only son of William, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, who became earl of Bedford by the death of his cousin Edward, the 3rd earl, in May 1627.

When the quarrel broke out between Charles I and Parliament in 1628, Bedford supported the demands of the House of Commons as embodied in the Petition of Right, and in 1629 he was arrested for his share in an opposition pamphlet but was quickly released. The Short Parliament meeting in April 1640 found the Earl as one of the King's leading opponents. In July 1640 he was among the peers who wrote to the Scottish leaders refusing to invite a Scottish army into England but promising to stand by the Scots in all legal and honourable ways; and his signature was afterward forged by Thomas, Viscount Savile, in order to encourage the Scots to invade England. In the following September he was among those peers who urged Charles to call a parliament, to make peace with the Scots, and to dismiss his obnoxious ministers; and he was one of the English commissioners appointed to conclude the treaty of Ripon. When the Long Parliament met in November 1640, Bedford was generally regarded as the leader of the Parliamentarians. In 1641 he became a privy councillor and was appointed treasurer but died in the middle of the Parliamentary struggle.