Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount BolingbrokeArticle Free Pass
Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, (born Sept. 16,
1678, probably Wiltshire, Eng.—died Dec. 12, 1751, Battersea,
near London), prominent Tory politician in the reign of Queen
Anne of England and, later, a major political propagandist in
opposition to the Whig Party led by Sir Robert Walpole. He was
possibly educated at a Dissenting academy rather than at Eton
and the University of Oxford, as has been claimed. In 1698–99 he
traveled in Europe and in 1700 married Frances Winchcombe. In
1701 he entered Parliament, where he soon won a reputation by
his superb oratory and his support of partisan Tory measures,
including attacks on the previous Whig ministry and on the
Protestant Dissenters, the Whigs’ staunchest allies. His conduct
soon brought him to the notice of the government, and, after he
was made secretary at war (1704), he was converted, temporarily,
to the moderate policies of Robert Harley, one of Queen Anne’s
principal ministers. For f