Roger Comstock
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Roger Comstock is a fictional character in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle of novels. He is one of the "Golden Comstocks", a member of the Royal Society, and a key player in the events leading to the Hanoverian Succession.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In The System of the World, Roger Comstock acts as the leader of the Whig faction in opposition to the Tory Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke played a similar, though not identical role, in the real events of 1714.
Comstock's character appears to be heavily modelled on Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, who also:
- had a long association with Isaac Newton
- had an affair with Catherine Barton
- was involved in the recoinage
- was regent after the death of Queen Anne
- was First Lord of the Treasury after the accession of George I
- died shortly after the accession of George I
