However, on his return to England, Stanley, who had long proved adept at political manouevring, turned his back on Richard and submitted to Henry IV of England.
Mary de Bohun was brought up here and married Henry of Bolingbroke who became King Henry IV.
The study of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke wakened his interest in theology, and, breaking off his studies, he set out for Paris.
In July 1714, during Queen Anne's last illness, the unexpected presence of Argyll and the Duke of Somerset at the Privy Council prevented Bolingbroke from taking full power on the fall of Oxford, and thus perhaps secured the Hanoverian succession.
In 1387, the Lords Appellant launched an armed rebellion against King Richard and defeated an army under Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford at the skirmish of Radcot Bridge, outside Oxford (this was the only battle that Bolingbroke, a renowned jouster, won in command through his life).
They seem to have been unsuccessful in establishing their claim, for Lord Bolingbroke (the next heir) took possession of the two houses in Park Lane and Albemarle Street that had belonged to Mrs Child.
In 1943, the local authority, the Corporation of Swindon, bought the house and its park from Henry, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke, in a dilapidated state.
In a joint letter from Alexander Pope and Bolingbroke to Swift, dated December 1725, the ‘late ordinary’ is described ironically as the ‘great historiographer.’ The penitence of his clients is always described as so heartfelt that the latter are playfully called by Richard Steele ‘Lorrain's Saints’.