wine trade with France (see Gascoigne), as in a 1442 pardon under the Privy Seal referring to Henry Russell of Weymouth, merchant, alias Henry Gascoign, gentleman. [14] It was long believed in the noble Russell family, certainly by the 2nd Earl of Bedford, that the family was descended from the ancient family of Russell of Kingston Russell in Dorset, three miles north-east of Berwick, which descent was declared unproven by Gladys Scott Thomson in her Two Centuries of Family History, London, 1930, an exhaustive and scholarly work on the early pedigree of the Earls of Bedford. [15] (For a disambiguation of the Bedford Russells and the Russells of Kingston Russell, see Kingston Russell House.)
The heir apparent is the present holder's only son Henry Robin Charles Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (b. 2005).
Line of succession (simplified) [16] |
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Includes dukes of: Albany, Albemarle, Bedford, Cambridge, Clarence, Connaught and Strathearn, Cumberland, Edinburgh, Gloucester, Gloucester and Edinburgh, Hereford, Kent, Kintyre and Lorne, Norfolk, Ross, Somerset, Sussex, Windsor, and York, but only when royally. Non-royal dukes are not included; see Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom .
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