St. John, Henry 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

A descendant of one of the oldest and richest families in England, whose pedigree dates back to the times preceding the conquest of England by the Normans , the only son of the baronet of St. John, was born in Battersea (in Surrey ).

Already during his student life at Oxford, he showed those traits of his character that became typical and fatal for his political and literary activities, namely duality, brilliant mental and physical abilities, original thinking and a passion for activity along with frivolity and depravity, which were recognized unprecedented even among the general licentiousness of the then higher English society.

In the political arena, the doors of which were easily opened for Bolingbroke thanks to his connections and talents, he already acted as a member of parliament in 1700 and, despite his youth, soon took a leading position among moderate Tories . At the 26th year of his life, he entered the cabinet as Minister of War, formed from the middle groups of both parties and began a new era in the history of England with his military victories and internal successes, and most importantly, the final union of England with Scotland .

But the alliance between the Tories and the Whigs was short-lived. Thanks to the brilliant victories of Marlborough , who belonged to the Whig party, the latter gained an advantage in the cabinet and gradually began to supplant their opponents. After a four-year administration of affairs, Bolingbroke and his comrade Harley , the pious Earl of Oxford, were to give way to Walpole and Newcastle, however, the ruthlessness with which the Whigs took advantage of their victory, and especially their hatred of the exiled dynasty, deeply offended Queen Anna , who deep down she was sincerely attached to her family and especially to her brother. Bolingbroke took advantage of this and cleverly managed to displace the Whig government and seize power again in 1710. In the new government, Bolingbroke took over as Foreign Minister. The influence of Bolingbroke should be attributed to the fact that peaceful aspirations prevailed in British politics, and the war with France finally ended in the Utrecht Peace .

There was a time when Bolingbroke was the most powerful man in England, but the sudden death of Anna (August 10, 1714) immediately overthrew him from this height. His attempt to take the throne to challenger Jacob Stewart was crushed in its infancy, and the House of Hanover recognized the right to inherit, which meant the Whigs won completely and Bolingbroke fell.

Even on his way to England, George I declared Bolingbroke to be deprived of all his posts, and the Whig Parliament in March 1715 accused him of high treason, confiscated all his estates, and he escaped death only by hasty flight to France. Now Bolingbroke finally sided with the Jacobites.

To again put his party at the helm of government, he did not even back down to the idea of ​​bringing confusion into the state. Having received the title and seal of the Minister from the Old Challenger (which, incidentally, he himself laughed at), he tried to persuade Louis XIV and his grandson, the Spanish King Philip V , then Charles XII and the Regency, to war with England, and did not stop before to encourage rebellion in England and Scotland. But the danger of a foreign invasion was reconciled by the warring parties: minor uprisings were suppressed, and Jacob's attempt ended in complete failure. Bolingbroke, branded the name of a traitor, was expelled from the applicant’s court. Since then, he never again managed to take a place in the government, although in 1723 he received permission from Walpole to return to his homeland and took advantage of this.

However, his political activity did not end. Bolingbroke chose only another field, namely journalism , and in this field he earned the fame of one of the most prominent writers. The estates were returned to him only 2 years after his return by a parliamentary act, while the doors of the House of Lords remained closed to him forever. Meanwhile, after the death of his first wife (1718), he was married to the widow of the Marquis de Villette , niece of Madame de Maintenon . He lived with her partly in England, partly in France and smashed the ministry in the press, namely in the newspaper “ Craftsman ” (“Magician”), which was an extraordinary success. After Walpole's resignation (1742), his hope of joining power again did not materialize. Bolingbroke died after a long painful illness in his family estate in Battersea .

Between the writings of Bolingbroke, which brought him fame as one of the greatest writers in England, his book Letters on the study and use of history , 1735, was especially popular, where he was the first to demand that history from the contemplation of the dead, I turned to the contemplation of the living, ridiculed the addiction and idolatry of scientists for everything that bears the seal of decay and pedantry, setting the historian's task in the struggle for freedom, exposing the lies and hypocrisy on which any hierarchy rests. In another essay, A Dissertation upon parties , he argues that true freedom is inseparable from strife and strife; that in constitutional states the vigilant supervision of the people and each individual over the government and its measures is an essential need, and that no form of government, no organization can protect from popular movements, and therefore free institutions are condemned for this in vain. “Even theocracy, judging by the history of the Jews, was not without its unrest; even the Tabernacle of the Covenant did not maintain religion in its purity, but the state in the proper order. ” The complete works of Bolingbrook, published by Mallet in 1754, were condemned by the grand jury at Westminster as dangerous to religion, morality, the state, and public peace.

• Bolingbrook is often considered the prototype of Gulliver in Jonathan Swift 's Travel to Liliput (Swift was a close friend of Bolingbroke). The accusation of high treason during the Lilliputian war with Blefuscu against Gulliver, his flight to Blefuscu, the figures of the Lilliputian king, heir and first minister ( Robert Walpole ) recall the situation during the struggle between Great Britain and France and Bolingbroke's biography.
• Henry Bolingbroke is a character in the play by E. Scribe “A Glass of Water” . In the Soviet film adaptation, this role was played by Kirill Lavrov . The play of the Maly Theater with Yevgeny Velikhov in the role of Lord Bolingbrook is also known (his 1957 television version has been preserved).

• Letters on the study and benefits of history. M .: Nauka, 1978 ( Monuments of historical thought ).

• Bolingbrok / T. L. Labutina // “Banquet Campaign” 1904 - Big Irgiz. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 2005. - P. 726. - ( Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 3). - ISBN 5-85270-331-1 .
• Bolingbroke, Henry // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 ext.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.