Aargau, Switzerland

Ancient Argovia, it is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the River Aare. The Canton of Lucerne lies to the south.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Aaron

He was the brother of Moses according to the Bible.

BkXLI:Chap5:Sec1 For the miracles of Aaron’s rod see Exodus VII, and as Chateaubriand cites Numbers XVII.

 

Aaron, Saint

d. after 552. The Briton Saint Aaron crossed into Armorica (Brittany) and lived as a hermit on the island of Cesambre, called Saint Aaron until 1150 and now part of Saint Malo. The island was separated from Aleth by an arm of the sea, which the tide at low water left dry twice daily. Eventually Aaron was joined by a group of disciples and became their abbot. Among the disciples was Saint Malo, who arrived from Wales about the middle of the 6th century and was warmly welcomed. A parish church in the diocese of Saint Brieuc bears Aaron’s name (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 BkIX:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkI:Chap4:Sec8 His chapel.

BkI:Chap5:Sec2 He drove out the pirates.

 

Abaillard, Pierre (Peter Abelard)

1079-1142. A French philosopher and churchman, he was born near Nantes. His ill-fated marriage to Héloïse, niece of a canon of Paris, led to his castration in 1118. He retired to a Breton monastery, and she became a nun. Noted as a logician he sought to reconcile faith and reason, his Sic et Non (Yes and No, or For and Against) listed points on which authorities differed and so caused outrage.

BkIII:Chap14:Sec2 BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Attacked by Saint Bernard at the Council held in Sens in 1140.

 

Abbatucci, Jacques-Pierre

1723-1813. One of the major Corsican leaders, and the principal opponent of Paoli, from 1769 he served the French as an officer in the army. After the Revolution, when Paoli returned and took the island over to the English, Abbatucci led the pro-French faction. They were unsuccessful, and Abbatucci had to retire to Toulon. The Committee of Public Safety had him appointed to the Army of the Rhine and Moselle as a general of division in April 1795. He did not take up the post due to a reorganisation, and was instead appointed to the Army of Italy on 17 December 1795 as general of brigade. He joined the army immediately, and was promoted general of division on 16 April 1796. He was not actively employed by Bonaparte during the 1796 campaign. His retirement was authorised on 7 December 1796, but he continued to draw the pay of an active officer until 23 September 1800, when he was given a pension.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 Napoleon’s early opinion of him.

 

Abbeville, Comtesse d’

She was an unknown Countess of the d’Abbeville family.

BkI:Chap4:Sec7 Guilty of marital infidelity: a ballad penned regarding her that was sung in Saint-Malo.

 

Abbo

c859-922. Abbo Cernuus (‘The Crooked’) was a French Benedictine monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, sometimes called Abbo Parisiensis. He was born about the middle of the ninth century, was present at the siege of Paris by the Normans (885-86), and wrote a description of it in Latin verse, with an account of subsequent events to 896, ‘De bellis Parisiacae urbis.’ He also left some sermons for the instructions of clerics in Paris and Poitiers.

BkXXII:Chap13:Sec1 His description of the siege.

 

Abdalla-Aga

He was the ex-Governor of Jaffa.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Defeated in the Siege of Jaffa, 1799.

 

Abd-El-Ouad

The Beni-Abd-el-Ouad were a Berber (ethnic group of North-west Africa) dynasty.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Abel

Murdered by his brother Cain, See Genesis IV:6-8.

BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aben-Hamet

A character in Les Aventures du dernier Abencérages (1826) by Chateaubriand, Aben-Hamet the last of his Moorish tribe falls in love, in Granada, with the devout Christian girl, Blanca, an impossible liaison since they are fated to be eternally separated by their faith.

Preface:Sect2. BkXL:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from the work.

 

Abencérage, Les Aventures du dernier

Chateaubriand’s story of 1826. See Aben-Hamet.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 The translator was Edvige de’ Battisti di San Giorgio de Solari (1808-1867).

 

Abensberg

In Bavaria, on the Abens, a tributary of the Danube, 18 miles south-west of Regensburg, the town is the Castra Abusina of the Romans, The Battle of Abensberg took place on April 20, 1809, between the French, Württembergers (VIII Corps) and Bavarians (VII Corps) under Napoleon numbering about 90,000 strong, and 80,000 Austrians under the Archduke Louis of Austria and Generaal Hiller. Napoleon succeeded in turning the Austrian flank, exposed by the defeat of their right, and Louis was forced to retreat.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Abercrombie or Abercromby, James

1706-1781. A British general in the French and Indian Wars, born in Scotland, he arrived in America in 1756 and in 1758 replaced the Earl of Loudon as supreme British commander. After failing to take Ticonderoga from General Montcalm, Abercrombie was replaced (1758) by Jeffery Amherst.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Abigail

She was the Jewish widow whose voice David ‘hearkened to’, and whom he married. See 1st Samuel:XXV.35

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Abou-Gosh

A Bedouin chief controlling the mountains of Judea, he escorted Chateaubriand in 1806, Lamartine in 1832.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 A letter from him.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aboukir (Abu Quir), Egypt

A village on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, 14.5 miles northeast of Alexandria, containing a castle used as a state prison by Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Near the village are many remains of ancient buildings, Egyptian, Greek and Roman. About two miles southeast of the village are ruins supposed to mark the site of Canopus. A little farther east the Canopic branch of the Nile (now dry) entered the Mediterranean. Stretching eastward as far as the Rosetta mouth of the Nile is spacious Abu Qir Bay (Khalīj Abū Qīr), where on 1 August 1798, Horatio Nelson fought the Battle of the Nile, often referred to as the ‘Battle of Aboukir Bay’. The latter title is applied more properly to an engagement between the French expeditionary army and the Turks fought on 25 July 1799. Near Abū Qīr, on 8 March 1801, the British army commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby landed from its transports in the face of a strenuous opposition from a French force entrenched on the beach.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec1 The battle of July 1799.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec1 The naval battle of 1798.

 

Abraham

The patriarch and founder of the Hebrew nation according to the Bible, he was supposedly born at Ur in Chaldea c2000BC. He travelled to Haran (Mesopotamia), Canaan, and Egypt and returned to Canaan where he settled. His grandson Jacob had twelve sons the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec5 Mentioned.

 

Abrantès, Laure-Adelaïde de Saint-Martin-Permon, Laure Junot, Duchesse d’

1784-1838. After her father died in 1795, Laure lived with her mother, Panonia de Comnène, Madame Permon, who was a friend of Napoleon’s mother, and established a distinguished Parisian salon that was frequented by Napoleon.  It was Napoleon who arranged the marriage in 1800 between Laure and his aide-de-camp Andoche Junot. Laure accompanied her husband to Portugal, where he was ambassador (1804–05). The marriage was unhappy, and Laure had affairs with Prince Metternich, Austrian ambassador to Paris (1806–09), and, later, with a Royalist aristocrat, Maurice de Balincourt. Always generous to the Junots, Napoleon became annoyed with Laure’s entertaining former émigrés and ordered her to leave Paris after her husband’s death (1813). Though she persuaded the minister of police to let her return, the Second Restoration (1815) saw the final collapse of her fortunes. After many years in Rome, she returned to Paris, where she completed her Mémoires sur Napoléon, la Révolution, le Consulat, l'Empire et la Restauration, (1831–35). Noted as a vehicle of caustic wit and extravagance, her memoirs, which are often incorrect, are also often malicious, especially with regard to Napoleon.

BkXIX:Chap2:Sec1 Her speculations regarding Napoleon’s family. The Comnène family name derived from the Greek.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 The Comnène family was resident in Corsica as head of a Greek colony in the 17th century. The Permon family had a house on the Quai Conti in Paris according to Chateaubriand.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 See her Memoirs of Napoleon, Chapter 13.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 A friend of Napoleon in Paris in 1795. Her salon was held at the Hôtel de la Tranquillité, on the Rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas (off the Rue Vivienne, in the 2eme arondissement). See her Memoirs of Napoleon, Chapter 14.

 

Abruzzo

A region of central Italy it borders Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Until 1963 it was part of the Abruzzi e Molise region (with Molise). The term Abruzzi is an obsolete plural denomination from a time when the Bourbons administered the territory as ‘Nearer Abruzzo’ (Abruzzo Citeriore) and ‘Farther Abruzzo’ (Abruzzo Ulteriore). The Apennine mountain chain runs through it.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Acadia

The former French colony in Eastern Canada centred on Nova Scotia. The original French settlement was destroyed by the British in 1613. Conflict continued until 1763 when the whole region fell to the British. Many Acadians were deported and settled in Louisiana, where their descendants the Cajuns still live. Longfellow’s poem Evangeline tells their story. Note that old charts take Canada to mean the Saint-Lawrence and the Upper Mississippi while Louisiana or the Floridas means everything south of the Ohio.

BkVII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Acerbi (Virginia)

 

Achard de Villerai, Comte

An officer in the Navarre Regiment, he was second lieutenant in 1787, first lieutenant in 1789.

BkIV:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand encountered him in 1786.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec1 They met again in Paris in 1792 and indulged in gambling.

 

Acheloüs

The River god in Greek mythology was in some tales father of the Sirens by Calliope the Muse or by Phorcys. The Sirens were depicted as birds with the heads of women, or as mermaids with tails like fish as here.

BkXLII:Chap2:Sec1 See also Horace: Ars Poetica: line 4.

 

Achilles

The Greek hero of the Trojan War, he was the son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and the sea-goddess Thetis (See Homer’s Iliad).

BkI:Chap3:Sec4 His grave at the entrance to the Hellespont.

BkIII:Chap1:Sec3 A painting of him killing Hector displayed at Combourg.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 A scene on a Greek vase, of his dragging Hector’s corpse behind his chariot.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 He was wounded in the heel by the Trojan Paris.

BkXXVIII:Chap11:Sec1 The anger of Achilles over the girl Briseis opens Homer’s account of the Trojan War in Iliad:I

BkXXVIII:Chap15:Sec1 Chateaubriand uses an etymology for the name Achilles of a-chylos, khylos in Greek meaning pap, from the legend that he never suckled at his mother’s breast. It is normally derived as a-kheilos, meaning lipless, since he never put his lips to her breast.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 Priam goes to his tent to beg for the body of Hector. See Homer’s Iliad XXIV.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 A noted charioteer.

 

A’Court, Sir William

1779-1860. He was extraordinary envoy to Spain in 1822, he was then Ambassador to Portugal in 1824, and Russia (1828-1832).

BkXXVII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Acre, Saint-Jean d’

The port in north-west Israel, on the Bay of Haifa (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), the city was captured (638) by the Arabs, who developed its natural harbour. In 1104 it was captured in the First Crusade and was held by Christians until 1187, when it was taken by Saladin. In the Third Crusade it was won back (1191) by Guy of Lusignan, Richard I of England, and Philip II of France, who gave it to the Knights Hospitalers (the Knights of St. John, hence its French name). For the next century it was the centre of the Christian possessions in the Holy Land. Its surrender and virtual destruction by the Saracens in 1291 marked the decline of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the effective end of the Crusades. ‘Akko’ was taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1517 and was revived in the late 18th century under Dahir al-Umar, the local Ottoman ruler. In 1799, Ottoman forces, with the aid of Great Britain, withstood a 61-day siege by Napoleon I. The city was taken in 1832 by Ibrahim Pasha for Muhammad Ali of Egypt, but European and Ottoman forces won it back for the Ottoman Empire in 1840.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 BkXX:Chap7:Sec1

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 Napoleon’s siege of the town in 1799. It was also named Ptolemais in the third century BC by Ptolemy II.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 The Pactum Warmundi was a treaty of alliance established in 1123 between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Republic of Venice, it gave the Venetians special rights in Acre which they had captured, and in Ascalon and Tyre which they had agreed to attack. The Venetian communes in Acre and Tyre were particularly powerful and influential in the 13th century after the Kingdom lost Jerusalem and was reduced to a coastal state. They resisted Emperor Frederick II’s attempts to claim the Kingdom, and virtually ignored the authority the Lord of Tyre, conducting affairs instead as if they controlled their own independent lordship.

 

Actes des Apôtres

A satirical Royalist newspaper, filled with verse anagrams, acrostics, etc. edited by Jean Gabriel Peltier (1770-1825).

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 BkX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Adalbéron

d. 998 Archbishop of Rheims, he was Chancellor of Kings Lothair and Louis V of France. He was a seventh generation descendant of Charlemagne. On Louis’ death, in 987, Adalberon and Gerbert of Aurillac addressed the elctoral assembly at Senlis in favour of Hugh Capet, to replace the Carolingian monarch. Adalbéron pleaded: ‘Crown the Duke. He is most illustrious by his exploits, his nobility, his forces. The throne is not acquired by hereditary right; no one should be raised to it unless distinguished not only for nobility of birth, but for the goodness of his soul’ Capet was elected and crowned at Noyon, 3 July in that year by Adalbéron.

BkXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Adam

The first man according to Genesis 1-4, he committed original sin by eating of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’, and was expelled from the Garden of Eden.

BkIII:Chap14:Sec2 Chateaubriand slightly alters his quote from the final lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost, XII: ‘The World was all before them…’

BkXIII:Chap11:Sec2 BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 Mankind as the children of Adam.

BkXV:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes Genesis 3:22.

BkXXV:Chap12:Sec1 See Genesis 3:24 for the flaming sword.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec3 As portrayed by Tasso.

BkXLII:Chap12:Sec1 See Genesis 3:19.

 

Adamastor

BkXXIV:Chap14:Sec1 The giant of the tempests invented by Camoëns.

 

Addison, Joseph

1672-1719. The Essayist, poet and Whig statesman, he was elected to Parliament in 1708. Contributed to Steele’s journal the Tatler, and in 1771 founded the Spectator with him, for which he contributed his elegant and witty essays. He also wrote a tragedy Cato (1713).

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 The Spectator mentioned.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap19:Sec1 He published his Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in 1705, having travelled on the Continent between 1699 and late 1703.

 

Adélaïde d’Orléans, Eugene Adélaïde Louise

1777-1847. The daughter of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and the sister of King Louis-Philippe of France. She moved to the United States in 1801 and married George Casper von Schroeppel, a Prussian-born tea merchant who was a naturalized American citizen and lived in New York City. In 1814, when her brother Louis-Philippe returned to France to later become King, she left her family and returned to live in his household. Now known as Madame Adélaïde, she became his loyal advisor. She died two months before the overthrow of Louis-Philippe’s regime.

BkXXXII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned. Chateaubriand refers to her as Mademoiselle to deny her Royal legitimacy.

 

Adélaïde de France (Marie-Adélaïde)

1732-1800 The third daughter of Louis XV, she emigrated with her sister Victoire in 1791, and after sojourns in Rome and Naples settled in Trieste.

BkV:Chap9:Sec1 She remained with the King Louis XVI after the fall of the Bastille.

BkV:Chap15:Sec1 She and her sister, as aunts of the King, were referred to as Mesdames. They left for Rome in February 1791.

BkXXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap9:Sec1 The sisters’ deaths in Trieste.

 

Admetus

King of Pherae in Thessaly, he was famed for his hospitality.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec2 Apollo, God of the Arts and the Lyre, served as his shepherd when he was banned for nine years from Oylmpus.

 

Admetus

5th century BC. King of Molossus, he is remembered for his hospitable reception of the banished Themistocles, in spite of the fact that the great Athenian had persuaded his countrymen to refuse the alliance tardily offered by the Molossians when victory against the Persians was already secured.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 Themistocles sought sanctuary with him.

 

Adrian I, Pope

d. 795. Pope 772-795. In his contest with the Eastern Roman Empire and the Lombard dukes of Benevento, Adrian remained faithful to the Frankish alliance.

BkII:Chap10:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Adrianople (Edirne), Turkey

A city in Thrace, the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. The city was known as Adrianople, named after its Roman re-founder. The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 15 major battles or sieges, since the days of the ancient Greeks. In particular, the catastrophic defeat of the Roman Emperor Valens by the Visigoths took place nearby. The city was, occupied by Imperial Russian troops in 1829, during the war of Greek independence.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Aeneid, Aeneas

The epic by Virgil concerns the story of Aeneas, the Trojan Prince.

BkII:Chap3:Sec4 Chateaubriand refers to Book IV of the Aeneid, which describes the love of Dido for Aeneas.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 A reference to Book I.

BkXXIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Virgil frequently uses the epithet pious of Aeneas.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Aeneas mentioned in Voltaire’s Candide. (All the names from Aeneas to Lavinia are from the Aeneid.)

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 A fanciful derivation.

BkXLI:Chap2:Sec1 For Aeneas’ meeting with Dido in the Underworld see Aeneid VI:450-476.

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 A reference to Book IV.

 

Aeschylus

c525-456BC. The Greek tragic dramatist wrote over 80 plays of which 7 survive.  He introduced a second actor, and allowed dialogue and action independent of the Chorus, and innovated in costume and scenery.

BkIII:Chap5:Sec1 His play Agamemnon in the Oresteian Trilogy. Chateaubriand describes the opening scene, and quotes line 82.

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aesculapius (Asclepius)

The Graeco-Roman god of medicine was the son of Apollo (god of healing, truth, and prophecy) and the nymph Coronis. The Centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt. Homer, in the Iliad, mentions him only as a skillful physician; in later times, however, he was honoured as a hero and eventually worshiped as a god. The cult began in Thessaly but spread to many parts of Greece. Asclepius was frequently represented standing, dressed in a long cloak, with bare breast; his usual attribute was a staff with a serpent coiled around it. This staff is the only true symbol of medicine. A similar but unrelated emblem, the caduceus, with its winged staff and intertwined serpents, is frequently used as a medical emblem but is without medical relevance since it represents the magic wand of Hermes, or Mercury, the messenger of the gods and the patron of trade.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Agamemnon

The king of Mycenae, son of Atreus, brother of Menelaüs, husband of Clytaemnestra, father of Orestes, Iphigenia, and Electra. He was the leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. See Homer’s Iliad. Aeschylus’ play is the first part of his Oresteian Trilogy concerning Agamemnon and the aftermath of his murder.

BkIII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Agha or Aga

Aga was the name for a Turk of high rank or social position, especially during the Ottoman Empire.

BkXXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Agincourt, Battle of

The battle at Agincourt (now in the Pas-de-Calais) on the 25th of October 1415, during the Hundred Years’ War, saw the French defeated by an English army under Henry V. The victory was attributed to the English archers.

BkXXIII:Chap16:Sec1 A French defeat, compared to Waterloo

 

Agincourt, Jean-Baptiste Seroux d’

1730-1814. An art historian, with a prior fortune, he settled in Rome in 1779 and lived there till his death, one of the well-known members of the French colony there. Chateaubriand referred to him as ‘the French Winckelmann’, He published his vast encyclopaedia of the art of the Middle Ages between 1810 and 1824.

BkXV:Chap2:Sec1 Visited Madame de Beaumont in Rome in 1803.

 

Agnadello, Italy

A Lombard village, between Milan and Bergamo, near which Louis XII defeated the Venetians on May 14th 1509, one of his rare victories in Italy.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Agoult, Anne-Charlotte de Choisy, Vicomtesse d’

1760-1841. She emigrated to Vienna and then accompanied the Dauphine to Mittau. She married Antoine-Jean d’Agoult (1750-1828) who became Governor of Saint-Cloud.

BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 In Prague in May 1833.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 At dinner with the Dauphine in Carlsbad in May 1833.

 

Agricola

40-93 AD. Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 Tacitus’ life of Agricola mentioned.

 

Agrippina the Younger

15-59AD. Her uncle the Emperor Claudius was also her third husband. The mother of Nero, she possibly murdered Claudius to make way for a son who ultimately murdered her.

BkVII:Chap10:Sec1 Her trained thrush that could utter Greek words. See Pliny: Natural History X.73.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Murdered by her son Nero.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 The mother of Nero.

 

Aguesseau, Henri François d’

Chancellor of France.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 Example of parliamentary magistrate.

 

Aguesseau, Marquis d’

1752-1826. Son of Henri François d’Aguesseau. Academician and and deputy to the Constitutional Assembly. Under the Empire he became a senator in 1805 and a Peer of France in 1814.

 

Aguesseau, Marie-Catherine de Lamoignon. Marquise d’

1759-1843. The wife (married 1775) of the Marquis d’Aguesseau, and sister of Auguste and Christian de Lamoignon. She returned from emigration with Chateaubriand.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Travelled to France with Chateaubriand in May1800. The young relative was her daughter, Georgina Howard, born in 1796, from her relationship with George Howard. She brought her to France as her adopted daughter and Chateaubriand acted as legal guardian until her marriage, at the start of the Restoration.

 

Aigues-Mortes, France

An impressive and beautiful walled medieval town it lies in the marshes of the Camargue. Saint-Louis commissioned the building of the town as a port in 1246, and left for Tunis (where he died shortly afterwards) from there in 1270.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec4 Chateaubriand visited in July 1838.

 

Aiguillon, Emmanuel-Armand-Désiré de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, Duc d’

1750-1800. A French Statesman he was a nephew of the Marechal de Richelieu. In 1789, as a member of the National Assembly, he became one of the first to ally himself with the Third Estate and to renounce the privileges of the nobility. He became a general in the Republican Army, but had to flee during the Reign of Terror of 1793-1794. He died in 1800 in Hamburg.

BkV:Chap10:Sec1 He attacked aristocratic privileges in the National Assembly on 4th August 1789.

 

Aiguillon, Jeanne-Victoire Henriette de Navailles, Vicomtesse de Saint-Martin, Baronne d’Ossat, Duchesse d’

d.1818. The wife of the Duke of Aiguillon (married 1785).

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aix-en-Provence, France

A city in southern France in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, it was the capital of Provence in the Middle Ages. Its university was founded in 1409.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec2 Napoleon nearby on his journey to Elba in 1814..

 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Aachen

The city in West Germany, in North-Rhine Westphalia is near the Belgian and Dutch borders. It was the northern capital of Charlemagne’s empire and many Holy Roman Emperors were crowned in the cathedral (built 796). It was annexed by France in 1801 and passed to Prussia in 1815.

BkIX:Chap8:Sec2 Louis XI instituted a cult of Charlemagne and in 1483 offered a reliquary and a cover of cloth of gold to re-clothe his tomb, as well as an annual offering paid until 1775. Louis XVI offered his predecessor’s mortuary robe for the tomb.

BkXXVII:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1

The Congress or Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle held in the autumn of 1818, was primarily a meeting of the four allied powers Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France, and the nature of any modifications to the relations of the four powers towards each other, and collectively towards France. The map on which the Prussians had outlined unacceptable French borders was drawn up for the Second Treaty of Paris in 1815, but later handed over in 1818 as evidence of Alexander’s goodwill towards France.

 

Ajaccio

The French capital of Corsica, Ajaccio is located on the west coast of the island, 210 nautical miles southeast of Marseille. It occupies a sheltered position at the foot of wooded hills on the northern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The Sanguinaire (Sanguinière) Islands 12km west take their name from their reddening at sunset.

BkXIX:Chap2:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Bonaparte’s  birthplace.

BkXXIV:Chap12:Sec1 Napoleon first asked to be buried in the Cathedral but altered his will.

 

Akerman, Convention of

Signed on October 7th 1826 it forced the Sultan to recognise Russian power in the Balkans, in accord with the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Alain III, Duke of Brittany, Comte de Rennes

Born about 997, died 1 October 1040. The son of Geofroi (Godfrey) I Duc de Bretagne (980-1008), he was the brother of Eudes de Porhoet, Comte de Penthièvre, the father of Thiern.

BkI:Chap1:Sec4 Claimed as Thiern’s grandfather by Chateaubriand.

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 Chateaubriand asserts his ancestry.

 

Alain I le Roux, Alan Rufus, Duke of Brittany

?1040-1093 Commander of the Breton contingent at Hastings in 1066.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Presented with substantial lands by William the Conqueror in Yorkshire and built the castle at Richmond in Yorkshire in 1071.

 

Alaric I, King of the Visigoths

c370-410. Alaric stormed and sacked Rome (410) and then marched south to attack Sicily and Africa. A storm destroyed his fleet, and Alaric, having turned back, died of illness. His brother Ataulf was elected his successor. It is said that Alaric was buried with his treasures near Cosenza in the bed of the Busento River, which was temporarily diverted from its course. That the secret of his burial place might be kept, the slaves employed were killed.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 Entered Rome through the Porta Pia.

BkXXII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 His sack of Rome.

BkXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 His burial beneath the Busento.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 The Huns crossed the Danube in numbers under Alaric c396.

 

Alaric II, King of the Visigoths

d. 507. Visigothic king of Spain and of S Gaul (c.484-507), son and successor of Euric, he issued (506) at Toulouse the Breviary of Alaric for his Roman subjects. Alaric’s adherence to Arianism gave Clovis I, king of the Franks, an easy pretext for attacking him in the name of orthodoxy. Alaric was defeated and slain at Vouillé (507), and the Visigoths lost all their possessions in Gaul except Septimania.

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Albani, Giuseppe, Cardinal

1750-1834. His uncle Gianfresco had been Dean of the Sacred College and the leader of the Austrian faction in the Conclave of Venice in 1800. He himself was at the Court of Vienna 1794-1801. From 1825 he was Cardinal-Legate in Bologna.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap6:Sec1

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec2 He exercised the veto (exclusion) on behalf of Austria in the Conclave of 1823.

BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap6:Sec2 BkXXX:Chap8:Sec1

BkXXX:Chap10:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 Appointed Secretary of State in 1829.

 

Albani (L’Albane), Francesco

1578-1660. An Italian painter of the Bolognese School, he often painted devotional pictures in oil on copper, for example his extant Annunciation of the Virgin in Private Collection.

BkIII:Chap1:Sec3 A Holy Family of his on copper, owned by Chateaubriand.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Napoleon shipped artworks back to France.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 His use of chiaroscuro, with obscured figures at the edges of his paintings. 

 

Albano, Italy

Albano (derived from the ancient Alba Longa) is situated ten miles from Rome, on the Appian Way.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Albany, Count of, See Charles-Edward Stuart

 

Albany, Caroline de Stolberg, Countess of

She was the wife of the Count of Albany.

 

Albany, United States

The capital of New York State on the Hudson River, it was founded by the Dutch in 1614. At that time it had Dutch community, and was a small town with three or four thousand inhabitants.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand visited in 1791, sometime in August. He left to visit Niagara.

 

Albéric des Trois Fontaines

d.c.1252. A Cistercian monk and chronicler who produced c.1241 a chronicle of remarkable events from the Creation to his own times.

BkIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Alberoni, Guilio, Cardinal

1664-1752. Bishop Emeritus of Málaga at his death, he was a Cardinal from 1717. He was premier Minister of Philip V of Spain, but retired to Rome after the failure of the Cellamare conspiracy.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 A pen portrait of him by de Brosses. He did not participate in the Conclave of 1740.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 His instigation of the Cellamare conspiracy.

 

Albert Le Grand, Albertus Magnus

(1193? – 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican friar who became famous for his universal knowledge and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. He is considered to be the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. He was the first medieval scholar to apply Aristotle’s philosophy to Christian thought at the time.

BkI:Chap4:Sec5 Mentioned.

 

Albigensians (Albigeois)

Literally, the inhabitants of Albi, the city in southern France. However, the term was used to refer to the followers of Catharism, a Gnostic-like religious movement of southern France in the 12th and 13th century. The name is somewhat misleading as the centre of the religious movement was Toulouse. They believed that the principles of good and evil continually oppose each other in the world. The Albigenses opposed marriage, bearing children (because they thought bringing life into the world to be a sin), and eating meat. They advocated suicide, especially by starvation (so that when they died, they would have little taint on them and be free of Earthly desires). In the 14th century the church declared them heretics. Following the Crusades against them the movement had all but vanished by the 15th century.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 Mentioned.

 

Albitte, Antoine-Louise

1761-1812. A lawyer, and Member of the National Convention, he was a Montagnard. He returned to Dieppe and became mayor (1796). He served in the army under the Consulate and First Empire and died on the retreat from Moscow.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec2 After 9th Thermidor (27th July 1794) he sat in the Thermidorean Convention.

 

Albrizzi, Isabella Teotochi Marini, Contessa

1760-1836. The beautiful Isabella conducted a noted salon in Venice, and was the dazzling Muse of Denon, Byron, Walter Scott and others. 

BkXXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap17:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 Her Ritratti (1807) were a series of literary portraits.

 

Alcaeus

6th century BC. The Greek lyric poet, he was a member of the aristocracy of Lesbos and a friend of Sappho, he went into exile when the tyrant Pittacus gained power. His work, only fragments of which survive, was greatly admired by Horace.

BkXII:Chap3:Sec1 The precise cadences in the classical pronunciation of his work are unknown today.

 

Alcea

A courtesan, she was a previous incarnation of Pythagoras, according to Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights, IV.11.14.)

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alcestis

The daughter of Pelias, she was the wife of King Admetus in Greek mythology, and voluntarily gave up her life for his. In some variants of the myth she is subsequently rescued from the underworld. 

BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Chateaubriand considers himself bound for ruin.

 

Alcibiades

450-404BC. Athenian politician and general during the Peloponnesian War, in 415 Alcibiades was appointed one of the commanders of an Athenian expedition against Sicily, but was recalled to answer charges of sacrilege and fled to Sparta. Further scandal led to his flight to Persia, but he rehabilitated himself with the Athenians and played a leading part at Cyzicus in 410. He was given command of Athenian forces in Asia Minor but was replaced after his lieutenant's defeat off Notium in 407. He was murdered shortly after the war ended.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 His Napoleonic rise and fall. The analogy is rather weak.

BkXXII:Chap 22:Sec1 As a famous Athenian, charged with public affairs.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 See the reference in Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, to his lisp.

BkXXVIII:Chap11:Sec1 See the tale in Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades:VII

BkXXXIV:Chap14:Sec1 Thucydides says nothing of Socrates when talking about Alcibiades.

 

Alcinous

The King of the Phaeacians, in Homer’s Odyssey, his island has been identified with Corfu.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 See Odyssey VII.

 

Alembert, Jean Le Rond d’

1717-1783. He was a French mathematician and philosopher who wrote the influential Treatise of Dynamics (1743). He also contributed to Diderot’s Encyclopédie.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec1 A major European name.

 

Alderney

The third largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, separated from France by the dangerous race of Alderney Channel.

BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand nearly shipwrecked there early in 1792.

BkX:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrives on nearby Guernsey in late 1792.

 

Aldus Manutius (Aldo Manuzio, born Teobaldo Manucci)

1449-1515. Called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius the Younger, he was an Italian printer, founder of the Aldine Press. He was born at Bassiano (Latium), part of the Papal States. He settled in Venice in 1490.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alessandria, Italy

Alessandria (Italian: Provincia di Alessandria) is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Alessandria.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Alexander, Fredrick Augustus, Captain

1806-1863. An English captain in the Royal Engineers at St Helena.

BkXXIV:Chap16:Sec1 He supervised the exhumation of Napoleon’s remains on St Helena on the 15th October 1840.

 

Alexander the Great

356-323BC. The Macedonian general, son of Philip II, he conquered most of the world known to antiquity. He was a pupil of Aristotle. He invaded Persia and defeated Darius at the Issus in 333. In 332 he reduced Tyre. He conquered Egypt and Babylon in 331, and entered India 327-325. Forced to turn back by a reluctant army he died in Babylon. He adopted a novel political philosophy of appointing subject races to posts of responsibility.

BkVI:Chap3:Sec1 BkVII:Chap8:Sec1 BkIX:Chap15:Sec1

BkXIII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1His royal birth. His famous horse was Bucephalus, see Plutarch, Alexander 6.1. The king’s stallion died of battle wounds in June of 326 BC in Alexander’s last great battle on the left bank of the Hydaspes. He founded two cities there, Alexandria Nicaea (to celebrate his victory) and Bucephala (modern Jhelum), named after Bucephalus.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 The Casket Homer was an edition edited by Aristotle, which Alexander always carried about with him, and laid under his pillow at night with his sword. After the battle of Arbe’la, a golden casket richly studded with gems was found in the tent of Darius; and Alexander being asked to what purpose it should be assigned, replied, ‘There is but one thing in the world worthy of so costly a depository,’ saying which he placed in it his edition of Homer.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3 Considered himself a messenger of the gods.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 His conquest of Palestine in 333BC.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec2 Women not his priority.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 See Strabo III.5, ‘Alexander set up altars, at the limits of his Indian Expedition’.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec4 A saying of his. See Plutarch, Alexander, CI.

BkXXIV:Chap7:Sec1 His legacy of conquest and glory.

BkXXIV:Chap8:Sec1 An almost mythical figure of medieval epic.

BkXXIV:Chap12:Sec1 Alexander defeated the Persians at the Strymon River estuary in 479BC and was there at other times.

BkXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 The quotation from Maccabees refers to his successors, the Diadochs.

BkXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 His burial site was in Memphis, Egypt, according to Diodorus. The coffin (see Diodorus 18.26.3) on its way to Aigai was probably lost during transport and interception by Ptolemy.

BkXXVIII:Chap20:Sec1 His greatness of spirit lacking in Napoleon.

BkXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 The civilising influence of the Greeks on Asia.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 On being told that ‘whoever undid the knot (tied by a peasant Gordius in dedicating his wagon to Jupiter) would reign over the East’, Alexander cut it in two with his sword, thus it represents any action taken to resolve a difficult situation by a decisive stroke.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 His death supposedly from drinking too much wine (which was possibly poisoned) in Babylon in 323BC.

BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 His breastplate, with a design of the plan of Alexandria. Suetonius claims Caligula stole a breastplate from Alexander’s tomb at Alexandria, the tomb itself is now lost.

 

Alexander I of Russia

1777-1825. Emperor of Russia 1801-1825. France’s defeat of Russia at Friedland in 1807 forced him to agree to the Treaty of Tilsit which lasted until Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. After Napoleon’s defeat Russia controlled the Congress Kingdom of Poland. He turned to religious mysticism and entered into a Holy Alliance with Austria and Prussia in 1815, later withdrawing into seclusion.

Preface:Sect1 BkXXIII:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand mentions meeting him.

BkXVI:Chap9:Sec1 BkXX:Chap5:Sec2 BkXXII:Chap9:Sec1

BkXXII:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 His entry into Paris in 1814.

BkXX:Chap1:Sec1 Jomini his aide-de-camp.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec2 Became Emperor in March 1801 after his father’s assassination.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec1 His meeting with Frederick William III at Potsdam in October 1805.

BkXX:Chap11:Sec1 Napoleon’s mistrust of him.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 His religious faith.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 His silence regarding the burning of Moscow. BkXXI:Chap4:Sec2 Correspondence between him and Napoleon.

BkXXII:Chap1:Sec1 In Warsaw in 1813. His proclamation.

BkXXII:Chap4:Sec1 In Dresden in 1813.

BkXXII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 Saw Moreau in Prague in 1813.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 His proclamation from Kalisz, 25th March 1813.

BkXXII:Chap6:Sec1 Part of the victorious Coalition at Leipzig.

BkXXII:Chap12:Sec1 His speech in Paris in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec1 His hesitation regarding the French succession.

BkXXII:Chap17:Sec1 He stayed with Talleyrand in Paris in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap19:Sec1 Napoleon’s attempts to negotiate with him in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap 21:Sec1 Visited Louis XVIII at Compiègne in 1814. Celebrated mass in the Place de la Concorde on April 10th 1814, and left Paris on 2nd June.

BkXXII:Chap 23:Sec1 His interest in intellectual matters.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec2 At the Congress of Vienna.

BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 His anger at the death of the Duc d’Enghien.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 His meeting with Napoleon at Erfurt in 1810.

BkXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 His moderation avoided war with Turkey in 1822.

BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec3

He had died on the 1st December 1825, and should have been succeeded by his brother Constantin (1779-1831) who renounced the throne in favour of his younger brother Nicholas.

BkXXVIII:Chap17:Sec1 His espousal of liberal institutions.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 He died in 1825.

 

Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia

1431-1503. Pope 1492-1503. The most controversial of the secular popes of the Renaissance and one whose surname became a byword for the debased standards of the papacy of that era.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Alexander VII, Fabio Chigi

1599-1667. Pope from 1655, his nepotism disappointed those who had elected him to reform the Papacy.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Alexandra Feodorovna

Frederica Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina, known as Charlotte of Prussia (1798-1860), the fourth child of Frederick William III, became the Grand Duchess Nicholas (1821) and then Empress of Russia (1825), as the wife of her second cousin Nicholas I. She took the name Alexandra Fedorovna

BkIV:Chap1:Sec2 Their marriage took place in July 1817.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand met them in Berlin in 1821.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec2 Her father’s love for her.

 

Alexandria, Egypt

The chief seaport and second largest city in Egypt, founded in 322BC by Alexander the Great, partly on the island of Pharos, linked to the mainland by a mole. It remained the Egyptian capital for over a thousand years. It was a Greek and Jewish cultural centre with a famous library. In 30BC it fell to the Romans. It declined following the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope passage, and the removal of the capital to Cairo.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1806.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec2 BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 A letter dated from there.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec2 Napoleon took the city on July the 2nd 1798. Eudore in Les Martyrs (Book IX) calls the great library at Alexandria ‘le dépôt des remèdes de l’âme’, following Bossuet (Discours sur l’histoire universelle, III.3)

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 Julius Caesar fighting there in 48BC.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 The Convention of Alexandria was signed on the 15th of June 1800. It accorded France control of Italy as far as Mincio. The Republic was saved and Bonaparte was back in Paris on July 2.

 

Alfieri, Vittorio

1749-1803. A major Italian tragic poet and dramatist, author of Antigone, Oreste, Saul etc. He wrote a colourful autobiography, entitled Vita.

Preface:Sect3. He is mentioned by Chateaubriand.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 The memoirs were published in 1804 (translated into French 1809). Chateaubriand quotes from Vita III.4

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 A quote from his  Rime I:24 (dated 31st March 1783)

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 He secretly married the Pretender’s ex-wife, Caroline of Stolberg-Goedern.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Chateaubriand quotes from Vita IV:13.

 

Alfred the Great

849-899. King of Wessex (871-899), and styled himself King of England. Born at Wantage, he prevented the Danish conquest of England, defeating the invaders at the key battle of Ethandun, a site probably identified with Edington in Wiltshire (878).

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Any direct association with Oxford and the claims that he founded the university are possible but unsubstantiated. Probably the oldest surviving college, University College was founded by William of Durham in 1249.

 

Algiers

The capital of Algeria, an important Mediterranean port, it was originally founded by the Phoenicians. It was re-established by the Arabs in the 10th century. It became a base for Barbary pirates until taken by the French in 1830. On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded Algiers in 1830; however, intense resistance from such personalities as Emir Abdelkader, Ahmed Bey and Fatma N'Soumer made for a slow conquest of Algeria, not technically completed until the early 1900s when the last Tuareg were overcome. Meanwhile, however, the French made Algeria an integral part of France, a status that would end only with the collapse of the Fourth Republic.

BkVI:Chap4:Sec1 A pirates’ haven.

BkXXXI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 The French expedition there in 1830.

 

Alhambra

A castle on a hilly terrace outside Granada in Spain built between 1238 and 1358, and the last stronghold of the Muslim Kings of Granada. It is an outstanding example of Moorish architecture, the name deriving from the Arabic al-hamra, the red, an allusion to the red stucco used on the walls.

BkVII:Chap8:Sec1 The setting for Les Aventures du dernier Abencérages.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807. Part of the Alhambra complex, the 13th century Generalife occupies the slopes of the Hill of the Sun (Cerro del Sol), from which there is a complete view over the city and the valleys of the rivers Genil and Darro. There are different interpretations of the meaning of its name: the Governor’s Garden, the Architect’s (alarife) Garden, etc. The Generalife became a pleasure palace for the kings of Granada. The Sacromonte is a hill next to the Albaicín which is the old Arabic quarter of Granada. The Albayzín is situated in directly in front of the Alhambra. To the right of the Albayzín is a large hill which forms the neighbourhood of the Sacromonte. For many centuries it has been populated by the gypsy community, in dwellings carved from the soft rock.

 

Ali, Mehemet

1769-1849. Viceroy of Egypt for the Ottoman Empire (1805-1848). An Albanian in the Ottoman army, he seized power in Cairo. He has been seen as the founder of modern Egypt. He was succeeded by his son Ibrahim Pasha, and the dynasty survived until 1952.

Preface:Sect1 Chateaubriand mentions meeting him.

BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkXXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 The obelisk in the Place de la Concorde which he gave to Charles X in 1829 had left Luxor. It arrived in Paris in December 1833.

 

Alix-Pearce

See Catherine of Salisbury

 

Allart de Meritens, Hortense

1801-1879. A French authoress, her Novum Organum, ou Saintete Philosophique, published in 1857 in Paris, contained her theories on religious knowledge.

BkXLII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alleghanies, United States

The Allegheny Mountains (also spelled Alleghany and Allegany) are a part of the Appalachian mountain range of the eastern United States. The Alleghenies have a northeast-southwest orientiation and run through West-Central Pennsylvania, western Maryland and eastern West Virginia.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Almack’s, London

Almack’s Assembly Rooms, named after the founder William Almack, opened for business on February 13, 1765 in King's Street, St. James, London. There, for a subscription fee of 10 guineas, the fashionable men and women of London could attend a weekly Wednesday night ball with supper during the 3 months that comprised the London social season (‘The Season’).The members of the committee took it in turns to be the official Patroness of Almack’s. In the height of the Regency period the ladies acting as Patroness were Lady Sarah Jersey, Lady Castlereagh, Lady Cowper, Lady Sefton, Princess Esterhazy, and the Countess of Lieven. Members of Almack’s were permitted to bring a guest into the rooms, but only after that guest, too, had passed the scrutiny of the Patronesses. The members had to bring the guest in person, to meet the Patroness, who granted a ‘Stranger’s Ticket’ if she approved of the guest. The Assembly Rooms were opened for gambling, supper, and dancing which lasted all night. Supper was served at 11 PM, and at that time the doors were firmly shut, as the Duke of Wellington once discovered to his chagrin.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkX:Chap7:Sec1 The Almack’s orchestra played at Chateaubriand’s reception.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Lady Lieven frequented Almack’s in 1822.

 

Alost (Aalst)

A city and municipality on the Dender River, 19 miles northwest of Brussels. Aalst was taken by France in the War of Devolution and was held by the French from 1667 to 1706.

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s nephews encamped there in 1815.

BkXXIII:Chap16:Sec1 The Duc de Berry’s courier coming from there with news of the prelude to Waterloo.

 

Almenach des Muses

1765-1833. A literary Almanac, produced in Paris, offering collections of verse and prose, and often publishing new authors.

BkIV:Chap9:Sec4 Chateaubriand’s idyll entitled L’amour de la campagne, by the Chevalier C***, appeared in the Almanach of 1790, page 205. It was his first printed work.

BkIV:Chap11:Sec1 Being published in it created a degree of instant fame.

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alopeus (Alopaeus), David Maximovich (Franz David), Graf von

1769-1831. Born in Sweden, he was Russian Ambassador to Berlin from 1813.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 His family described.

 

Alopeus, Comtesse d’

The wife of the Comte d’Alopeus.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alopeus, Alexandrine d’

1808-1848. The daughter of the Comte d’Alopeus, she was a maid in waiting to the Empress of Russia, and married Albert de la Ferronnays in 1834. He was the French Ambassador to St Petersburg from 1819.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Alphonse d’Aragon, King of Aragon

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 Father of Jeanne.

 

Alfonso II, d’Este, Duke of Ferrara

1533-1597. Duke of Ferrara 1559-1597, he was the son of Ercole II d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany. As a young man, he fought in the service of Henry II of France, fighting against the Habsburgs. Soon after his accession to the throne, he was forced by Pope Pius II to send his mother back to France, due to her Calvinist beliefs. In 1583 he allied himself with Emperor Maximilian II in the war against the Turks in Hungary.

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 BkXL:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Altdorf (Altorf), Switzerland

The capital of the Swiss canton of Uri lies a little above the right bank of the Reuss, not far above the point where this river is joined on the right by the Schächen torrent. Altdorf is best known as the place where, according to the legend, William Tell shot the apple from his son’s head.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 BkXXXV:Chap16:Sec1 Chateaubriand there 16th August 1832. Flüelen is at the southern end of Lake Lucerne. The Bannberg is a mountain near Altdorf, see Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell. Chateaubriand returned on the 20th of August.

 

Altenkirchen, Germany

Altenkirchen is a town and a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, capital of the district of Altenkirchen. It is located approx. 40 km east of Bonn and 40 km north of Koblenz. The battle of Altenkirchen took place on 4th June 1796, when the Austrians were beaten by Hoche.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Altieri, Madame

She was a member of the Roman nobility in 1828.

BkXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Altkirch

A commune situated in the département of Haut-Rhin in the Alsace région, between Mulhouse and Basel.

BkXXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in May 1833.

 

Amadis de Galle, Amadis of Gaul

A famous prose romance of chivalry composed in Spain or Portugal and probably based on French sources. Entirely fictional, it dates from the 13th or 14th cent., but the first extant version in Spanish, a revision by García de Rodríguez de Montalvo, was published in 1508. The original inspired innumerable variations and continuations, as well as several translations. It was immensely popular in France and Spain until superseded by Don Quixote, and it was, indeed, a sign of inelegance not to be acquainted with its code of honour and knightly perfection. Its influence is apparent in Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. The story became the subject of a lyric tragedy by Philippe Quinault (1684), with music by Lully, and it inspired the opera Amadigi (1715) by Handel.

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1  Galaor was the brother of Amadis, and the model of a courtly paladin always ready with his sword to avenge the wrongs of widows and orphans.

 

Amalasuntha

d535. Ostrogothic queen in Italy (534–35), she was the daughter of Theodoric the Great. After her father’s death (526) she was Regent for her son Athalaric. He died in 534, and she and her husband, Theodahad, became joint rulers of Italy. Her friendly relations with the Byzantine emperor Justinian I alienated her people. In 535 the Ostrogoths revolted; Amalasuntha was exiled and later murdered by order of her husband. Justinian used her murder as his pretext for attacking and re-conquering Italy.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 The daughter of Theodoric, she was exiled to the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena.

 

Amar, Jean-Pierre or Jean-Baptiste, André

1755-1816. A lawyer from Grenoble, he was a Member of the National Convention who voted for the death of the king. Arrested but acquitted after the fall of Robespierre. He died in Parisian obscurity.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Amata (Amate), Queen

The wife of King Latinus is a character in Virgil’s Aeneid.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ambon, Amboine

An island in the Moluccas (Indonesia) it lies south-west of Ceram. It is the name also of the capital of the Moluccas Province. One of the Spice Islands.

BkIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ambrugeac, Louis-Alexandre-Marie de Valon de Boucheron, Comte d’

1771-1844. Ex-Colonel in the Grand Army, Deputy for the Corrèze 1815-1823, Peer of France.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Amélie

Character in a Work by Chateaubriand. A personification of Chateaubriand himself, René appears in Atala and its Romantic sequel René (1802), where he tells the story of his youth and his sister Amélie who alarmed by too deep a love for her brother enters a convent. Amélie is based on the English girl Charlotte Ives whom Chateaubriand met during his exile in London.

Preface:Sect2. Mentioned by Chateaubriand.

 

Amélie-Marianne de Hesse-Hombourg

Princess of Prussia, see Princess Guillaume

 

Amherst, William Pitt, 1st Earl

1773-1857. A diplomat, in 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China's Qing Dynasty, with a view of establishing more satisfactory commercial relations between that country and the United Kingdom, though the mission was a failure. His ship, the Alceste, was totally wrecked on a sunken rock in Caspar Strait. Lord Amherst and part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship’s boats to Batavia, whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship in which he returned to England in 1817 having touched at St Helena, he had several interviews with the Emperor Napoleon. He later held the office of Governor-General of British India from August 1823 to February 1828. The principal event of his government was the first Burmese war of 1824.

BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 He met Napoleon on the 27th of June 1817.

 

Amiens

The city and commune in the north of France, 120 km north of Paris, is the capital of the Somme Department. The Treaty of Amiens was signed on March 25, 1802 (Germinal 4, year) by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquis Cornwallis as a ‘Definitive Treaty of Peace’ between France and the United Kingdom. Most significantly, Britain recognised the French Republic.

BkXX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 The Siege of Amiens April-September 1597 led to the re-capture of the city from the Spanish.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec3 BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 The Treaty of Amiens, see above.

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand there while quitting France in March 1815. It was the city where Du Cange was born.

 

Ampère, Jean-Jacques

1800-1864. The son of a celebrated physician from Lyons, he became a literary historian, an author, a Professor at the Collège de France, and a close and adoring friend of Madame Récamier. In 1837 Chateaubriand chose him to be his literary executor.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec5 BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkXXXV:Chap7:Sec1 He visits Chateaubriand under house arrest in 1832.

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 In 1828, he published an article in the Globe on Hanka’s poetic discoveries.

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Amphion

He was the founder of the Greek Thebes, the son of Zeus and Antiope, who built it with the use of his magic lyre.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Amphitrite

A sea-goddess, she was the daughter of Nereus and wife of Neptune. As the Nereid whom Neptune married, she represents the sea.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Amsteg, Switzerland

A town in the Canton of Uri, it is in Central Switzerland.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2  BkXXXV:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand there 17th of August 1832.

 

An der Halden, see Melchtal

 

Anacreon

6th century BC. Born on Teos, he fled to Samos before the Persian invasion, and then went to Athens, under the patronage of Hipparchus. His work survives in fragments, mainly love lyrics and drinking songs.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 See Odes XX:5-6, To A Young Girl: ‘If only I were a mirror so that you’d gaze at me endlessly.’

BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 See Odes XII:2.

 

Anchises

He was the legendary father of Aeneas by Venus.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 Ancestor of the Julian House.

 

Ancillon, Johann-Peter-Friedrich

1766-1837. A French-born Prussian statesman, foreign minister, historian, and political philosopher he worked with the Austrian statesman Metternich to preserve the reactionary European political settlement of 1815.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand seeks him out in Berlin in 1821.

BkXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 He writes to Chateaubriand on news of his resignation of July 1821.

BkXXVIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand mentions him in 1824.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 His view of the July 1830 decrees.

 

Ancona, Italy

A city and a seaport in the Marche of north-eastern Italy, it is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the capital of the region.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 Napoleon took Ancona in February 1797. In 1814 it reverted to the Papal States.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Chateaubriand was there in October 1828.

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec2 BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 Périer initiated a French expeditionary force to go to Ancona in February 1832 in protest against Austrian occupation.

 

Andilly, Robert d’Arnauld d’

1589-1674. A French writer, born in Paris, France, he was the eldest brother of Antoine Arnauld. He left the court in 1643 and retired to Port-Royal until his death. He grew trees, wrote poetry, and translated Josephus, St Theresa and, most notably, the Confessions of St Augustine.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Andréossy or Andréossi, Antoine-Francois, Comte

1761-1828. The French soldier and diplomatist, was of Italian extraction, and his ancestor Francois Andréossy (1633-1688) had been concerned with Riquet in the construction of the Languedoc Canal in 1669. He saw active service on the Rhine 1794, in Italy 1795, and in the campaign of 1796-97 was employed in engineer duties with the Army of Italy. He became chef de brigade in December 1796 and general of brigade in 1798, in which year he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt. He took part in the coup d’etat of the 18th Brumaire. Of particular importance was his term of office as ambassador to England during the short peace which followed the treaties of Amiens and Luneville. He repeatedly warned Napoleon that the British government desired to maintain peace but must be treated with consideration. His advice, however, was disregarded. When Napoleon became emperor he made him inspector-general of artillery and a Count of the Empire. From 1808 to 1809 he was French ambassador at Vienna, where he displayed hostility to Austria which was in marked contrast to his friendliness to England in 1802-1803. In the war of 1809, he was military governor of Vienna during the French occupation. In 1812 he was sent by Napoleon as ambassador to Constantinople, where he carried on the policy initiated by Sebastiani. In 1814 he was recalled by Louis XVIII. He now retired into private life, till the escape of Napoleon from Elba. In 1826 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences, and in the following year was deputy for the department of the Aude. His numerous works included scientific memoirs on the mouth of the Black Sea (1818-1819); on certain Egyptian lakes (during his stay in Egypt); and in particular the history of the Languedoc Canal (Histoire du canal du Midi, 1804), the chief credit of which he claimed for his ancestor.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 Returned to France with Napoleon in 1799.

 

Andrezel, Christophe-François-Thérèse-Élisabeth Piconi, Comte d’

An officer in the Navarre Regiment, he was nominated as sub-prefect of Saint-Dié in 1815.

BkIV:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand first encountered him in 1786.

BkIV:Chap7:Sec1 Appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Picardy Regiment, and thus leaving Cambrai.

 

Andrew, St

d.70AD. A disciple of John the Baptist, he was said to have suffered martyrdom in Patrae.

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec1 The St Andrew’s cross, a decorative variant of the cross.

 

Angelica

A character in the Orlando Furioso, she is Queen of the Kingdom of Cathay.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 BkXL:Chap3:Sec1

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Angelo Malipieri

16th century. He was The Tyrant of Padua, about whom Victor Hugo created a play set in 1549 (Staged 1835).

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Angers, France

A city in France in the département of Maine-et-Loire, 191 miles south-west of Paris. (The area surrounding Angers is more popularly known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou.) The ancient and massive Château d’Angers overlooks the city and the River Maine.

BkXXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned in Vidal’s poem cited.

 

Angerville, France

Angerville (Angerville la Gate) a small town in the Île de France between Etampes andOrléans, crossed by the roads from Paris to Orléans.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807.

 

Angevine

An autumn fair held on the 7th of September (not the 4th).

BkII:Chap2:Sec1 Described.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s father died on the eve of the Fair in 1786.

 

Anglès, Jules, Comte

1778-1828. A member of the Provisional Government, he followed Louis XVIII to Ghent. He left an interesting journal.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 Prefect of Police, April-May 1814.

 

Angoulême, France

Angoulême is located 134 kilometres from Bordeaux, between Bordeaux and Poitiers. It suffered much during the French Wars of Religion, especially in 1568 after its capture by the Protestants under Coligny.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807.

BkXXXV:Chap3:Sec1 Berryer writes from there on the 7th of June 1832.

 

Angoulême, Louis-Antoine de France, Duc d’

1775-1844. Louis-Antoine de Bourbon was the elder son of Charles X, and subsequently Monsieur le Dauphin. Brother of the Duc de Berry. When Charles X abdicated on August 2, 1830, Louis-Antoine technically became Louis XIX, King of France and of Navarre. His reign lasted only 20 minutes and he abdicated in favor of his nephew, the Duc de Bordeaux.

BkX:Chap3:Sec2 Anticipates the Restoration.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 In Warsaw when the Duc d’Enghien was abducted.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 In 1814, the year his uncle Louis XVIII acceded to the throne of France, Angoulême fought alongside Wellington to restore his cousin Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 In the Midi in 1815. His military command.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 He punished Victor in 1823 for supposed neglect of duty, and he was dismissed.

BkXXV:Chap4:Sec1 A conversation with Louis XVIII.

BkXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 Under him, in 1823, French troops, the ‘100,000 Sons of Saint Louis’, invaded Spain, captured Madrid, and drove the revolutionaries south to Cádiz and Seville. On August 31, 1823, rebel forces were routed in a battle near Cádiz, and soon after, the French freed Ferdinand VII, who had been taken from Madrid as a captive, and re-placed him on the throne. Unexpectedly, he took ruthless revenge on his opponents, revoked the 1812 constitution and restored absolute monarchy to Spain.

BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 His activities in Spain in 1823.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 Mentioned as an exile from the throne in 1828.

BkXXXI:Chap6:Sec1 He reviewed the fleet on 5th May 1830 at Toulon, after which it sailed 25th-27th May for Algiers. It consisted of 103 warships, 350 transports, 27000 marines, and 37000 troops.

BkXXXI:Chap7:Sec1 His wish to save the monarchy in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap1:Sec1 At Saint-Cloud on the 27th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Given command of the troops on the 29th of July.

BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 He receives the troops in the Bois de Boulogne. His scene with Marmont.

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 At the Pont du Sèvres on the morning of the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap2:Sec1 At Trianon on the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap25:Sec1

His abdication of his right of succession.

BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand is received by him in Prague in May 1833.

BkXXXVII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 At dinner in the Hradschin Palace on the 25th of May 1833.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 He would have been Louis XIX if he had become king.

BkXLI:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand sees him briefly in Prague in late September 1833.

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 At Bustehrad, Prague, 27th of September 1833. Chateaubriand completes his portrait of the man.

 

Angoulême, Marie-Thérèse, Duchesse d’

1778-1851. Daughter of Louis XVI, she was the wife of Louis-Antoine, and therefore known as Madame la Dauphine.

BkV:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand saw her as a child at Versailles in 1789.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 In the Midi in 1815. The troops at Bordeaux were potentially loyal to her.

BkXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 At Ghent in 1815, having travelled via England.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec1 Madame de Chateaubriand mistaken for her.

BkXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 She followed the King in exile to Hartwell.

BkXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Her delight at her husband’s success in Spain in 1823.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 Insulted on the way to the review of the National Guard on 29th April 1827 on the Champ-de-Mars.

BkXXXII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned on the 29th of July 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 At Trianon on the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 At the Marie-Thérèse Infirmary.

BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap3:Sec1

Chateaubriand carries a letter to Prague for her from the Duchess de Berry.

BkXXXVII:Chap4:Sec1 She acted as guardian to Henri V in Prague.

BkXXXVII:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand is commanded to see her in 1833,  in Carlsbad, where she is taking the waters.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 At Carlsbad in May/June 1833. She used the title Comtesse de la Marne as an incognito, deriving it from her estate at Marne-la-Coquette.

BkXXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand takes farewell of her.

BkXL:Chap4:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Anio

The Anio River (also formerly called the Teverone) flows down from the mountains at Trevi in Lazio and runs westward past Subiaco, Vicovaro, and Tivoli into the Tiber River. In antiquity, most of the Roman aqueducts had their sources either from the Anio or from streams flowing into it.

BkVII:Chap8:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Anjou, Charles I, Duc d’, Duc de Maine and Comte de Provence

1227-1285. The brother of Saint Louis, he married Raymond Bérenger’s daughter Béatrice of Provence in 1246. He participated in the 7th Crusade.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 Connected with Marseilles.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Manfred was defeated by Charles near Benevento on the plain of Grandella in 1266 ending Hohenstaufen rule in Italy.

 

Anne of Austria

1601-1666. The wife (1615-1643) of Louis XIII, whose antipathy towards her was aggravated by Richelieu. She was Regent after her husband’s death from 1643 to 1651 for her son Louis XIV, and chose her lover Mazarin to succeed Richelieu.

BkIV:Chap10:Sec2 BkXIII:Chap1:Sec1 Her presence in Dieppe.

 

Anne of Brittany

1477–1514, queen of France as consort of Charles VIII from 1491 to 1498 and consort of Louis XII from 1499 until her death. The daughter of Duke Francis II of Brittany, she was heiress to his duchy. Shortly before her father’s death (1488), a French army under Louis de La Trémoille successfully invaded Brittany and secured the duke’s promise that Anne would marry only with the consent of the French crown. Upon becoming duchess, the young Anne’s hand and her duchy were eagerly sought. To prevent France from swallowing up the duchy, a coalition including Archduke Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I), King Henry VII of England, and King Ferdinand II of Aragón sent forces to Anne’s aid. Nevertheless, Anne’s situation was perilous and she appealed (1489) directly to Maximilian for protection. In 1490, Maximilian married Anne by proxy but failed to assist her with armed strength. Besieged at Rennes in 1491, Anne was forced by the French to annul her marriage and was quickly married to Charles VIII. It was agreed that if Charles died before Anne without issue, she was to marry his successor. Accordingly, in 1499, she married Louis XII, who had previously obtained a divorce from his first wife. The marriage (1514) of Claude, Anne’s daughter by Louis XII, to Francis of Angoulême (later Francis I of France) led to the eventual incorporation (1532) by France of Brittany, which had previously remained theoretically separate.

BkI:Chap4:Sec5 She fortified Saint-Malo.

BkV:Chap2:Sec1 Brittany was part of her dowry.

 

Anne Stuart, Queen

1665-1714. Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from March 1702. On 1 May 1707, when England and Scotland became a single kingdom Anne became the first sovereign of the Kingdom of Great Britain. She continued to reign until her death. Anne was the last monarch of the House of Stuart; she was succeeded by a second-cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Anselme, Père

Père de Guibourg (d.1694) was a historian.

BkI:Chap1:Sec3 A source of information regarding Chateaubriand’s family.

 

Anson, Admiral George, Baron

1697-1762. A British Admiral, during the War of the Austrian Succession, he commanded six ships in attacks on the Spanish possessions in South America.

BkI:Chap4:Sec4 During the Seven Year’s War, on June 1–12 1758, an English expedition was mounted against Saint-Malo. An English force of 13000 men commanded by the Duke of Marlborough and a squadron of ships under Admiral Lord Anson landed at the town of Cancale, near Saint- Malo. Preparations to besiege the port were interrupted by the advance of French reinforcements, and the English troops were evacuated. See Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son (June 13th 1758).

 

Ansseville, Monsieur d’

Governor of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon according to the Royal Almanach of 1791.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec2 Chateaubriand met him in 1791.

 

Antar, Antarah ibn Shaddad

525-615. A pre-Islamic black Arab desert poet and warrior. The Romance of Antar is a later work, possibly 9th century, celebrating him. He was popularised by Lamartine in his Voyage en Orient of 1835.

BkVII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Antée, Antaeus

A Libyan giant killed by Hercules.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 He regained his strength by touching the earth from which he was born. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book IX:159-210.

 

Antibes, France

A resort town of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean Sea in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 Napoleon’s family were installed there in 1794, when he took responsibility for the coastal defences.

BkXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap17:Sec1 Napoleon landed between Cannes and Antibes on the 1st of March 1815 during his return from Elba.

 

Antigone

A prose poem by Ballanche, it is a Christianised version of the Greek story which Ballanche dedicated to the Duchess of Angoulême, his ‘French Antigone’.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Antigonus

382-301BC. Antigonus I Cyclops or Monophthalmus (‘the One-eyed’) was a Macedonian nobleman, general, and satrap under Alexander the Great. He was a major figure in the Wars of the Diadochi after Alexander’s death. He established the Antigonid dynasty and declared himself King in 306 BC.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Antigonus

A character in Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’, he is a Sicilian lord.

BkXXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Antinous

c110-132. Hadrian’s lover (from around 125-8) born in Bithynia. He drowned in the Nile. 

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Frederick the Great collected statues of him.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 The Vatican contains a number of busts of Antinous.

 

Antioch

The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was created during the First Crusade. The city of Antioch was taken in 1098. The fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end of the crusader states.

BkXIX:Chap15:Sec1 The Princess of Antioch. There were a number of famous princesses including Constance (1127-1163) the daughter of Bohemund II, who herself was titular ruler of Antioch from 1130-1163, and Sibylla an Armenian princess who married Bohemund VI in 1254.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXXV:Chap9:Sec1 A crusader principality.

 

Antiochus I Soter

324-262 BC. The son of Seleuceus I, whom Seleuceus made co-regent, he was not one of the Diadochoi, Alexander’s successors. (Alternatively Seleuceus’ father, one of Philip’s generals, was also called Antiochus).

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Antipater

c397-319BC. A Macedonian general and a supporter of kings Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. In 320 BC, he became Regent of all of Alexander’s empire.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Antoine, Émilie

She was Carrel’s lover, a married woman, whom he refused to renounce, despite it affecting his career. After his death she retired to Verdun.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Anthony of Padua, Saint

1195-1251. A Portuguese Franciscan he devoted his efforts to converting heretics in Northern Italy and the Albigenses in Southern France, until his appointment as Professor of Theology to the Franciscan Order in 1223.

BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 The Basilica di Sant’Antonio in Padua with its Byzantine domes was begun in 1232, the high altar has Donatello reliefs (1444-1445), St Anthony’s tomb is in the north transept. Its architect was Andrea Briosco a Paduan.

 

Anthony the Anchorite, Saint

251-356. The outstanding leader among the Desert Fathers, Christian monks in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries. According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkXXXVII:Chap8:Sec1 The Golden Legend (The Aurea Legenda of 1275) has St Anthony and others being brought food by a crow.

 

Antomarchi, Francesco

1780-1838. A physician who attended Napoleon at St Helena 1819-21, Antomarchi, was a native of Corsica, and a professor of anatomy at Florence. At the request of Cardinal Fesch, and with the consent of the British government, he went to Saint Helena in 1819 as physician to the exiled Emperor. He closed his master’s eyes in death; and immediately before the official post-mortem examination, held the next day, he made a death-mask.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec2 On St Helena.

 

Antonelli, Marquis, called Antonelle

1747-1817. The former Marquess Antonelli died in exile. He was deputy for the Bouches-du-Rhone in the Legislature, having been a free-thinking terrorist presiding over the Revolutionary Tribunal during the Queen’s trial, and pronouncing sentence on the Girondins. He later participated in the infernal machine plot against Bonaparte.

BkXXV:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Antonine Itinerary

The Antonine Itinerary is usually attributed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, though it contains material which may have been produced under Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and is updated to the period of Diocletian (285-305AD). It provides an itinerary of the Empire in which the principal and cross-roads are described by a list of the places and stations along them and the Roman mileages between.

BkX:Chap3:Sec2 Jersey, is understood to be the Caesarea of the manuscript.

 

Antonio

He was Chateaubriand’s guide (cicerone) in Venice in 1833.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Antwerp (Anvers), Belgium

Capital of Antwerp province, in Northern Belgium, on the Scheldt River. It is one of the busiest ports in Europe. Under the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Scheldt was closed to navigation (as a means of favouring Amsterdam), and Antwerp declined rapidly. The city revived with the opening of the Scheldt by the French in 1795, and with the expansion of its port facilities by Napoleon.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Troops from the Army against England stationed there.

BkXXII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Madame de Chateaubriand there in 1815.

 

Apelles

4th century BC. The court painter to Alexander the Great, he specialized in portraits and allegories. His pictures included Aphrodite rising from the Waves and Alexander as Zeus.

BkXXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aphyes

Two sisters, they were both courtesans. Aphyes in Classical Greek meant a small fish (small fry), probably the sardine or anchovy.

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Apollodorus of Damascus

Early 2nd century. Supposedly born in Damascus Apollodorus was the chief architect for the Emperor Trajan. He was a master engineer, a bridge builder and sculptor, as well as the author of technical treatises.

BkXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Apollo

Son of Jupiter and Latona (Leto), brother of Diana (Artemis), he was born on Delos. He was the Greek and Roman God of poetry, art, medicine, prophecy, and of the sun. (See the Apollo Belvedere, sculpted by Leochares?, Vatican: the Piombino Apollo, Paris Louvre: the Tiber Apollo, Rome, National Museum of the Terme: the fountain sculpture by Tuby at Versailles – The Chariot of Apollo: and the sculpture by Girardon and Regnaudin at Versailles – Apollo Tended by the Nymphs – derived from the Apollo Belvedere, and once part of the now demolished Grotto of Thetis )

BkIII:Chap8:Sec1 His skill with the lyre.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec2 The Apollo Belvedere mentioned, see above.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 His name used to refer to any handsome youth.

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 God of the arts.

 

Apponyi von Nagy-Appony, Count Antal

1782-1852. He began his career as Austrian ambassador in Toscana in 1815, became ambassador to Rome, then between 1826 and 1848 he was ambassador in Paris.  He married Countess Theresia Nogorolla.

BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 Austrian Ambassador in Rome in 1823.

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 Austrian Ambassador to Paris in 1830. Chateaubriand confuses him with Prince Esterhazy in the French text.

 

Aquaviva or Acquaviva d’Aragona, Troiano, Cardinal

1696-1747. Camerlengo from 1744, he was a Cardinal from 1732.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 A pen portrait of him by de Brosses.

 

Aquitaine, Grand Priory of

A Priory of the Knights of Saint John, founded at Poitiers.

BkI:Chap1:Sec5 Chateaubriand applies to be enrolled in the Order of Malta.

 

Arago, François Jean Dominique

1786-1853. A French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and politician, he was a Deputy for the Pyrenees in 1830. He is particularly known for his scientific work on magnetism and optics, and for his support of other scientists’ work.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 His Republican intervention in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s neighbour in 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Makes an approach to Chateaubriand.

BkXXXIV:Chap8:Sec1 Dined with Chateaubriand in Paris on the 13th of September 1831. Chateaubriand left for Paris on the 2nd and returned on the 14th. The Café de Paris was on the Boulevard des Italiens.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec2 At Carrel’s funeral in 1836.

 

Aranjuez, Spain

The royal city south of Madrid is on the River Tajo. The Spanish kings had their summer palace there in the eighteenth century. 

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807.

 

Arbela, Battle of

331BC. Alexander the Great defeated Darius at the decisive battle of Arbela, or Gaugamela, east of the Tigris. He then went on to capture Babylon, Susa and Persepolis.

BkVI:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Archangel, Russia

Arkhangelsk formerly called Archangel in English, is a city in the administrative centre of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. Arkhangelsk was the chief sea port of medieval Russia.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Archilochus

c680-c645BC. A Greek poet and mercenary, his satires were one of the mainstays of itinerant rhapsodes, who made a living declaiming poetry at both religious festivals and private homes.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Arcadia

A region of Greece in the Peloponnesus, it takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. Arcadia possessed temples of Zeus and Hera, and Olympia where the Olympic Games were held in Classical times.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Arcis-Sur-Aube

The town is on the River Aube north of Troyes.

BkXXII:Chap9:Sec1 The engagement there on 20th March 1814.

 

Arcola, Battle of

Arcola is a village of northern Italy, 16 miles east-south-east of Verona, on the Alpone stream, near its confluence with the Adige below Verona. The village gave its name to the three-day battle of Arcola (15th-17th November 1796), in which the French, under Napoleon Bonaparte, defeated the Austrians commanded by Allvintzy.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 The reference is to images such as Antoine-Jean Gros’ painting Napoleon at Arcola (1796).

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 The taking of the bridge.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 Muiron killed there.

 

Arcon, Jean-Claude Eleonor le Michaud d’

1733-1800. A French general who worked with Lazare Carnot, and designed a number of military innovations.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Arenenberg, Switzerland

At Salenstein in the Canto of Thurgau, situated in a small park overlooking the western end of Lake Constance, Arenenberg was purchased by Queen Hortense, wife of Louis Bonaparte. He was installed as governor of the Kingdom of Holland by his brother, Napoleon, adopted the title of king, and refused to introduce the reforms recommended by his brother. This prompted Napoleon to invade Holland forcing his brother to abdicate. Louis’ son, who was brought up at Arenenberg, later succeeded as Napoleon III. After his death in England in 1873, his widow, ex-Empress Eugenie, used Arenenberg as her residence. It is now a museum.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec2 Chateaubriand there.

BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 Queen Hortense’s residence in 1831. Wolfberg is nearby.

BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 Chateaubriand dines there 29th August 1832. The island in the lake is Reichenau.

 

Arete

She was the wife of Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians, in Homer’s Odyssey.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 See Odyssey VII.

 

Arezzo, Tommaso, Cardinal

1756-1833. Formerly a diplomat, he was made a Cardinal in 1816, and was then Legate to the province of Ferrara. A politicanti candidate for the Papacy in 1823, he supported Albani in 1829.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned in 1829.

 

Argèles-Gazost, France

A commune of the Hautes-Pyrénées département, Argeles Gazost is a traditional farmers’ market town but turned itself into a fashionable spa in the 18th century by rerouting the thermal waters from the far side of the valley.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Argentière, Chapter of L’

Located in the Lyonnais, the monastery founded in 1273 became a chapter of canonesses in the eighteenth century.

BkI:Chap1:Sec3 BkII:Chap10:Sec1 BkIV:Chap7:Sec1 BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap8:Sec1 Lucile admitted as a Canoness in 1783.

 

Argentré, Bertrand d’

Jurist (1519-1590). Author of a History of Brittany and its Maps (1586).

BkI:Chap1:Sec3 A source of information regarding Chateaubriand’s family.

 

Argo

The ship of the Argonauts in Greek myth.

BkXXIV:Chap16:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Argo Navis

The ancient constellation of Argo Navis, the Ship of the Argonauts, was dismembered in 1763 by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, into the three modern constellations of Vela (the Sails), Puppis (the Stern) and Carina (the Keel). It lies in the southern sky not far from the Magellanic Clouds.

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Argos

The capital of the Argolis, it lies in the Greek Peloponnese.

BkIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap9:Sec1 Agamemnon’s city.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec2 Still a town in 1807.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 The royal tombs.

 

Argout, Antoine Maurice Apollinaire, Comte d’

1782-1858. French politician, Minister, and Governor of the Bank of France, he was made a Peer in 1819. He voted with the moderate right. See Daumier’s classic caricature of him.

BkXXXII:Chap6:Sec1 At Saint-Cloud on the 29th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap7:Sec1 Rebuffed in Paris on the 29th.

BkXXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Active in Paris on the 30th July 1830.

BkXL:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ariosto, Ludovico

1471-1533. The Italian epic and lyric poet, who as a youth was a favourite at the court of Ferrara; later he was in the service of Ippolito I, Cardinal d’Este, and from 1517 until his death served Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. He was never properly rewarded by his patrons. While in the service of the cardinal, he began writing his masterpiece, the Orlando Furioso, published in its final form in 1532. This epic treatment of the Roland story, theoretically a sequel to the unfinished poem of Boiardo, greatly influenced Shakespeare, Milton, and Byron. It was intended to glorify the Este family as Virgil had glorified the Julians. Ariosto also wrote lyric verse of unequal merit, and was among the first to write comedies in the vernacular.

BkXIV:Chap7:Sec1 His familiarity with the Vatican buildings.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Napoleon preferred his work to that of Tasso.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 A festival for him mentioned.

BkXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 He was as involved in politics as in poetry.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 He was an observer at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, and wrote a sonnet on it.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 Rodomont (Rodomonte) is a boastful hero of the Orlando Furioso, and also the Orlando Innamorato of Bojardo.

BkXXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 The Portrait of a Man by Titian, possibly of Ariosto, of c1512, is in the National Gallery London.

BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 He was born at Reggio.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 BkXL:Chap2:Sec3 BkXL:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXL:Chap3:Sec1 Aquilant the Black is a character in the Orlando furioso.

 

Aristaeus

The son of Apollo and Cyrene, especially honoured as the inventor of beekeeping. He came to be widely worshiped as a beneficent deity. A Delphic prophecy counselled Aristaeus to sail to Ceos (Zea, now Kea). He did so and found the islanders suffering from sickness under the stifling and baneful effects of the Dog-Star Sirius. Aristaeus discerned that their troubles arose from murderers who were hiding in their midst, the murderers of Icarius in fact. When the miscreants were found out and executed, and a shrine erected to Zeus, the great god was propitiated and decreed that henceforth the Etesian Wind should blow and cool all the Aegean for forty days from the rising of Sirius. But the Ceans continued to propitiate the Dog-Star, just before its rising just to be sure. (Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy).

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 Mentioned, as connected with Zea.

 

Aristarchus

c217-c145 The Greek scholar, successor to his teacher, Aristophanes of Byzantium, as librarian at Alexandria. He was an innovator of scientific scholarship, and his critical revision of Homer is responsible for the excellent texts of Homer that survive. Though only fragments of his works survive (he is said to have written more than 800 volumes of commentary and exegesis), frequent quotations by ancient critics provide an insight into his subjects and method.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 His name has passed into the French language, as an aristarque, a critic, the term Chateaubriand uses here.

 

Aristophanes

c450-c385BC. The Greek comic dramatist and political satirist was a master of Attic Comedy. Eleven of his plays survive including The Birds (414) and Lysistrata (411).

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 See The Clouds: 910, ‘You speak to me of roses’.

 

Aristotle

384-322BC. He was a Greek philosopher and scientist whose father was court physician in Macedonia. He joined Plato’s Academy and later about 343BC became tutor to Alexander. After Alexander’s accession in 336 he was able to found a research community, the Lyceum, in Athens. On Alexander’s death he was forced to retire to Chalcis. He wrote over 400 books on every branch of learning, and was the philosopher par excellence for the Middle Ages.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 Alexander the Great was his pupil.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 A reference to his History of Animals IV.9.536a where the partridges uttered various syllabic repetitions.

 

Arlon, Aarlen, Belgium

One of the oldest towns in Belgium, it possesses Belgium’s oldest church. It lies at the crossroads of the road from Reims (France) to Trier (Germany) and the road from Tongeren (Belgium) to Metz (France). A Roman settlement it belonged to Luxembourg in the Middle Ages.

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 Chateaubriand retreated through there in 1792.

BkX:Chap1:Sec1 He left Arlon to head for Ostend, about the 20th October 1792.

 

Armand, Colonel, See Rouërie

 

Armani, Jean-Baptiste

1768-1815. An Italian poet, dramatist and improvisator, he translated Le Génie du Christianisme (1805) and Les Martyrs (1814).

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Armida

The beautiful sorceress in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, with whom Rinaldo fell in love, wasting his time in voluptuous pleasure. After his escape from her, unable to lure him back, she set fire to the palace, rushed into battle and was killed.

BkIII:Chap9:Sec1 BkVIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap16:Sec1

BkXL:Chap2:Sec2 BkXL:Chap2:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkIV:Chap8:Sec1 The subject of Gluck’s opera, and also a role in Sacchini’s opera Le Renaud.

BkVIII:Chap4:Sec1 Her talking parrot in Canto XVI of Jerusalem Delivered.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 A reference here to Nathalie de Noailles, the lady of the château of Méréville.

 

Arminius

16BC-21AD. Arminius, or Hermann der Cherusker, was a war chief of the Germanic tribe of the Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9AD.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Armorica

Armorica was the Roman name for the Brittany region which was of strategic importance, providing naval control of the Atlantic coast and the English Channel.

BkI:Chap6:Sec2 BkII:Chap8:Sec1 BkIII:Chap7:Sec1 BkIII:Chap10:Sec1

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 BkIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkX:Chap1:Sec1

BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 BkXXXIX:Chap11:Sec1

The Brittany Peninsula. Armorican is a synonym for Breton.

BkVII:Chap8:Sec1 The setting for Chateaubriand’s work Les Martyrs.

 

Arnauld, Antoine, Abbé

1612-1694. Called ‘Le Grand Arnaud’ he was a French theologian, writer and philosopher.

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2

His Mémoires referred to.

 

Arndt, Ernst-Moritz

1769-1860. A German patriotic author and poet, Arndt played a key role in the early nationalist Burschenschaft movement and in the unification movement, and his song ‘Was ist das Deutschen Vaterland?’ acted as an unofficial anthem.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Quotation from his anthem (1813).

 

Arnott, Dr Archibald

1772-1855. The Scottish military surgeon of the 20th Regiment who attended Napoleon on St Helena. He wrote an account of Napoleon’s illness and post-mortem published in 1821.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec2 At the death-bed.

 

Arnouville-lès-Gonesse, France

A town in the Val d’Oise, it is a place where Louis XVIII stopped on his return from exile.

BkXXIII:Chap10:Sec1 Roye, where Louis held a council of Ministers, is in the Somme, Gonesse is in the Val’d’Oise and also a stopping place during the return from exile in 1815.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 BkXXXII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Arona, Italy

The major port of Lake Maggiore, it was a Roman resort, during the Middle Ages the domain of the Visconti, and later, from 1439 to 1797 of the Borromeo. It was the birthplace of St Charles Borromeo.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand was there in September 1828.

 

Arques, Château d’

A mile and a half to the south-east of Dieppe, the castle was built between 1040 and 1045 by Guillaume d’Arques.

BkI:Chap6:Sec1 Seen by Chateaubriand.

 

Arras

Capital of Pas-de-Calais department it is the historic capital of Artois, northern France, on the canalized Scarpe River. Of Gallo-Roman origin, it became an Episcopal See c.500. It was granted (1180) a commercial charter by the crown and enjoyed international importance in banking and trade. By the 14th century it had become a centre of wealth and culture, renowned particularly for tapestry. It was nearly destroyed during the wars between Burgundy and France (15th century), which ended with the Treaty of Arras (1435). Occupied (1492) by the Spaniards, Arras was conquered (1630) by the French; French possession was confirmed (1659) in the Peace of the Pyrenees.

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in March 1815. Robespierre was born there.

 

Arrhidaeus

Died 317BC. King of Macedonia (323-317BC)

 

Arrhigetti

A prominent Florentine family in the Renaissance.

BkV:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Arrighi, Joseph-Philippe

1758-1836. Vicar-General of Elba.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 He welcomed Napoleon in 1814.

 

Arsinoe

Located on the Heeroopolite gulf of the Red Sea, and one of the principal harbours of ancient Egypt, it carried on an extensive trade with India in silks, spices, ivory, etc. It is mentioned in Exodus, xiv, 2,9, and Numbers, xxxiii, 7 and is said to be identical with Argueroud near Suez.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Artaud de Montor, Alexis-François

1772-1849. Diplomat, translator and historian, as an émigré, he served in the Army of the Princes, and made a number of diplomatic missions to Rome. He was appointed First Secretary under Cacault, by Napoleon, and returned to the post after Chateaubriand left it. Made Censor during the last years of the Empire, under the Restoration he was Secretary of the embassy at Vienna, then again at Rome. In 1830 he retired on a pension to devote himself exclusively to literary works. His translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (1811-1813) was rated highly.

BkXIV:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand replaced him in Rome in 1803.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 His cataloguing of Hauterive’s papers.

BkXXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 His translation of Dante.

 

Artevelde, Jan van

c1290-1345. A Flemish statesman, of a wealthy family of Ghent, in 1337 the Flemish cloth industry underwent a severe crisis. The pro-French policy of the count of Flanders in the conflict between Edward III of England and Philip VI of France cut off English wool imports and thus ruined the Flemish merchants and weavers. Ghent rebelled, and Artevelde was given dictatorial powers as head of the city government. He negotiated (1338) a commercial treaty with England and obtained recognition of Flemish neutrality. The other towns of Flanders followed his lead, the count fled to France, and trade revived and prospered. In 1340, Artevelde had Edward III recognized as king of France (and thus suzerain of Flanders) by the Flemish towns. Artevelde’s firm leadership and wealthy origin inevitably aroused resentment. Enemies accused him of proposing the lordship of Flanders to Edward the Black Prince (of England). In 1345 a riot broke out in Ghent, and Artevelde was killed by the mob.

BkXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Arthur II, of Dreux, Duke of Brittany

1262-1312. Duke of Brittany from 1305 to his death. He was the first son of Duke John II and Princess Beatrice of England, daughter of King Henry III.

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 His son’s embassy to Rome in 1309.

 

Artois, Charles, Comte de

The future Charles X.

BkI:Chap5:Sec3 His visit to Saint-Malo at the age of twenty, 11th to 13th May 1777, just before Chateaubriand left for college at Dol.

BkV:Chap9:Sec1 Emigrated in 1789 after the fall of the Bastille.

BkIX:Chap1:Sec2 Had stayed with Monsieur de Lavigne during a visit to Lorient.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 Had previously employed Marat.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec4 Influenced by religious leaders.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec2 His chargé d’affaires in London, Monsieur du Theil.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 In London when the Duc d’Enghien was abducted.

BkXXII:Chap19:Sec1 His arrival in Paris in April 1814.

BkXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 At the time of Napoleon’s landing from Elba in 1815.

BkXXV:Chap4:Sec1 Subject of a conversation between Chateaubriand and Louis XVIII.

 

Artois, Louise Marie Thérèse d’

1819-1864. The daughter of the Duke and Duchess de Berry, she married Charles III of Palma in 1845.

BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Artus, Thomas, Sieur d’Embry

16th century. A classical scholar little is known about Artus, except that he came from a noble Parisian family. His Description de l’Isle des Hermaphrodites Nouvellement Découverte (1605) is a virulent satire on European manners generally, and the French court of Henri III specifically, in which a vast array of evils are ironically depicted as admirable.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Ascagne (Ascanius)

Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, also called Iulus, is a character in Virgil’s Aeneid.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ascalon, Ashkelon

An ancient Philistine seaport on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea just north of Gaza, Ashkelon was the oldest and largest seaport in ancient Canaan, one of the ‘five cities’ of the Philistines, north of Gaza and south of Jaffa (Yafa).

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 The Pactum Warmundi was a treaty of alliance established in 1123 between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Republic of Venice, it gave the Venetians special rights in Acre which they had captured, and in Ascalon and Tyre which they had agreed to attack. The Venetian communes in Acre and Tyre were particularly powerful and influential in the 13th century after the Kingdom lost Jerusalem and was reduced to a coastal state. They resisted Emperor Frederick II’s attempts to claim the Kingdom, and virtually ignored the authority the Lord of Tyre, conducting affairs instead as if they controlled their own independent lordship.

 

Asdrubal, See Hasdrubal

 

Asgill, Sir Charles

1762-1823. A young English officer, captured at Yorktown, and sentenced by lot to death as a reprisal during the American War of Independence. He was reprieved, after intervention by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, by Congress. After his return to England, he served in Flanders, and later was in command of the garrison in Dublin during the rebellion in Ireland. He became colonel of the 11th regiment, and in 1807 was made general in the British army. On the death of his father he succeeded to the estate and the baronetcy. His story was made the ground-work of a tragic drama by Madame de Sévigné.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 A poem about him recited.

 

Ashewd

Possibly Askew or Ayscue? An English knight in Rome in 1740.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Asmodeus

A devil in Le Sage’s Diable Boiteux.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Aspasia

c460-c410BC. Aspasia of Miletus, a learned hetaera, was the mistress of Pericles and philosopher to the philosophers, including Sophocles.

BkVIII:Chap4:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1

BkXLII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned. See Plutarch’s Life of Pericles.

 

Aspern-Essling, Battle

21-22 May 1809. Having succeeded in capturing Vienna on 13 May, Napoleon crossed the Danube to seek out and destroy Archduke Charles and his main Austrian army. While not a true defeat, Aspern-Essling marked the first serious reverse suffered by Bonaparte. More than 21,000 French soldiers were casualties and the army suffered the grievous loss of Marshal Lannes who died after losing a leg to a cannonball.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Aspremont, Comte d’

Chateaubriand’s diplomatic secretary in 1822.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Date of death before 1838.

 

Assas, Louis, Chevalier d’

1733-1760. A captain in the Regiment of the Auvergne, killed at the battle of Klosterkamp.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 He showed conspicuous bravery when surrounded, and died alerting his regiment to the enemy with the famous cry: ‘A moi, Auvergne, ce sont les ennemis !’

 

Assignats

Interest bearing bonds with a face value of 1000 livres intended to be used in payment for the former properties of the Church (The Biens nationaux, or National land). Further issues were made from time to time to ensure a flow of money, becoming the new paper currency. They ceased bearing interest in May 1791, and by the time of the Directory were worth less than fifteen sous.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Assisi, Italy

A town in Italy in Perugia province, in Umbria, on the western flank of Mt. Subasio. It was the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order there in 1208, and St. Clare (Chiara d'Offreducci), the founder of the Poor Clares.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 The Portioncula, the first oratory of the Franciscans, is now contained in the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, Assisi.

 

Assuerus (Ahasueras)

King of Persia: see the Book of Esther. Possibly the Biblical text contains a reference to the historical Xerxes.

BkXXXVII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Astolphus=Aistulf, King of the Lombards

d 756. The duke of Friuli from 744, King of the Lombards from 749, and Duke of Spoleto from 751. Aistulf continued the policy of expansion and raids against the papacy and the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna. In 751, he captured Ravenna itself and even threatened Rome, claiming a capitation tax.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Atala

Atala is a leading character in the story Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert (April 1801) by Chateaubriand. Chactas is an old Natchez Indian who meets René and tells him the story of his youth. Rescued from captivity by the young Indian girl, Atala, who was consecrated to the Virgin, he meets a priest Père Aubry who wishes to convert Chactas and unite him to Atala. She will not break her vow, and prefers to die.

Preface:Sect2. BkV:Chap15:Sec3 BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1

BkIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkX:Chap1:Sec1 BkXI:Chap3:Sec1

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec1 BkXVIII:Chap8:Sec2 BkXXIII:Chap17:Sec1

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec3 BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1