page_title: William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
section_title: Career at the Restoration, 1660–1683
hierarchical_section_title: William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford / Career at the Restoration, 1660–1683
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
context_page_description: William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage as 5th Earl of Bedford and removed to the House of Lords. He fought in the Parliamentarian army and later defected to the Royalists during the English Civil War.
context_section_description: At the Restoration of 1660, Bedford resumed his seat in the House of Lords, becoming a leader of the Presbyterian faction.  Bedford bore the sceptre at Charles II's coronation in 1661, but he was never close to the king.
  In an attempt to win Bedford's support in the run-up to the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Charles II made Bedford Governor of Plymouth in 1671 and, on 29 May 1672, the day after the Battle of Solebay, had him invested as a Knight of the Garter (K.G.).  He held the office of Joint Commissioner for the office of Earl Marshal in 1673.  Charles' courtship of Bedford ended shortly thereafter when his overtures to the Dissenters proved fruitless.
  Although Bedford attended services in the Established Church, he also kept a Presbyterian chaplain in his household and his wife was arrested in 1675 for attending a conventicle.  This made Bedford a natural ally of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury in opposition to the Earl of Danby's plans to establish royalist and Anglican dominance.  As such, Bedford supported Shaftesbury and the Whigs during the Exclusion Crisis.  The king consequently turned against Bedford, and, in 1682, the family borough of Tavistock lost its charter.
caption: William in later life
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