Bolingbroke, Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount

Bolingbroke, Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount

(born Sept. 16, 1678, probably Wiltshire, Eng.—died Dec. 12, 1751, Battersea, near London) British politician. After entering Parliament in 1701, he became a prominent Tory in the reign of Queen Anne, serving as secretary of war (1704–08) and of state (1710–15). He was dismissed from office by George I and, fearing impeachment because of his intrigues with the Jacobites, he fled to France in 1715. He returned to England in 1725 and became the centre of a literary circle that included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay. He waged an influential propaganda campaign in opposition to the Whigs and their leader, Robert Walpole, and also wrote several historical and philosophical works, including The Idea of a Patriot King (published secretly by Pope in 1744 and as a corrected version in 1749).