Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Russell, John (d.1494)
RUSSELL, JOHN (d. 1494), bishop of Lincoln and chancellor of England, was born in the parish of St. Peter Cheeshill, Winchester. There does not appear to be any authority for connecting him with the Dorset family from which the dukes of Bedford descend, and which bears a different coat-of-arms. Russell entered at Winchester College in 1443, and in 1449 became fellow of New College, Oxford. He disputed as LL.B. on 13 March, and as LL.D. on 15 Dec. 1459 (Boase, Reg. Univ. Oxon. p. 33, Oxf. Hist. Soc.). He was moderator in the canon law school in 1461 (Wood, Hist. and Antiq. ii. 769), and in the following year resigned his fellowship and apparently left Oxford. On 28 Feb. 1466 he was appointed archdeacon of Berkshire (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 635). He had probably already entered the royal service, and in April 1467 was at Bruges on an embassy to the Duke of Burgundy. In January 1468 he was employed in the negotiation of the marriage of Charles the Bold with Margaret, sister of Edward IV (Fœdera, xi. 590, 601). He was one of the envoys sent to invest Charles with the order of the Garter in February 1470. In February 1471, during the restoration of Henry VI, he was employed in treating with France; and in March 1472, when he is styled secondary in the office of the privy seal, was again employed in an embassy to Burgundy (ib. xi. 651, 682, 737). He probably succeeded Archbishop Thomas Rotherham [q. v.] as keeper of the privy seal in May 1474, and is so designated on 26 June of that year (ib. xi. 791). On 29 June 1474 he was sent to negotiate a marriage between the king's daughter Cicely and James, son of the king of Scotland (ib. xi. 814).
Russell was rector of Towcester on 6 Aug. 1471 (Tanner, p. 647), and received the prebend of Mora at St. Paul's on 9 July 1474 (Le Neve, ii. 411). On 6 Sept. 1476 he received custody of the temporalities of Rochester (Fœdera, xii. 31), and was consecrated bishop of that see by Cardinal Bourchier on 22 Sept. (Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 71). Through a confusion with his predecessor, John Alcock [q. v.], he is sometimes said to have been preceptor of the young Prince of Wales. On 14 Dec. 1478 he was employed to treat for a marriage between Earl Rivers and Margaret of Scotland (Fœdera, xii. 171). In 1480 he was translated to the see of Lincoln, receiving the temporalities on 9 Sept. (ib. xii. 136). Russell was one of the executors of the will of Edward IV, and took part in the funeral ceremonies for that king on 17–19 April 1483 (Gairdner, Letters, &c., i. 5–9; Archæologia, i. 352–5). Up to this time he had retained his office as keeper of the privy seal, but before 13 May he was made chancellor, though apparently he accepted this new post with great reluctance (Ramsay, ii. 473, 481). He seems to have supported Richard of Gloucester, and was employed with Cardinal Bourchier to induce the queen to surrender the little Duke of York (Cont. Croyland Chron. 566; Excerpta Historica, p. 16). According to Polydore Vergil (p. 543, ed. 1555), Richard avoided summoning Russell to the council when Hastings was arrested. Russell sat as a judge in chancery on 22 June, and on 27 June, the day after Richard III assumed the crown, was confirmed in his office (Fœdera, xii. 185, 189). In October he was lying ill in London, and the seal was for a time taken into the king's hands to be used during Buckingham's rebellion (Ellis, i. 159). It was, however, restored on 26 Nov., and as chancellor Russell opened parliament with the customary speech on 23 Jan. 1484 (Rolls of Parliament, vi. 237). He seems to have been trusted by Richard, and in September 1484 was employed in the negotiations with the Scots at Nottingham, and in November in those with Brittany (Gairdner, Letters, &c., i. 64–7; Fœdera, xii. 260). But on 29 July 1485 the seal was taken out of his hands (ib. xii. 271), apparently through a suspicion that he favoured Henry of Richmond. At all events, Russell was favourably regarded by Henry VII, and was not only a trier of petitions in the parliament of November 1485, but was also employed in the negotiations with the king of Scots and with Brittany in July 1486 (ib. xii. 285, 303, 316; Campbell, i. 480, 508, 516). He was present at the christening of Prince Arthur in September 1486 (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, pp. 104–5, Camden Soc.). In July 1489 he was a commissioner of peace in Leicestershire (Campbell, ii. 480).
The last years of Russell's life were chiefly spent in his diocese. About the end of 1483 he had been chosen chancellor of the university of Oxford, and, having been regularly re-elected down to his death, is reckoned the first of the perpetual chancellors (Wood, Fasti, p. 64, Hist. and Antiq. i. 651). Mr. Maxwell-Lyte thinks Russell gave little attention to the university, and tells a story of how on one occasion, when invited to come to Oxford on his way north from London, he refused because he was travelling in ordinary riding attire, without the insignia of his office (Hist. Univ. Oxford, p. 376). But the conclusion seems to be scarcely justified by other facts. In May 1487 Russell resigned the chancellorship, but was pressed to take office again, and was re-elected, though not without opposition (Wood, Fasti, p. 65). In 1488 he accompanied Henry VII on his visit to the university. He contributed to the repair of the common-law school in 1489, and his arms appear in the roof of the divinity school. An ordinance of Russell's on the duties of the bedells and the grammar masters is printed in ‘Munimenta Academica,’ pp. 362–3 (Rolls Ser.) Russell himself records that he was much troubled by heresy at Oxford, and, finding the ‘Doctrinale’ of Thomas Netter [q. v.] very valuable, made a collection of excerpts therefrom for the use of his successors at Lincoln. In 1494 Russell contemplated resigning his chancellorship; but, before his intention could take effect, he died at his manor of Nettleham on 30 Dec. 1494, and was buried in a chantry that he had built at Lincoln Cathedral. His will, dated on the day of his death, was proved on 12 Jan. following (Le Neve, ii. 20).
Sir Thomas More describes Russell as ‘a wise manne and a good, and of much experience, and one of the best-learned men, undoubtedly, that England had in hys time.’ Several manuscripts that once belonged to Russell are preserved; the copy of Matthew Paris in MS. Royal 14 C. vii. contains his autograph; and the copy of the ‘Flores Historiarum’ in Cotton MS. Nero, D. ii., contains some marginal notes by him; a copy of ‘Cicero De Officiis’ in the Cambridge University library has an inscription that it was bought by Russell at Bruges on 17 April 1467; Cotton MS. Vesp. E. xii., a manuscript of the Latin poems attributed to Walter Map, has the autograph ‘Le Ruscelluy Je suis Jo. Lincoln, 1482’ (printed in facsimile in Nichols's ‘Autographs,’ 1829, plate 3). The same motto, with the device of a throstle and the roses, is figured in bosses at Buckden Palace. Russell's arms were azure, two chevronels or between three roses argent. His epitaph, which summarises his biography, begins:
Qui sum, quæ mihi sors fuerat narrabo. Johannes
Russell sum dictus, nomen servans genitoris.
It is printed in many places (e.g. Blades's Life of Caxton, ii. 30; Grants of Edward V, p. xxxvi). Russell gave some books to New College library in 1468, and bequeathed 40l. to Winchester College.
Russell wrote: 1. ‘Super Jure Cæsaris et papæ’ 2. ‘Commentarii in Cantica.’ Bale says that he had seen these two. 3. ‘Lectura in sex libros Clementinarum.’ 4. ‘Injunctiones Monachis Burgi S. Petri,’ 1483, MS. Lambeth, 36. 5. ‘Excerpta ex Libro T. Waldensis de Sacramentalibus,’ MS. University College, Oxford. Russell says that he compiled this at Woburn in eight weeks and finished it in January 1492. Of more interest than the foregoing, which are all that Bale gives, are 6. ‘Propositio Clarissimi Oratoris Magistri Johannis Russell.’ This is the speech delivered by Russell on the occasion of his embassy in February 1470 to invest Charles the Bold with the Garter. This speech was printed with Caxton's type, No. 2, probably at Bruges by Colard Mansion for Caxton, though it has sometimes been regarded as an early production of Caxton's own press at Westminster. It consists only of four printed leaves with no title-page. Two copies are known to exist, one in the John Rylands library at Manchester; the other in the Earl of Leicester's library at Holkham. A facsimile of the first page is given in Blades's ‘Life of Caxton,’ vol. i. plate vii. The speech is reprinted in Dibdin's edition of Ames's ‘Typographical Antiquities.’ 7. ‘Two Speeches for the Opening of Parliament: i. For the intended Parliament of Edward V; ii. For the first Parliament of Richard II.’ Of this latter, which is imperfect, more than one draft exists. The speeches and drafts, which are in English, are printed in Nichols's ‘Grants of Edward V,’ pp. xxxix–lxiii, from Cotton. MS. Vitellius E. x. 8. In the same manuscript with these speeches are some Latin sermons, which may probably be by Russell.
[Gairdner's Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, Campbell's Materials for a History of Henry VII, Munimenta Academica (these three in Rolls Ser.); Nichols's Grants of Edward V (Camden Soc.); More's History of Edward V; Continuation of Croyland Chronicle ap. Gale's Scriptores, i. 582–593; Bentley's Excerpta Historica, pp. 16–17, two letters by Russell's servant, Stalworth; Ellis's Original Letters, 2nd ser. i. 156–66; Rymer's Fœdera, orig. edit.; Rolls of Parliament, vi. 122, 202, 237, 268, 386, 441; Wood's History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, and Fasti, ed. Gutch; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, and Annals of Winchester College; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 647; Fuller's Worthies, i. 404; Godwin, De Præsulibus, pp. 299, 536; Blades's Life and Typography of Caxton, ii. 29–31; Ramsay's Lancaster and York; Gairdner's Life and Reign of Richard III; Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors; Foss's Judges of England; other authorities quoted.]