Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

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Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
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Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke , (born September 16, 1678 in Battersea , † December 12, 1751 in Battersea), was a British politician and philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment . The surname St. John is pronounced [ ˈsɪnd͡ʒən ], the title Bolingbroke [ ˈbʊlɪŋbrʊk ] or [ ˈbɒlɪŋbrʊk ].

Youth and family

He was the eldest son of Sir Henry St. John, 3rd Baronet , from his first marriage to Lady Mary Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick . In 1716 his father was promoted to Viscount St. John . He first attended Eton College and then studied at the University of Oxford . In the following years he led the life of an extravagant idler. In 1700 he married Frances Winchcombe, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe, 2nd Baronet, without affecting his lifestyle. The marriage remained childless.

After the death of his first wife in 1720 in French exile, he married again, Marie Claire Deschamps de Marcilly, the widow of the Marquis de Villette; No children were born from this marriage either.

Since he remained childless, his nephew Frederick St. John inherited his title of nobility on his death .

Minister under Queen Anna

In 1701, St. John became a Tory member of the House of Commons . He managed to influence the politics of his party relatively quickly. Despite his party affiliation, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , gave him the post of Secretary at War in 1704, who was responsible for the administration and organization of the army. Under pressure from the Whig Party, he had to give up this office in 1708.

St. John temporarily withdrew into private life and pursued scientific studies. However, he continued to maintain his social relations at court and with Queen Anne herself. This led in 1710 to the second highest office of minister, namely that of Secretary of State for the Northern Department with responsibility for Scotland and the north of England as well as relations with the Protestant states. In this role he played a key role in bringing about the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. This peace agreement ended the War of the Spanish Succession . Great Britain was awarded in particular naval bases in the Mediterranean.

In 1711 he planned the Québec Expedition , a campaign of conquest by land and sea against the city of Québec in New France . The expedition ended in disaster when eight ships capsized in the St. Lawrence River ; 890 soldiers and sailors lost their lives. On July 7, 1712, despite this setback, St. John was bestowed the hereditary titles of Viscount Bolingbroke in the County of Lincoln and Baron St. John of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts . In the same year he moved to what was then the highest government office, Secretary of State for the Southern Department. At the same time there were growing differences with Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer , the second "heavyweight" in the government. He was ousted from government by St. John in 1714.

According to St. John, the political survival of the Tory government could only be secured under a king from the House of Stuart after the expected death of Queen Anna . He therefore did everything possible to strengthen the position of James Francis Edward Stuart ( The Old Pretender ). He fought the influence of the Whigs by peering in the House of Lords and tried to strengthen the role of the Tories in the House of Commons. Shortly before the Queen's death, Bolingbroke was tasked with forming a new government. A coup d'état in favor of the Stuarts failed because the Privy Council , over which he had no influence, made Georg I from the House of Hanover his successor.

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Exile and opposition

St. John was deposed immediately after George I took office. He fled to Paris after the attacks against him and his policies increased. There he had demonstrably contacts to the pioneers of the Enlightenment , and he also regularly took part in the Saturday meetings at the Club de l'Entresol . After various unsuccessful attempts, he was allowed to return to England in 1723. Although he got his possessions back, he was excluded from any political office, and he could not even take the seat in the House of Lords that was actually due to him. He blamed Prime Minister Robert Walpole for this, whom he sharply attacked in numerous, often anonymous, writings. He was one of the leading figures of the opposition ("Country" party), which was formed for the first time as a permanent group during this time and finally achieved the overthrow of Walpole and the "Court" party. St. John was one of the first to advocate the thesis that every government wears out with increasing term of office and will ultimately fail because of its mistakes if the parliamentary minority only openly denounces these mistakes and presents itself to the electorate as an unspent alternative.

Besides being a politician St. John was also a political writer of the Enlightenment . He was in regular contact with Voltaire , Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift . In 1738 he wrote his work on parties "Dissertation on parties" and the idea of ​​a patriotic king "Idea of ​​a patriot king" . The Letters on the study of history ( 1752 ) were condemned as dangerous to the established religion, state and church by the grand jury of Westminster. His works were particularly read in the American colonies. His influence on 18th-century American political theorists such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson has long been underestimated in research.

literature

  • Hans Herzfeld (ed.): History in shapes. Vol. 1 Frankfurt, 1981. ISBN 3-596-24524-9 , pp. 168f.
  • Andreas Urs Sommer: Critical-moral exempla history in the Age of Enlightenment. Viscount Bolingbroke as a philosopher of history, in: Saeculum. Yearbook for Universal History, vol. 53 (2002), half-volume. 2, pp. 269-310.
  • John Churton Collins, Bolingbroke. A Historical Study. Voltaire in England, New York 1886.
  • Brean S. Hammond, Pope and Bolingbroke. A Study of Friendship and Influence, Columbia (Missouri) 1984.

Web links

Commons : Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, Volume 1, page 207
  2. ^ A b Daniel Jones: English Pronunciation Dictionary. 15th edition 1997. ISBN 3-12-539682-4
predecessor Office successor
New title created Viscount Bolingbroke
1712-1751 		Frederick St. John
personal data
SURNAME St. John, Henry, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES St. John, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1678
PLACE OF BIRTH Battersea
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1751
Place of death Battersea