{{Short description|British diplomat (1829–1884)}} {{about||his son, ambassador to Switzerland|Odo Russell (diplomat)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Ampthill | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|GCMG|PC}} | image = File:Odo Russell Litho.jpg | caption = ''Lithograph of Russell, by [[Josef Kriehuber]], 1846'' | order1 = [[List of diplomats from the United Kingdom to Germany|British Ambassador to the German Empire]] | term_start1 = 1871 | term_end1 = 1884 | monarch1 = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]] | prime_minister1 = | predecessor1 = [[Lord Augustus Loftus]] | successor1 = [[Edward Malet]] | birth_date = {{birth date text|20 February 1829}} | birth_place = [[Florence]], Tuscany | death_date = {{death date and age|25 August 1884|20 February 1829}} | death_place = [[Potsdam]], Germany | party = | alma_mater = | spouse = [[Emily Russell, Baroness Ampthill|Lady Emily Villiers]] | children = 6, including [[Arthur Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill|Arthur]] and [[Odo Russell (diplomat)|Odo]] | parents = [[Lord George Russell]] <br /> [[Lady William Russell|Elizabeth Anne Rawdon]] }}
'''Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|GCMG|PC}} (20 February 1829{{snd}}25 August 1884), styled '''Lord Odo Russell''' between 1872 and 1881, was a British diplomat and the first [[List of diplomats from the United Kingdom to Germany|British Ambassador to the German Empire]].
==Early life== [[File:Odo WL Russell, Vanity Fair, 1877-07-28.jpg|thumb|right|Lord Ampthill, by [[Leslie Ward]], 1877.]] Russell was born in [[Florence]], Tuscany, into the [[Duke of Bedford|Russell family]], one of England's leading [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] aristocratic families. His father was [[Major-General]] [[Lord George Russell]], second son of the [[John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford|6th Duke of Bedford]]. His mother was [[Lady William Russell|Elizabeth Anne Rawdon]], daughter of [[John Theophilus Rawdon]] and niece of the [[Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings|1st Marquess of Hastings]]. His uncle was the [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|1st Earl Russell]], twice [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]].
His education, like that of his two brothers, [[Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford|Francis]] and [[Lord Arthur Russell|Arthur]], was carried on entirely at home, under the general direction of his mother.<ref name="britannica">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Ampthill, Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron|volume=1|page=893<!-- EB article is pp 893-4, but the two citations only refer to 893 -->}}</ref>
==Career== In March 1849 Russell was appointed by [[James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury|Lord Malmesbury]] as attaché at [[Vienna]]. From 1850 to 1852 he was temporarily employed in the foreign office, whence he passed to Paris. He remained there, however, only about two months, when he was transferred to Vienna. In 1853 he became second paid attaché at Paris, and in August 1854 he was transferred as first paid attaché to [[Istanbul|Constantinople]], where he served under [[Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe|Lord Stratford de Redcliffe]]. He had charge of the embassy during his chief's two visits to the [[Crimea]] in 1855, but left the East to work under [[Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier|Lord Napier]] at [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] in 1857. In the following year he became secretary of legation at Florence, but was detached from that place to reside in Rome, where he remained for twelve years, until August 1870. During all that period he was the real though unofficial representative of Britain at the [[Vatican City|Vatican]].<ref name="britannica"/>
Russell's personal success with [[Otto von Bismarck]] led to his appointment as ambassador at Berlin in October 1871. He admired the new Germany and liked Germans: during his thirteen years in Berlin he never forfeited the confidence of Bismarck. Just as he had understood his Constantinople chief, Stratford de Redcliffe, and had never been broken by his suspicious rages, so too he achieved a sympathetic understanding of Bismarck. He withstood the Iron Chancellor's rages about real or imaginary plots, dispelled his darkest suspicions of British policy, and penetrated to the core of Bismarckian motives and strategy. For example, he reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans for a [[Kulturkampf]] were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism: :The German Bishops who were politically powerless in Germany and theologically in opposition to the Pope in Rome – have now become powerful political leaders in Germany and enthusiastic defenders of the now infallible Faith of Rome, united, disciplined, and thirsting for martyrdom, thanks to Bismarck's uncalled for antiliberal declaration of War on the freedom they had hitherto peacefully enjoyed.<ref>Quoted in Edward Crankshaw, ''Bismarck'' (1981) pp 308-9</ref>
Russell was trusted by [[Victoria, Princess Royal|Victoria, the Crown Princess]] and the [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollerns]], but his cordiality to Bismarck's enemies was never tainted by the suspicion of intrigue. Nor was the objectivity of his dispatches compromised by his private belief that [[Kulturkampf]] must fail, or by his revulsion at Bismarck's persecution of [[Roman Catholicism]]. From the outset, he recognised Germany's colonial aspirations, though his appreciation of this complex situation was imperfect. In 1879 he was responsible for the novelty of attaching a commercial expert to the Berlin embassy staff.
After his eldest brother became eventually [[Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford|9th Duke of Bedford]] in 1872, Russell was granted the rank of a younger son of a duke, becoming known as ''Lord Odo Russell''.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23871 |date=28 June 1872 |page=2972 }}</ref> He was sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] the same year.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23825 |date=6 February 1872 |page=404 }}</ref> He was subsequently made a Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Bath]] (GCB) in 1874,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24068 |date=24 February 1874 |page=827 }}</ref> a Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (GCMG) in 1879,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24726 |date=24 May 1879 |page=3597 }}</ref> and raised to the peerage as '''Baron Ampthill''', of [[Ampthill]] in the County of Bedford, in 1881.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24947 |date=8 March 1881 |page=1071 }}</ref> He was British delegate at the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878, along with Disraeli, Salisbury and Lord Lyons.<ref>Lord Newton, Lord Lyons: A Record of British Diplomacy. Vol. 2 of 2, London, 1913. pp. 125-161.</ref>
==Personal life== On 5 May 1868, Russell was married to [[Emily Russell, Baroness Ampthill|Lady Emily Theresa Villiers]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Emily Theresa (née Villiers), Lady Ampthill|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw178556/Emily-Theresa-ne-Villiers-Lady-Ampthill?LinkID=mp100430&role=sit&rNo=0|publisher=[[National Portrait Gallery, London]]}}</ref> daughter of [[George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon]] and Lady Katherine Grimston (daughter of the [[James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam|1st Earl of Verulam]]). Together, they had six children:<ref name="Mosley1999"/>
* [[Arthur Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill|Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell, later 2nd Baron Ampthill]] (1869–1935), who married Lady Margaret Lygon, daughter of [[Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp]] and Lady Mary Stanhope (daughter of the [[Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope|5th Earl Stanhope]]), in 1894.<ref name="Mosley1999"/> * [[Odo Russell (diplomat)|Odo William Theopilus Villiers Russell]] (1870–1951), who married Countess Marie Louise Rex, daughter of Count Rudolf Karl Casper von Rex, in 1910.<ref name="Mosley1999"/> * Hon. Constance Evelyn Villiers Russell (1872–1942), who died unmarried.<ref name="Mosley1999"/> * Hon. Victor Alexander Frederick Villiers Russell (1874–1965), a barrister who married Annora Margaret Bromley-Martin, daughter of George Edward Bromley-Martin, in 1905.<ref name="Mosley1999"/> * Hon. Alexander Victor Frederick Villiers Russell [[Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]], [[Royal Victorian Order|MVO]] (1874–1965), who married Marjorie Gladys Guinness, daughter of Claude Hume Campbell Guinness, in 1909.<ref name="Mosley1999"/> * Hon. Augusta Louise Margaret Romola Villiers Russell (1879–1966), who died unmarried.<ref name="Mosley1999">Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes.'' Crans, [[Switzerland]]: [[Burke's Peerage]] (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999 volume 1, page 70.</ref>
Lord Ampthill died of [[peritonitis]] on 25 August 1884, aged 55, at his summer villa at [[Potsdam]], and was interred on 3 September in the 'Bedford Chapel' at [[St Michael's, Chenies|St. Michael's Church]], [[Chenies]], [[Buckinghamshire]], England. Bismarck thought him irreplaceable.<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com link Oxforddnb.com]</ref> Lady Ampthill died in February 1927, aged 83.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite ODNB | first = Richard | last = Davenport-Hines | title = Odo Russell | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101024332/ | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/24332 |date=September 2004 | access-date = 14 July 2009}} * Harris, David. "Bismarck's Advance to England, January, 1876." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1931) 3#3 pp: 441–456. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1874958 in JSTOR] * Randall, Alec. "Lord Odo Russell and Bismarck," ''History Today'' (1977) 27#4 pp 240–48 online. * Urbach, Karina. ''Bismarck's Favourite Englishman: Lord Odo Russell's Mission to Berlin'' (1999) [https://www.amazon.com/Bismarcks-Favourite-Englishman-Russells-Mission/dp/1860644384/ excerpt and text search] *{{cite book |editor-last=Cokayne |editor-first=George |editor-link=George Cokayne |title=[[The Complete Peerage|The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant]] |edition=New |volume=I |orig-year=First published 1887–1898 |year=2000 |publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire |isbn=978-0-904387-82-7 |oclc=44153302 |page=126 |chapter=Odo William Leopold Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill}}
===Primary sources=== * Ampthill, Odo William Leopold Russell Baron, and Noel Blakiston. ''The Roman question: extracts from the despatches of Odo Russell from Rome, 1858–1870'' (London, Chapman, 1962) * Knaplund, Paul, ed. ''Letters from the Berlin Embassy, 1871–1874, 1880–1885'' (1944) [https://archive.org/details/annualreportofth011083mbp/page/n7/mode/2up online] * Taffs, Winifred. "Conversations between Lord Odo Russell and Andrássy, Bismarck and Gorchakov in September, 1872." ''Slavonic and East European Review'' (1930): 701–707. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4202449 online]
==External links== *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-odo-russell | Lord Ampthill }}
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef|before=[[Lord Augustus Loftus]]|as=Ambassador to the [[North German Confederation]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[List of diplomats from the United Kingdom to Germany|British Ambassador to the German Empire]] |years=1871–1884}} {{s-aft|after=[[Edward Malet]]}} {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Ampthill]] |years=1881–1884}} {{s-aft|after=[[Oliver Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill|Oliver Russell]]}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ampthill, Odo Russell, 1st Baron}} [[Category:1829 births]] [[Category:1884 deaths]] [[Category:Barons Ampthill|1]] [[Category:Diplomatic peers]] [[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Germany]] [[Category:Russell family|Odo]] [[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]] [[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Younger sons of dukes|Russell, Odo]] [[Category:Ampthill]] [[Category:Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria]]