Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell (15 April 1937–14 October 2004) was a British historian and politician. He was a son of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, and a great-grandson of the 19th century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell.

Educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, Conrad Russell was one of the world's leading authorities on 17th century British history, having extensively written and lectured on parliamentary struggles of the period. Russell was also a passionate advocate of liberalism, from a long family line of distinguished liberals.

After his death from complications of emphysema, Russell was succeeded as Earl by his son, Nicholas. Another son, John Russell is also a politician.

Academic career

Russell was a prominent historian on the origins of the English Civil War. His major works include Crisis of Parliaments: English history 1509-1660 (1971), Origins of the English Civil War (edited, 1973), Parliaments and English politics, 1621-1629 (1979), Unrevolutionary England, 1603-1642 (1990), and Fall of the British monarchies, 1637-1642 (1991). His work on early Stuart Parliaments was profoundly influenced by the work of Alan Everitt, who had argued that the English gentry were preoccupied with defending their positions in the localities rather than responding to the demands of the Crown. This no longer seems entirely plausible in the light of the work done by Richard Cust, Peter Lake and Christopher Thompson. Russell argued that the English civil war was much less a result of long term constitutional conflicts than had previously been thought, and that its origins are to be sought rather in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of war in 1642 and in the context of the problems of the multiple kingdoms of the British Isles, a hypothesis for which he was indebted to the pioneering study of H.G.Koenigsberger. This area is still being explored by historians like John Adamson and David Scott even if their detailed conclusions vary from those reached by Russell.

He was Lecturer (and later Reader) in History at Bedford College, University of London (now part of Royal Holloway), 1960-1979; Professor of History at Yale University, USA, 1979-1984; Astor Professor of British History at University College London, 1984-1990; and Professor of British History at King's College London from 1990 to his retirement in 2003.

Political career

As a young man, Conrad Russell's political allegiance varied between the Labour Party and the then very weak Liberal Party. He stood as the Labour candidate in Paddington South in the 1966 general election, but failed to win the seat from the Conservatives.

He succeeded to the title of the 5th Earl Russell on the death of his half brother, John Conrad Russell, in 1987. He was the first parliamentarian to take his seat as a Liberal Democrat, shortly after the party was formed in 1988 from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party.

Russell was at various times his party's spokesman on home affairs, youth affairs, and work and pensions.

In 1999, all but 92 hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords. Lord Russell was elected at the top of his party's list of hereditary peers to retain their seats, though he had consistently argued in favour of abolishing the Lords completely, and replacing it with an elected senate.

He was a frequent contributor to debates, much respected on all sides of the house, and well known for sprinkling his speeches with historical analogies. In 1996, he was awarded the Highland Park/Spectator Peer of the Year award.

He was vice-president of the Liberal Democrat Youth and Students 1993-1994 and honorary president of the Liberal Democrat History Group 1998-2004.

Books

Published works include:

• The Crisis of Parliaments 1603-1660 (1971)
• The Causes of the English Civil War (1990)
• The fall of the British Monarchies (1991)
• Academic Freedom (1993)
• An Intelligent Person's Guide to Liberalism (1999)

External links

• Guardian obituary