Editing Bertrand Russell (section)

===Early life and background===
Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born at [[Cleddon Hall|Ravenscroft]], a country house in [[Trellech]], [[Monmouthshire (historic)|Monmouthshire]],<!--Whether Monmouthshire was in Wales in 1872 is debatable. Please leave this alone; this page is not the place for this debate-->{{efn|name=fn1|Though today in Wales, [[Monmouthshire]]'s status was [[Monmouthshire (historic)#Ambiguity over status|ambiguous at the time]] and was even considered by some to be in England, which it borders.}} on 18 May 1872, into an influential and liberal family of the [[British aristocracy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hestler |first=Anna |url=https://archive.org/details/wales00hest/page/53 |title=Wales |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7614-1195-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wales00hest/page/53 53]}}</ref><ref>Sidney Hook, "Lord Russell and the War Crimes Trial", ''Bertrand Russell: critical assessments'', Vol. 1, edited by A. D. Irvine, New York 1999, p. 178.</ref> His parents were [[John Russell, Viscount Amberley|Viscount]] and [[Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley|Viscountess Amberley]]. Lord Amberley consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor,<ref>{{Cite news |date=3 February 1970 |title=Bertrand Russell Is Dead; British Philosopher, 97 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/03/archives/bertrand-russell-is-dead-british-philosopher-97-bertrand-russell.html |access-date=14 April 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910142030/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/03/archives/bertrand-russell-is-dead-british-philosopher-97-bertrand-russell.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=8 November 1877 |title=Douglas A. Spalding |work=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/017035b0 |access-date=14 April 2022 |issn=1476-4687 |archive-date=18 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518052205/https://www.nature.com/articles/017035b0 |url-status=live }}</ref> the biologist [[Douglas Spalding]]. Both were early advocates of [[birth control]] at a time when this was considered scandalous.<ref name="calicut">{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Ashley |title=Bertrand Russell: The Man and His Ideas |url=http://www.geocities.com/vu3ash/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501064331/http://www.geocities.com/vu3ash/index.html |archive-date=1 May 2006 |access-date=28 October 2007}}</ref> Lord Amberley, a [[deist]], asked the philosopher [[John Stuart Mill]] to act as Russell's secular godfather.<ref>Russell, Bertrand and [[Ray Perkins, Jr.|Perkins, Ray]] (ed.) ''Yours faithfully, Bertrand Russell''. Open Court Publishing, 2001, p.&nbsp;4.</ref> Mill died the year after Russell's birth, but his writings later influenced Russell's life.

[[File:Bertrand Russell in 1876.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Russell as a 4-year-old]]
Russell's paternal grandfather, Lord John Russell, later [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|1st Earl Russell]] (1792–1878), had twice been [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] in the 1840s and 1860s.<ref name="John R">{{Cite web |last=Bloy |first=Marjie |title=Lord John Russell (1792–1878) |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/russell.html |access-date=28 October 2007 |archive-date=24 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524221142/http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/russell.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A member of Parliament since the early 1810s, he met with [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] in [[Elba]].<ref>{{Citation |title=My Grandfather Met Napoleon: Bertrand Russell Interview 1952 – Enhanced Video & Audio [60 fps] |author=((Life in the 1800s)) |date=Apr 23, 2022 |website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OXtO92x5KA |language=en |access-date=2 May 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910142002/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OXtO92x5KA |url-status=live }}</ref> The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power and the [[peerage]] with the rise of the [[Tudor dynasty]] (see: [[Duke of Bedford]]). They established themselves as one of the leading [[British Whig Party|Whig]] families and participated in political events from the [[dissolution of the monasteries]] in 1536–1540 to the [[Glorious Revolution]] in 1688–1689 and the [[Great Reform Act]] in 1832.<ref name="John R" /><ref name="peerage">G. E. Cokayne; Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, eds. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed. 13 volumes in 14. 1910–1959. Reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000.</ref>

Lady Amberley was the daughter of [[Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley|Lord]] and [[Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley|Lady Stanley of Alderley]].<ref name="Gallery" /> Russell often feared the ridicule of his maternal grandmother,<ref name="Booth">{{Cite book |last=Booth |first=Wayne C. |url=https://archive.org/details/moderndogmarhet00boot |title=Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1974 |isbn=0-226-06572-3 |access-date=6 December 2012 |url-access=registration}}</ref> one of the campaigners for [[education of women]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928}}</ref>