High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, KG, PC, JP (c. 1485 - 14 March 1554/1555) was an English royal minister in the Tudor era. He served variously as Lord High Admiral and Lord Privy Seal. He was the son of James Russell of Kingston Russell and his wife Alice Wyse, and was born about 1485 at Long Bredy, near Dorchester, Dorset. James was son of another John Russell and Alice Froxmere, son of Henry Russell and Elizabeth Herring, who was son of Stephen Russell (alias Stephen Gascoigne), MP for Weymouth and Alice de la Tour. In 1506 he was of service to Philip of Austria and Juana his wife (King and Queen of Castile) when they were shipwrecked off Weymouth, and was introduced to the Court by them. He became Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VII in 1507 and Henry VIII in 1509, who employed him in various military and diplomatic missions during the War of the League of Cambrai. He was at the taking of Throuanne and Tournai. He was knighted on 2 July 1522 after losing an eye at the taking of Morlaix in Brittany, and he witnessed the Battle of Pavia.
