Viscount Henry St. John Bolingbroke

Born on 16 September 1678, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, became one of the most striking political figures of Queen Anne’s reign. He served as a leading Tory statesman, sat in Parliament, and rose to high office, playing an important part in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht.

His political fortunes changed dramatically after the accession of George I. Accused of treason and linked to the Jacobite cause, he fled to France, where he briefly served the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart before eventually breaking with that movement. He was allowed to return to England in 1723, though his path back to full political power remained limited.

In later life, Bolingbroke became at least as well known for his writing as for his public career. Remembered as a politician, philosopher, and man of letters, he wrote influential essays on party, patriotism, history, and government, and became an important voice for opposition politics in the age of Robert Walpole. He died on 12 December 1751 at Battersea.