Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke

Bolingbroke's insistence on maintaining a bachelor's lifestyle (which included lavish spending, a string of mistresses, heavy drinking and gambling) after their marriage, coupled with verbal and, possibly, physical spousal abuse, led to a bitter separation between Bully and the popular and artistic Lady Diana.

Bolingbroke brought divorce proceedings against his wife for her criminal conversation with Topham Beauclerk, with whom she bore a child.

Even before his divorce his tight finances led to his sponsoring changes in law that allowed inheritors to sell off family properties.

In the meantime he never stopped searching for an heiress old enough or unattractive enough (and therefore desperate to marry) to wed a man of questionable finances and reputation.

Bolingbroke was not especially popular outside of a certain set while Lady Diana's circle included the eccentric and intelligent Dr Samuel Johnson and the fashionable political hostess, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.