POLITICAL HISTORY 



was warned that if she persisted in opposing the king's wish her daughter 

 Mary might lose favour, and next day when the commissioners laid before 

 her the report of their interview which they purposed to send to the king, 

 she took a pen and struck out the words ' Princess Dowager ' wherever they 

 occurred.'"'^ Soon after this interview she left Ampthill for the Bishop of 

 Lincoln's palace at Buckden in Huntingdonshire, and in the following May 

 she moved to Kimbolton, where she died in January 1536.'°' 



In 1 541-2 Henry erected Ampthill into an honour, intending to erect 

 there ' sumptuous stately beautiful and princely buildings,' and attached to it 

 for that purpose the royal ' manors lands and sites of monasteries ' in some 

 thirty-five hamlets, towns, and parishes of Bedfordshire, besides others in 

 Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.""* 



When Henry summoned the momentous Parliament of 1529, a letter 

 from Gardiner to Wolsey shows that the king was interested in the election 

 of members for Bedfordshire.'"' Sir William Gascoyne and George Ack- 

 worth, esq., were returned for the county, and John Baker and William 

 Bourne for the borough. About this time a change appears to have taken ' 

 place in the status of the members for the borough. Those elected in 1541 

 were William Johnson, ' gent.,' and Michael Thrayle, ' generosus,' and from 

 that time onwards the members for county and borough are apparently 

 of the same social class, and often belong to the same families. In 1562—3, 

 for instance, John St. John, esq., and Lewis Mordaunt, esq., represented the 

 county ; Oliver St. John, esq., and John Burgoyne, esq., the borough.'"" 



One of Henry's most faithful servants was John Russell,*""^ whom he 

 made Baron Russell, and left as one of the executors of his will. In 1 549 

 Russell took a leading part in crushing the western insurrection, and was 

 rewarded with the earldom of Bedford 19 January 1549—50.'°^ 



The history of the previous earls and dukes may be briefly summarized. 

 Under Stephen, Hugh de Beaumont appears to have held the earldom for 

 three years.'"* Edward III in 1366 conferred it on the husband of his 

 daughter Isabella, Ingelram de Couci, who died in 1397 without a male 

 heir,'^" and the titular connexion with the royal family was revived in 141 4 

 by the creation of the title Duke of Bedford for John the famous Regent of 

 France, who died without issue in 1435.'" The next holder of the dukedom 

 was George Neville, son of John, Marquis of Montagu, who received it in 

 1470, but was degraded in 1478, on the ground that he had no 'livelihood' 

 to support the honour."' After Bosworth Henry VII rewarded his uncle 

 Jasper Tudor with the same title, but it again became extinct on his death in 

 1495.'^* With the elevation of John Russell, however, the earldom entered 

 on an uninterrupted history. About the same time he received the lands of 



'" S.P. Hen. Fill, i, 397-404. "' Diet. Nat. Blog. 



'"* Act 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 37. The Honour of Ampthill still retains its own coroner, and comprises 

 thirty-four parishes in Beds, and ten in Bucks. ; ex inform. Deputy Coroner of Beds. 



=«» L. and. P. Hen. Fill, iv (3), 5993. "" Ret. of Memb. of Pari. 



*" The family belonged to the west of England, and Russell's grandfather was three times Speaker of the 

 House of Commons ; Diet. Nat. Biog. Sir John Russell. 



'^ Diet. Nat. Biog. "" See above, p. 24. "" Diet. Nat. Biog. Edw. III. '" Diet. Nat. Biog. 



'" Ibid. Sir James Ramsay, Lane, and York, ii, 426, suggests that the title was wanted by Edward IV 

 for his third son George, who died in infancy, and who is described as Duke of Bedford on his tomb at Windsor. 



"' Gough, Camden's Brit, i, 3321J, cites 'Kniveton, MS. note on Vincent' as authority for the statement 

 that the Princess Mary was made Countess of Bedford in 1537. 



39 



