Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

attributed to Unknown French artist
oil on canvas, circa 1712-1714
56 1/2 in. x 44 in. (1435 mm x 1118 mm)
Purchased, 1879
Primary Collection
NPG 593

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Painted wearing his peer's robes as a Viscount, perhaps in 1712 when he was in Paris as ambassador. The carved and gilt oak frame is French and probably the original.

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Events of 1712back to top

Current affairs

Whig MP, Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford is found guilty by Parliament of 'a high breach of trust and notorious corruption', over reserving army forage contracts for banker, Robert Mann, and imprisoned in the Tower. Walpole would later become the first British Prime Minister in all but name in 1721.

Art and science

Mock epic poem, The Rape of the Lock, by satirical poet Alexander Pope is first published.
Ironmonger Thomas Newcomen demonstrates his invention of the atmospheric steam engine in London.
Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, commissions a mechanical solar system model from mechanic John Rowley who names it an orrery.

International

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and John Robinson, bishop of Bristol, are appointed plenipotentiaries to the Utrecht peace congress. Foundations for peace between Britain and France, were based on preliminary agreements previously negotiated in London and Paris, the details of which were unbeknownst to the plenipotentiaries or Britain's allies.

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