John Russell, first Earl of Bedford, was one of the
new men whom the Tudor monarchs employed and enriched. His origins, his career and the household of his son at Chenies are ably described by Miss Gladys Scott Thomson in her Two Centuries of Family History (Longmans, 18s.). Beginning with some caustic observations on pedigrees that would have delighted the late J. H. Round, the author shows how the Russells of Weymouth prospered in the wine trade with Gascony. The young John Russell somehow attracted Henry VIPs attention about the year 1505, and served on foreign missions and then at Court until he became a Baron in 1539 and an Earl in 1550. He was unaffected by the religious changes of the time, but his son felt it desirable to go into exile under Mary and was a sincere Protestant if not a Puritan. The author's long extracts from the Bedford archives give an 'admirable idea of the magnificence of Elizabethan Chenies with its furnishings and plate. For the social history of Tudor England the book is valuable.
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