[1] See _Anne Boleyn_, by P. Friedman; _The Early Life of Anne
Boleyn_, by J.H. Round; and J. Gairdner in _Eng. Hist. Review_, viii.
53, 299, and x. 104.
[2] According to the _Chronicle of King Henry VIII._, tr. by M.A.S.
Hume, p. 68, she was his mistress.
[3] Of this there is no direct proof, but the statement rests upon
contemporary belief and chiefly upon the extraordinary terms of the
dispensation granted to Henry to marry Anne Boleyn, which included
the suspension of all canons relating to impediments created by
"affinity rising _ex illicito coitu_ in any degree even in the
first." Froude rejects the whole story, _Divorce of Catherine of
Aragon_, p. 54; and see Friedman's _Anne Boleyn_, ii. 323.
[4] _Cat. of St. Pap. England and Spain_, iii. pt. ii. p. 327.
[5] According to Cranmer, _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ vi. p.
300, the only authority; and Cranmer himself only knew of it a
fortnight after. The marriage was commonly antedated to the 14th of
November 1532.
[6] _Cat. of St. Pap. England and Spain_, v. 198.
[7] _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, x. pp. 374, 381, 385.
[8] According to the most trustworthy accounts, but see _Letters and
Papers_, x. p. 382. The well-known letter to Henry VIII. attributed
to her is now recognized as an Elizabethan forgery.
[9] _Archaeologia_, xxiii. 64.
[10] _Letters and Papers_, x. 358.
[11] "Sanuto Diaries," October 31, 1532, in _Cal. of St. Pap.
Venetian_, iv. p. 365.
[12] _Original Letters_, ed. by Sir H. Ellis, 1 ser. ii. 37, and
_Cal. of St. Pap. Venetian_, iv. 351, 418.
BOLGARI, or BOLGARY, a ruined town of Russia, in the government of
Kazan, 4 m. from the left bank of the Volga, in 55 deg.N. lat. It is
generally considered to have been the capital of the Bulgarians when
they were established in that part of Europe (5th to 15th century).
Ruins of the old walls and towers still survive, as well as numerous
_kurgans_ or burial-mounds, with inscriptions, some in Arabic
(1222-1341), others in Armenian (years 557, 984 and 986), and yet others
in Turkic. Upon being opened these tombs were found to contain weapons,
implements, utensils, and silver and copper coins, bearing inscriptions,
some in ordinary Arabic, others in Kufic (a kind of epigraphic Arabic).
These and other antiquities collected here (1722) are preserved in
museums at Kazan, Moscow and St Petersburg. The ruins, which were
practically discovered in the reign of Peter the Great, were visited and
described by Pallas, Humboldt and others. The city of Bolgari was
destroyed by the Mongols in 1238, and again by Tamerlane early in the
following century, after which it served as the capital of the Khans
(sovereign princes) of the Golden Horde of Mongols, and finally, in the
second half of the 15th century it became a part of the principality of
Kazan, and so eventually of Russia. The Arab geographer Ibn Haukal
states that in his time, near the end of the 10th century, it was a
place of 10,000 inhabitants.
See Ibn Fadhlan, _Nachrichten uber die Wolga Bulgaren_ (Ger. trans. by
Frahn, St Petersburg, 1832).
BOLI, the chief town of a sanjak of the Kastamuni vilayet in Asia Minor,
altitude 2500 ft., situated in a rich plain watered by the Boli Su, a
tributary of the Filiyas Chai (_Billaeus_). Pop. (1894) 10,796 (Moslems,
9642; Greeks, 758; Armenians, 396). Cotton and leather are manufactured;
the country around is fertile, and in the neighbourhood are large
forests of oak, beech, elm, chestnut and pine, the timber of which is
partly used locally and partly exported to Constantinople. Three miles
east of Boli, at Eskihissar, are the ruins of _Bithynium_, the
birthplace of Antinous, also called _Antinoopolis_, and in Byzantine
times _Claudiopolis_. In and around Boli are numerous marbles with Greek
inscriptions, chiefly sepulchral, and architectural fragments. At Ilija,
south of the town, are warm springs much prized for their medicinal
properties.
BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT (1678-1751), English statesman and
writer, son of Sir Henry St John, Bart. (afterwards 1st Viscount St
John, a member of a younger branch of the family of the earls of
Bolingbroke and barons St John of Bletso), and of Lady Mary Rich,
daughter of the 2nd earl of Warwick, was baptized on the 10th of October
1678, and was educated at Eton. He travelled abroad during 1698 and 1699
and acquired an exceptional knowledge of French. The dissipation and
extravagance of his youth exceeded all limits and surprised his
contemporaries. He spent weeks in riotous orgies and outdrank the most
experienced drunkards. An informant of Goldsmith saw him once "run naked
through the park in a state of intoxication." Throughout his career he
desired, says Swift, his intimate friend, to be thought the Alcibiades
or Petronius of his age, and to mix licentious orgies with the highest
political responsibilities.[1] In 1700 he married Frances, daughter of
Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., of Bucklebury, Berkshire, but matrimony
while improving his fortune did not redeem his morals.
He was returned to parliament in 1701 for the family borough of Wootton
Bassett in Wiltshire. He declared himself a Tory, attached himself to
Harley (afterwards Lord Oxford), then speaker, whom he now addressed as
"dear master," and distinguished himself by his eloquence in debate,
eclipsing his schoolfellow, Walpole, and gaining an extraordinary
ascendancy over the House of Commons. In May he had charge of the bill
for securing the Protestant succession; he took part in the impeachment
of the Whig lords for their conduct concerning the Partition treaties,
and opposed the oath abjuring the Pretender. In March 1702 he was chosen
commissioner for taking the public accounts. After Anne's accession he
supported the bills in 1702 and 1704 against occasional conformity, and
took a leading part in the disputes which arose between the two Houses.
In 1704 St John took office with Harley as secretary at war, thus being
brought into intimate relations with Marlborough, by whom he was treated
with paternal partiality. In 1708 he quitted office with Harley on the
failure of the latter's intrigue, and retired to the country till 1710,
when he became a privy councillor and secretary of state in Harley's new
ministry, representing Berkshire in parliament. He supported the bill
for requiring a real property qualification for a seat in parliament. In
1711 he founded the Brothers' Club, a society of Tory politicians and
men of letters, and the same year witnessed the failure of the two
expeditions to the West Indies and to Canada promoted by him. In 1712 he
was the author of the bill taxing newspapers. But the great business of
the new government was the making of the peace with France. The refusal
of the Whigs to grant terms in 1706, and again in 1709 when Louis XIV.
offered to yield every point for which the allies professed to be
fighting, showed that the war was not being continued for English
national interests, and the ministry were supported by the queen, the
parliament and the people in their design to terminate hostilities. But
various obstacles arose from the diversity of aims among the allies; and
St John was induced, contrary to the most solemn obligations, to enter
into separate and secret negotiations with France for the security of
English interests. In May 1712 St John ordered the duke of Ormonde, who
had succeeded Marlborough in the command, to refrain from any further
engagement. These instructions were communicated to the French, though
not to the allies, Louis putting Dunkirk as security into possession of
England, and the shameful spectacle was witnessed of the desertion by
the English troops of their allies almost on the battlefield.
Subsequently St John received the congratulations of the French
minister, Torcy, on the occasion of the French victory over Prince
Eugene at Denain.
In August St John, who had on the 7th of July been created Viscount
Bolingbroke and Baron St John of Lydiard Tregoze, went to France to
conduct negotiations, and signed an armistice between England and France
for four months on the 19th. Finally the treaty of Utrecht was signed on
the 31st of March 1713 by all the allies except the emperor. The first
production of Addison's _Cato_ was made by the Whigs the occasion of a
great demonstration of indignation against the peace, and by Bolingbroke
for presenting the actor Booth with a purse of fifty guineas for
"defending the cause of liberty against a perpetual dictator"
(Marlborough). In the terms granted to England there was perhaps little
to criticize. But the manner of the peacemaking, which had been carried
on by a series of underhand conspiracies with the enemy instead of by
open conferences with the allies, and was characterized throughout by a
violation of the most solemn international assurances, left a deep and
lasting stain upon the national honour and credit; and not less
dishonourable was the abandonment of the Catalans by the treaty. For all
this Bolingbroke must be held primarily responsible. In June his
commercial treaty with France, establishing free trade with that
country, was rejected. Meanwhile the friendship between Bolingbroke and
Harley, which formed the basis of the whole Tory administration, had
been gradually dissolved. In March 1711, by Guiscard's attempt on his
life, Harley got the wound which had been intended for St John, with all
the credit. In May Harley obtained the earldom of Oxford and was made
lord treasurer, while in July St John was greatly disappointed at
receiving only his viscountcy instead of the earldom lately extinct in
his family, and at being passed over for the Garter. In September 1713
Swift came to London, and made a last but vain attempt to reconcile his
two friends. But now a further cause of difference had arisen. The
queen's health was visibly breaking, and the Tory ministers could only
look forward to their own downfall on the accession of the elector of
Hanover. Both Oxford[2] and Bolingbroke had maintained for some time
secret communications with James, and promised their help in restoring
him at the queen's death. The aims of the former, prudent,
procrastinating and vacillating by nature, never extended probably
beyond the propitiation of his Tory followers; and it is difficult to
imagine that Bolingbroke could have really advocated the Pretender's
recall, whose divine right he repudiated and whose religion and
principles he despised. Nevertheless, whatever his chief motive may have
been, whether to displace Oxford as leader of the party, to strengthen
his position and that of the faction in order to dictate terms to the
future king, or to reinstate James, Bolingbroke, yielding to his more
impetuous and adventurous disposition, went much further than Oxford.
It is possible to suppose a connexion between his zeal for making peace
with France and a desire to forward the Pretender's interests or win
support from the Jacobites.[3] During his diplomatic mission to France
he had incurred blame for remaining at the opera while the Pretender was
present,[4] and according to the Mackintosh transcripts he had several
secret interviews with him. Regular communications were kept up
subsequently. In March 1714 Herville, the French envoy in London, sent
to Torcy, the French foreign minister in Paris, the substance of two
long conversations with Bolingbroke in which the latter advised patience
till after the accession of George, when a great reaction was to be
expected in favour of the Pretender. At the same time he spoke of the
treachery of Marlborough and Berwick, and of one other, presumably
Oxford, whom he refused to name, all of whom were in communication with
Hanover.[5] Both Oxford and Bolingbroke warned James that he could have
little chance of success unless he changed his religion, but the
latter's refusal (March 13) does not appear to have stopped the
communications. Bolingbroke gradually superseded Oxford in the
leadership. Lady Masham, the queen's favourite, quarrelled with Oxford
and identified herself with Bolingbroke's interests. The harsh treatment
of the Hanoverian demands was inspired by him, and won favour with the
queen, while Oxford's influence declined; and by his support of the
Schism Bill in May 1714, a violent Tory measure forbidding all education
by dissenters by making an episcopal licence obligatory for
schoolmasters, he probably intended to compel Oxford to give up the
game. Finally, a charge of corruption brought by Oxford in July against
Bolingbroke and Lady Masham, in connexion with the commercial treaty
with Spain, failed, and the lord treasurer was dismissed or retired on
the 27th of July.
Bolingbroke was now supreme, and everything appeared tending inevitably
to a Jacobite restoration. The Jacobite Sir William Windham had been
made chancellor of the exchequer, important military posts were placed
in the hands of the faction, and a new ministry of Jacobites was
projected. But now the queen's sudden death on the 1st of August, and
the appointment of Shrewsbury to the lord treasurership, instantly
changed the whole scene and ruined Bolingbroke. "The earl of Oxford was
removed on Tuesday," he wrote to Swift on the 3rd of August, "the queen
died on Sunday! What a world is this and how does fortune banter us!"
According to Herville, the French envoy, Bolingbroke declared to him
that in six weeks he could have secured everything. Nevertheless the
exact nature of his projects remains obscure. It is probable that his
statement in his letter to Windham that "none of us had any very settled
resolution" is true, though his declaration in the _Patriot King_ that
"there were no designs on foot ... to place the crown on the head of the
Pretender" is a palpable falsehood. His great object was doubtless to
gain supreme power and to keep it by any means, and by any betrayal that
the circumstances demanded; and it is not without significance perhaps
that on the very day of Oxford's dismissal he gave a dinner to the Whig
leaders, and on the day preceding the queen's death ordered overtures to
be made to the elector.[6]
On the accession of George I. the illuminations and bonfire at Lord
Bolingbroke's house in Golden Square were "particularly fine and
remarkable,"[7] but he was immediately dismissed from office. He retired
to Bucklebury and is said to have now written the answer to the _Secret
History of the White Staff_ accusing him of Jacobitism. In March 1715 he
in vain attempted to defend the late ministry in the new parliament; and
on the announcement of Walpole's intended attack upon the authors of the
treaty of Utrecht he fled in disguise (March 28, 1715) to Paris, where
he was well received, after having addressed a letter to Lord Lansdowne
from Dover protesting his innocence and challenging "the most
inveterate of his enemies to produce any instance of his criminal
correspondence." Bolingbroke in July entirely identified himself with
the interests of the Pretender, whose secretary he became, and on the
10th of September he was attainted. But his counsel was neglected for
that of ignorant refugees and Irish priests. The expedition of 1715 was
resolved upon against his advice. He drew up James's declaration, but
the assurances he had inserted concerning the security of the Church of
England were cancelled by the priests. He remained at Paris, and
endeavoured to establish relations with the regent. On the return of
James, as the result of petty intrigues and jealousies, Bolingbroke was
dismissed from his office. He now renounced all further efforts on the
Pretender's behalf.[8] Replying to Mary of Modena, who had sent a
message deprecating his ill-will, he wished his arm might rot off if he
ever used pen or sword in their service again![9]
He now turned to the English government in hopes of pardon. In March
1716 he declared his final abandonment of the Pretender and promised to
use his influence to secure the withdrawal of his friends; but he
refused to betray any secrets or any individuals. He wrote his
_Reflexions upon Exile_, and in 1717 his letter to Sir W. Windham in
explanation of his position, generally considered one of his finest
compositions, but not published till 1753 after his death. The same year
he formed a liaison with Marie Claire Deschamps de Marcilly, widow of
the marquis de Villette, whom he married in 1720 after the death in 1718
of Lady Bolingbroke, whom he had treated with cruel neglect. He bought
and resided at the estate of La Source near Orleans, studied philosophy,
criticized the chronology of the Bible, and was visited amongst others
by Voltaire, who expressed unbounded admiration for his learning and
politeness. In 1723, through the medium of the king's mistress, the
duchess of Kendal, he at last received his pardon, returned to London in
June or July, and placed his services at the disposal of Walpole, by
whom, however, his offers to procure the accession of several Tories to
the administration were received very coldly. During the following
winter he made himself useful in France in gaining information for the
government. In 1725 an act was passed enabling him to hold real estate
but without power of alienating it.[10] But this had been effected in
consequence of a peremptory order of the king, against Walpole's wishes,
who succeeded in maintaining his exclusion from the House of Lords. He
now bought an estate at Dawley, near Uxbridge, where he renewed his
intimacy with Pope, Swift and Voltaire, took part in Pope's literary
squabbles, and wrote the philosophy for the _Essay on Man_. On the first
occasion which offered itself, that of Pulteney's rupture with Walpole
in 1726, he endeavoured to organize an opposition in conjunction with
the former and Windham; and in 1727 began his celebrated series of
letters to the _Craftsman_, attacking the Walpoles, signed an
"Occasional Writer." He gained over the duchess of Kendal with a bribe
of L11,000 from his wife's estates, and with Walpole's approval obtained
an audience with George. His success was imminent, and it was thought
his appointment as chief minister was assured. In Walpole's own words,
"as St John had the duchess entirely on his side I need not add what
must or might in time have been the consequence," and he prepared for
his dismissal. But once more Bolingbroke's "fortune turned rotten at the
very moment it grew ripe,"[11] and his projects and hopes were ruined by
the king's death in June.[12] Further papers from his pen signed "John
Trot" appeared in the _Craftsman_ in 1728, and in 1730 followed _Remarks
on the History of England by Humphrey Oldcastle_, attacking the
Walpoles' policy. The assault on the government prompted by Bolingbroke
was continued in the House of Commons by Windham, and great efforts were
made to establish the alliance between the Tories and the Opposition
Whigs. The Excise Bill in 1733 and the Septennial Bill in the following
year offered opportunities for further attacks on the government, which
Bolingbroke supported by a new series of papers in the _Craftsman_
styled "A Dissertation on Parties"; but the whole movement collapsed
after the new elections, which returned Walpole to power in 1735 with a
large majority.
Bolingbroke retired baffled and disappointed from the fray to France in
June, residing principally at the chateau of Argeville near
Fontainebleau. He now wrote his _Letters on the Study of History_
(printed privately before his death and published in 1752), and the
_True Use of Retirement_. In 1738 he visited England, became one of the
leading friends and advisers of Frederick, prince of Wales, who now
headed the opposition, and wrote for the occasion _The Patriot King_,
which together with a previous essay, _The Spirit of Patriotism_, and
_The State of Parties at the Accession of George I._, were entrusted to
Pope and not published. Having failed, however, to obtain any share in
politics, he returned to France in 1739, and subsequently sold Dawley.
In 1742 and 1743 he again visited England and quarrelled with Warburton.
In 1744 he settled finally at Battersea with his friend Hugh Hume, 3rd
earl of Marchmont, and was present at Pope's death in May. The discovery
that the poet had printed secretly 1500 copies of _The Patriot King_
caused him to publish a correct version in 1749, and stirred up a
further altercation with Warburton, who defended his friend against
Bolingbroke's bitter aspersions, the latter, whose conduct was generally
reprehended, publishing a _Familiar Epistle to the most Impudent Man
Living_. In 1744 he had been very busy assisting in the negotiations for
the establishment of the new "broad bottom" administration, and showed
no sympathy for the Jacobite expedition in 1745. He recommended the
tutor for Prince George, afterwards George III. About 1749 he wrote the
_Present State of the Nation_, an unfinished pamphlet. Lord Chesterfield
records the last words heard from him: "God who placed me here will do
what He pleases with me hereafter and He knows best what to do." He died
on the 12th of December 1751, his wife having predeceased him in 1750.
They were both buried in the parish church at Battersea, where a
monument with medallions and inscriptions composed by Bolingbroke was
erected to their memory.
The writings and career of Bolingbroke make a far weaker impression upon
posterity than they made on contemporaries. His genius and character
were superficial; his abilities were exercised upon ephemeral objects,
and not inspired by lasting or universal ideas. Bute and George III.
indeed derived their political ideas from _The Patriot King_, but the
influence which he is said to have exercised upon Voltaire, Gibbon and
Burke is very problematical. Burke wrote his _Vindication of Natural
Society_ in imitation of Bolingbroke's style, but in refutation of his
principles; and in the _Reflections on the French Revolution_ he
exclaims, "Who now reads Bolingbroke, who ever read him through?" Burke
denies that Bolingbroke's words left "any permanent impression on his
mind." Bolingbroke's conversation, described by Lord Chesterfield as
"such a flowing happiness of expression that even his most familiar
conversations if taken down in writing would have borne the press
without the least correction," his delightful companionship, his wit,
good looks, and social qualities which charmed during his lifetime and
made firm friendships with men of the most opposite character, can now
only be faintly imagined. His most brilliant gift was his eloquence,
which according to Swift was acknowledged by men of all factions to be
unrivalled. None of his great orations has survived, a loss regretted by
Pitt more than that of the missing books of Livy and Tacitus, and no art
perishes more completely with its possessor than that of oratory. His
political works, in which the expression is often splendidly eloquent,
spirited and dignified, are for the most part exceedingly rhetorical in
style, while his philosophical essays were undertaken with the chief
object of displaying his eloquence, and no characteristic renders
writings less readable for posterity. They are both deficient in
solidity and in permanent interest. The first deals with mere party
questions without sincerity and without depth; and the second, composed
as an amusement in retirement without any serious preparation, in their
attacks on metaphysics and theology and in their feeble deism present no
originality and carry no conviction. Both kinds reflect in their
Voltairian superficiality Bolingbroke's manner of life, which was
throughout uninspired by any great ideas or principles and thoroughly
false and superficial. Though a libertine and a free-thinker, he had
championed the most bigoted and tyrannical high-church measures. His
diplomacy had been subordinated to party necessities. He had supported
by turns and simultaneously Jacobite and Hanoverian interests. He had
only conceived the idea of _The Patriot King_ in the person of the
worthless Frederick in order to stir up sedition, while his eulogies on
retirement and study were pronounced from an enforced exile. He only
attacked party government because he was excluded from it, and only
railed at corruption because it was the corruption of his antagonists
and not his own. His public life presents none of those acts of devotion
and self-sacrifice which often redeem a career characterized by errors,
follies and even crimes.
One may deplore his unfortunate history and wasted genius, but it is
impossible to regret his exclusion from the government of England. He
was succeeded in the title as 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, according to the
special remainder, by his nephew Frederick, 3rd Viscount St John (a
title granted to Bolingbroke's father in 1716), from whom the title has
descended.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Bolingbroke's collected works, including his chief
political writings already mentioned and his philosophical essays
_Concerning the Nature, Extent and Reality of Human Knowledge_, _On
the Folly and Presumption of Philosophers_, _On the Rise and Progress
of Monotheism_, and _On Authority in Matters of Religion_, were first
published in Mallet's faulty edition in 1754,--according to Johnson's
well-known denunciation, "the blunderbuss charged against religion and
morality,"--and subsequently in 1778, 1809 and 1841. _A Collection of
Political Tracts_ by Bolingbroke was published in 1748. His _Letters_
were published by G. Parke in 1798, and by Grimoard, _Lettres
historiques, politiques, philosophiques, &c._, in 1808; for others see
Pope's and Swift's _Correspondence_; W. Coxe's _Walpole_; Phillimore's
_Life of Lyttelton_; _Hardwick State Papers_, vol. ii.; _Marchmont
Papers_, ed. by Sir G.H. Rose (1831); Letters to Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke in _Add. MSS. Brit. Museum_ (see Index, 1894-1899), mostly
transcribed by W. Sichel; _Hist. MSS. Comm., MSS. of Marquis of Bath,
Duke of Portland at Welbeck_; while a further collection of his
letters relating to the treaty of Utrecht is in the British Museum.
For his attempts at verse see Walpole's _Royal and Noble Authors_
(1806), iv. 209 et seq. See also bibliography of his works in Sichel,
ii. 456, 249.
A life of Bolingbroke appeared in his lifetime about 1740, entitled
_Authentic Memoirs_ (in the Grenville Library, Brit. Mus.), which
recounted his escapades; other contemporary accounts were published in
1752 and 1754, and a life by Goldsmith in 1770. Of the more modern
biographies may be noted that in the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ by Sir
Leslie Stephen, 1897; by C. de Remusat in _L'Angleterre au 18me
siecle_ (1856), vol. i.; by T. Macknight (1863); by J. Churton Collins
(1886); by A. Hassall (1889); and by Walter Sichel (1901-1902),
elaborate and brilliant, but unduly eulogistic. (P. C. Y.)