Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

For other people named Henry St. John, see Henry St. John (disambiguation).

• Anne
• George I

Attainder of Viscount Bolingbroke Act 1714 (1 Geo. 1. St. 2. c. 16). He hoped to recover the good graces of King George, and indeed managed to do so in a few years. ^[14]

He wrote his Reflexions upon Exile, and in 1717, his letter to Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet in explanation of his position, generally considered one of his finest compositions, but not published till 1753 after his death. The same year, he formed a liaison with a widow Marie Claire Deschamps de Marcilly, whom he married in 1720, two years after his first wife's death. He bought and resided at the estate of La Source near Orléans, studied philosophy, criticised the chronology of the Bible, and was visited amongst others by Voltaire, who expressed unbounded admiration for his learning and politeness. ^[15]

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. Attributed to Charles Jervas.

Pardon and return

Engraving showing Dawley House, before Saint John's improvements.

The Right Honourable The Viscount Bolingbroke PC
c. 1712 portrait of Bolingbroke attributed to Alexis Simon Belle
Secretary of State for the Southern Department
In office 17 August 1713 –31 August 1714
Preceded by	The Earl of Dartmouth
Succeeded by	James Stanhope

Henry St John Bolingbroke Restitution Act 1724
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for enabling Henry St. John late Viscount Bolingbroke, and the Heirs Male of his Body, notwithstanding his Attainder, to take and enjoy several Manors, Lands, and Hereditaments, in the Counties of Wilts, Surrey, and Middlesex, according to such Estates and Interests as to him or them are limited thereof by the Quinquepartite Indenture and other Assurances therein mentioned; and for limiting the same, in Default of Issue Male of the Body of the said late Viscount Bolingbroke, to the other Sons of Henry Viscount St. John successively in Tail Male; and for other Purposes therein expressed.
Citation	11 Geo. 1. c. 40Pr.
Territorial extent	Great Britain
Dates
Royal assent	31 May 1725
Other legislation
Relates to	Attainder of Viscount Bolingbroke Act 1714

In 1723, through the medium of the King's mistress, Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster, he received a pardon and returned to London. ^[16] Walpole reluctantly accepted his return. In 1725, Parliament passed the Henry St John Bolingbroke Restitution Act 1724 (11 Geo. 1. c. 40Pr.), which enabled him to hold real estate but without power of alienating it. But this had been effected in consequence of a peremptory order of the King, against Walpole's wishes, who succeeded in maintaining his exclusion from the House of Lords. He now bought an estate at Dawley, near Uxbridge, where he renewed his intimacy with Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Voltaire, took part in Pope's literary squabbles, and wrote the philosophy for Pope's An Essay on Man (1734), ^[15] which, at Epistle I, begins: "To Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke:

Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

On the first occasion which offered itself, that of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath's rupture with Walpole in 1726, he endeavoured to organise an opposition in conjunction with the former and Wyndham; and in 1727, began his celebrated series of letters to The Craftsman , attacking the Walpoles, signed "an Occasional Writer". He won over the Duchess of Kendal with a bribe of £11,000 from his wife's estates, and with Walpole's approval obtained an audience with the King. His success was imminent, and it was thought his appointment as chief minister was assured. In Walpole's own words, "as St John had the duchess entirely on his side I need not add what must or might in time have been the consequence", and he prepared for his dismissal. But once more Bolingbroke's "fortune turned rotten at the very moment it grew ripe", and his projects and hopes were ruined by the King's death in June. ^[15]

Henry St John retired in June 1735.

He wrote additional essays signed "John Trot" that appeared in the Craftsman in 1728, and in 1730 followed Remarks on the History of England by Humphrey Oldcastle, attacking Walpole's policy. Comment prompted by Bolingbroke was continued in the House of Commons by Wyndham, and great efforts were made to establish the alliance between the Tories and the Opposition Whigs. The Excise Bill in 1733 and the Septennial Bill in 1734 offered opportunities for further attacks on the government, which Bolingbroke supported by a new series of papers in the Craftsman styled "A Dissertation on Parties"; but the whole movement collapsed after the new elections, which returned Walpole to power in 1735 with a large majority. ^[15]

Bolingbroke retired baffled and disappointed from the fray to France in June, residing principally at the Château d'Argeville near Fontainebleau. He now wrote his Letters on the Study of History (printed privately before his death and published in 1752), and the True Use of Retirement. In 1738, he visited England, became one of the leading friends and advisers of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who now headed the opposition, and wrote for the occasion The Patriot King, which together with a previous essay, The Spirit of Patriotism, and The State of Parties at the Accession of George I, were entrusted to Pope and not published. Having failed, however, to obtain any share in politics, he returned to France in 1739, and subsequently sold Dawley. In 1742 and 1743, he again visited England and quarrelled with Warburton. In 1744, he settled finally at Battersea with his friend Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont, and was present at Pope's death in May. The discovery that the poet had printed secretly 1,500 copies of The Patriot King, caused him to publish a correct version in 1749, and stirred up a further altercation with Warburton, who defended his friend against Bolingbroke's bitter aspersions, the latter, whose conduct was generally reprehended, publishing a Familiar Epistle to the most Impudent Man Living. ^[15]

Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke and his second wife Mary Clara des Champs de Marcilly monument in St Mary's Church, Battersea - both epitaphs were written by Henry himself

Death

In 1744, he had been very busy assisting in the negotiations for the establishment of the new "broad bottom" administration, and showed no sympathy for the Jacobite rising of 1745. He recommended the tutor for Prince George, afterwards George III. About 1749, he wrote the Present State of the Nation, an unfinished pamphlet. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield records the last words heard from him: "God who placed me here will do what He pleases with me hereafter and He knows best what to do". He died on 12 December 1751, aged 73, his second wife having predeceased him by one year. They were both buried in St Mary's, the parish church at Battersea, where a monument with medallions and inscriptions composed by Bolingbroke was erected to their memory. ^[15] The monument was sculpted by Roubiliac. ^[17]

He was succeeded in the title as 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, according to the special remainder, by his half-nephew Frederick St John, 3rd Viscount St John (a title granted to Bolingbroke's father in 1716), from whom the title has descended. ^[18] Frederick was the son of the 1st Viscount's half-brother John St John, by his father's second wife Angelica Magdalena Pelissary.

Impact

Portrait of Henry St John attributed to Jonathan Richardson

Influence in the United Kingdom

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and George III derived their political ideas from The Patriot King. ^[19] Edmund Burke wrote his Vindication of Natural Society in imitation of Bolingbroke's style, but in refutation of his principles; and in the Reflections on the French Revolution he exclaims, "Who now reads Bolingbroke, who ever read him through?" Burke denied that Bolingbroke's words left "any permanent impression on his mind". ^[15] Benjamin Disraeli lionised Bolingbroke as the "Founder of Modern Toryism", eradicating its "absurd and odious doctrines", and establishing its mission to subvert "Whig attempts to transform the English Constitution into an oligarchy". ^[20]

The loss of Bolingbroke's great speeches was regretted by William Pitt more than that of the missing books of Livy and Tacitus. By the early 20th century, the writings and career of Bolingbroke would make a weaker impression than they made on contemporaries. He was thought by the author in his biography in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English (1910) to be a man of brilliant and versatile talents, but selfish, insincere and intriguing, defects of character which arguably led to his political ruin; and his writings were described as glittering, artificial and lacking philosophical merit. ^[21] Philip Chesney Yorke, his biographer in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition , commented that his abilities were exercised upon ephemeral objects, and not inspired by lasting or universal ideas. ^[15]

Enlightenment philosophy

Bolingbroke held certain views of opposition to church and theological teachings, ^[1] which may have had influence during the Age of Enlightenment. The atheist antireligious French-German philosopher Baron d'Holbach quotes Bolingbroke in his political work Good Sense, in reference to Bolingbroke's statements against religion. ^[2]

Republicanism in the United States

In the late 20th century, Bolingbroke was rediscovered by historians as a major influence on Voltaire, and on the American patriots John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Adams said that he had read all of Bolingbroke's works at least five times; Bolingbroke's works were widely read in the American colonies, where they helped provide the foundation for the emerging nation's devotion to republicanism. His vision of history as cycles of birth, growth, decline and death of a republic was influential in the colonies, ^[22] as was his contention on liberty: that one is "free not from the law, but by the law". ^[23] Bolingbroke, Georgia, was named after him. ^[24]

Country Party

Bolingbroke was especially influential in stating the need and outlining the machinery of a systematic parliamentary opposition. Such an opposition he called a "country party" which he opposed to the court party. Country parties had been formed before, for instance after the King's speech to Parliament in November 1685, but Bolingbroke was the first to state the need for a continual opposition to the government. To his mind the spirit of liberty was threatened by the court party's lust for power. ^[25]

Liberty could only be safeguarded by an opposition party that used "constitutional methods and a legal course of opposition to the excesses of legal and ministerial power". ^[26] He instructed the opposition party to "Wrest the power of government, if you can, out of the hands that employed it weakly and wickedly". ^[27] This work could be done only by a homogeneous party "because such a party alone will submit to a drudgery of this kind". ^[28] It was not enough to be eager to speak, keen to act. "They who affect to head an opposition ... must be equal, at least, to those whom they oppose". ^[29] The opposition had to be of a permanent nature to make sure that it would be looked at as a part of daily politics. It had on every occasion to confront the government. ^[30] He considered a party that systematically opposed the government to be more appealing than a party that did so occasionally. ^[31] This opposition had to prepare itself to control government. ^[32]

Works

• Lashmore-Davies, Adrian C., ed. "The Correspondence of Henry St. John and Sir William Trumbull, 1698–1710", Eighteenth-Century Life 32, no. 3 (2008), pp. 23–179.
• Parke, G., ed. The Letters and Correspondence of Henry St John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. 4 vols. 1798.
• Dickinson, H. T., ed. "The Letters of Henry St. John to the Earl of Orrery, 1709–1711" Camden Miscellany, vol. XXVI. Camden Fourth Series. Volume 14 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1975), pp. 137–199.
• H. T. Dickinson (ed.). "Letters of Bolingbroke to the Earl of Orrery, 1712–13", Camden Miscellany, Vol. XXXI. Camden Fourth Series. Volume 44 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1992), pp. 349–371.
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 1 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 2 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 3 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 4 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 5 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 6 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 7 (London, 1809).
• The works of the late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, new ed., Vol. 8 (London, 1809).
• The Works of Lord Bolingbroke, Vol 1. University Press of the Pacific, 2001. ISBN   0-89875-352-X
• Armitage, David, ed. Bolingbroke: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN   0-521-58697-6
• The Philosophical Works of the Late Right Honourable Henry St John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, 3 vol. 1776, reprint 2005. ISBN   1-4212-0061-9
• Jackman, S. W., ed. The Idea of a Patriot King. Indianapolis, 1965.
• The Works of the Late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke was first published in March 1754 in five quarto volumes, and it was made popular by its controversial outlooks on religion. A decade later, the highly successful London bookseller Andrew Millar was still selling the Works for a considerable fortune, setting the price at three guineas (three pounds and three shillings), a clear indication of the importance and value of the text. In a letter to Dr. Cadell in July 1765, Millar wrote "I never sold a Bolingbroke in quarto under 3 guineas ... Wren paid so and I can't now alter the price". ^[33]

Notes

1. Section 1.

References

1. See e.g., Henry St. John Viscount Bolingbroke, "Letters or Essays Addressed to Alexander Pope: Introduction", The Works of Lord Bolingbroke: With a Life, Prepared Expressly for This Edition, Containing Additional Information Relative to His Personal and Public Character, (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1841) Vol 3, pp. 40–64. Also available on Project Gutenberg as "Letter to Alexander Pope" in Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope.
2. D'Holbach, Baron. Good Sense paragraph 206
3. The philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke Volume 2, p. 287
4. Allen, Brooke, Moral Minority p. 75
5. Voltaire, God and Human Beings pp. 64, 80, 104
6. Ruth Mack (2009). Literary Historicity: Literature and Historical Experience in Eighteenth-century Britain. Stanford UP. p. 8. ISBN   9780804759113.
7. H. T. Dickinson, Bolingbroke (London: Constable, 1970), p. 2.
8. Yorke 1911, p. 161.
9. Dickinson, pp. 2–3.
10. Dickinson, pp. 3–4.
11. Yorke 1911, pp. 161–162.
12. Yorke 1911, pp. 162.
13. Alimento, Antonella. War Trade and Neutrality Europe and the Mediterranean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. FrancoAngeli.
14. Yorke 1911, pp. 162–163.
15. Yorke 1911, pp. 163.
16. Lecky, William Edward Harpole (1888). "Volume I, Chapter III". History of England in the XVIIIth Century (With 1877 preface) (first ed.). New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1,3, and 5 Bond Street. p. 343.
17. Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.331
18. Yorke 1911, pp. 164.
19. Durant, Will and Ariel (1965). The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 100.
20. Disraeli, Benjamin (1914). Whigs and Whiggism: political writings. Macmillan. pp. 218–220.
21. Cousin 1910, p. 41.
22. Garrett Sheldon, Encyclopedia of Political Thought (2001) p. 36
23. Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner, eds. Republicanism: Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe (2002) p. 41
24. Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF). Macon, Georgia: Winship Press. p. 22. ISBN   0-915430-00-2.
25. Caroline Robbins, "'Discordant Parties': A Study of the Acceptance of Party by Englishmen", Political Science Quarterly Vol. 73, No. 4 (Dec. 1958), pp. 505–529 in JSTOR
26. On the Idea of a Patriot King p. 117.
27. On the Spirit of Patriotism p. 42.
28. On the Idea of a Patriot King p. 170.
29. On the Spirit of Patriotism p. 58.
30. On the Spirit of Patriotism p. 61.
31. On the Spirit of Patriotism pp. 62–63.
32. On the Spirit of Patriotism p. 61.
33. "Andrew Millar, letter to Thomas Cadell". Andrew Millar Project. 16 July 1765. footnote 27. Retrieved 1 June 2016.

Further reading

• Biddle, Sheila. Bolingbroke and Harley (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1974).
• Dickinson, H. T. "St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, September 2013, accessed 18 October 2017, short scholarly biography
• Dickinson, Harry Thomas. Bolingbroke (1970), scholarly biography.
• Kramnick, Isaac. Bolingbroke and his circle: the politics of nostalgia in the age of Walpole (Cornell University Press, 1992).
• Mansfield, Harvey C. Statesmanship and party government: A study of Burke and Bolingbroke (University of Chicago Press, 2012).
• West, Chris. "Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, 1st Viscount (1678–1751)" in The Encyclopedia of Political Thought (2015).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). "Bolingbroke, Henry St John, Viscount". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 161–164.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Cousin, John William (1910). "Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, 1st Viscount". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature . London: J. M. Dent & Sons. pp. 40–41 – via Wikisource.

Primary sources

• The works of Lord Bolingbroke, 4 vols. (1969)
• H. St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, The idea of a patriot king, ed. S. W. Jackman (Indianapolis, 1965)
• Lord Bolingbroke: historical writings, ed. I. Kramnick (Chicago, 1972)
• Lord Bolingbroke: contributions to The Craftsman, ed. S. Varey (1982)
• Bolingbroke: political writings, ed. D. Armitage (1997)
• Bolingbroke's political writings: the conservative Enlightenment, ed. B. Cottret (1997)

External links

• Adamson, Robert (1878). "Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 4 (9th ed.). pp. 4–7.
• Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
• Works by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke at the Internet Archive
• Royal Berkshire History: Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke
• Portraits of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• "Archival material relating to Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke". UK National Archives.
• "Henry St. John Bolingbroke". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Parliament of England
Preceded by Henry Pinnell Henry St John	Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett 1701–1707 With: Henry Pinnell 1701, 1702–1705 Thomas Jacob 1701–1702 John Morton Pleydell 1705–1706 Francis Popham 1706–1707	Succeeded by Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Parliament of England	Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett 1707–1708 With: Francis Popham	Succeeded by Francis Popham Robert Cecil
Preceded by Francis Popham Robert Cecil	Member for Wootton Bassett 1710 With: Richard Goddard	Succeeded by Richard Goddard Edmund Pleydell
Preceded by Richard Neville Sir John Stonhouse, Bt	Member of Parliament for Berkshire 1710–1712 With: Sir John Stonhouse, Bt	Succeeded by Sir John Stonhouse, Bt Robert Packer
Political offices
Preceded by George Clarke	Secretary at War 1704–1708	Succeeded by Robert Walpole
Preceded by Henry Boyle	Secretary of State for the Northern Department 1710–1713	Succeeded by William Bromley
Preceded by The Earl of Dartmouth	Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1713–1714	Succeeded by James Stanhope
Preceded by Thomas Higgons	Jacobite Secretary of State 1715–1716	Succeeded by John Erskine, Earl of Mar
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl Rivers	Lord Lieutenant of Essex 1712–1714	Succeeded by The Earl of Suffolk
Preceded by The Earl of Dartmouth	Senior Privy Counsellor 1750–1751	Succeeded by The Earl of Clarendon and Rochester
Peerage of Great Britain
New title	Viscount Bolingbroke 1712–1751	Succeeded by Frederick St John
Peerage of England
New title	— TITULAR — Earl of Bolingbroke Jacobite peerage 1715–1751	Extinct