Portrait of Henry St. John Bolingbroke
Photo: Charles Jervas · Wikimedia Commons

Author

Henry St. John Bolingbroke

English politician and Viscount (1678-1751)

Born
September 16, 1678, Battersea
Died
December 12, 1751, Battersea
Nationality
Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Great Britain
Occupation
Politician, philosopher, historian and writer

Life and work

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (16 September 1678 – 12 December 1751) was a British Tory politician and philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology. Bolingbroke supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France, he became foreign minister for the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. He was attainted for treason but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. According to Ruth Mack, "Bolingbroke is best known for his party politics, including the ideological history he disseminated in The Craftsman (1726–1735) by adopting the formerly Whig theory of the Ancient Constitution and giving it new life as an anti-Walpole Tory principle."

Text: “Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke”, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, under the license CC BY-SA 4.0. Dates and facts: Wikidata.

Collection

Books by Henry St. John Bolingbroke

1 book