Gaeta, Italy

A fishing port in southern central Italy in Lazio on the Bay of Gaeta, it was a popular resort in Roman times. The (second) Siege of Gaeta was a battle of the War of Polish Succession. The Austrians at Gaeta withstood four months of siege from the Bourbon armies under Charles, Duke of Parma (later Charles III of Spain). They were defeated on August 6 1734 when the Spanish and French stormed the city. The Jacobite pretender Charles Edward Stuart participated in this battle.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Gagarin, Grigory Ivanovich, Prince

The Russian Ambassador in Rome in 1828, he was exiled to Rome after having been a rival to Alexander I for the beautiful Madame Narischkin.

BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gaillard

Doctor at St Helena, at Napoleon’s exhumation in 1840.

BkXXIV:Chap16:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gaillard, Maurice-André

1757-1844. A former colleague of Fouché at the College of Juilly (Oratorien), he was his ‘éminence grise’ in the Ministry of Police. He was named in 1810 as a Councillor to the Imperial Court.

BkXXIII:Chap10:Sec1 In Ghent in 1815 during the Hundred Days.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec1 His intrigues regarding the Congress of Vienna.

 

Galeffi, Pier Francesco, Cardinal

1770-1837. A Cardinal from 1803, he was Bishop of Albano and succeeded Pacca as Camerlingo in 1824.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned in 1829.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 Rejected as a Papal candidate by France.

 

Galerius

d.310 Roman emperor (305–10). Diocletian appointed him Caesar for the eastern part of the empire in 293 (Constantius I was Caesar of the West). On the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, he and Constantius succeeded as emperors. Galerius tried to increase his power, and after Constantius died in 306 he recognized Severus (d.307) as co-emperor in the West. Severus and he attempted without success to put down the claims of Maxentius. After they were defeated and Severus was captured, Galerius had Diocletian approve the appointment of Licinius as emperor of the West. Constantius’ son Constantine (Constantine I) and Maximin (d.313) then both claimed power. Galerius died before the confusion was eliminated by the victory of Constantine. Galerius had prompted the persecution of Christians under Diocletian but issued (309) an edict of toleration shortly before his death.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 References to him, allusions to Napoleon, in Les Martyrs.

 

Galicia

The medieval kingdom in North-west Spain, now an autonomous region with its own language and culture.

BkI:Chap1:Sec9 Chateaubriand’s father attacked and robbed there.

 

Gall, François-Joseph

1758-1828. Austrian anatomist. He devoted most of his life to a minute study of the nervous system, especially the brain. With the collaboration of a favourite pupil, John Caspar Spurzheim (1776–1832), he incorporated his research into a four-volume work and atlas that appeared from 1810 to 1819. Gall demonstrated that the white matter of the brain consists of nerve fibres, and he launched the doctrine of localization of various mental processes in the brain. Derided for his later involvement with the pseudoscience of phrenology, he left Austria but was received with honour in France and died a wealthy man in Paris. Spurzheim carried the teachings of Gall to England and the United States, also with great success.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 Present at a dinner at Madame de Custine’s.

 

Gallienus, Publius Licinius Valerianus Egnatius

 d. 268, Roman emperor. He ruled as the colleague (253–60) of his father, Valerian, and alone from 260–68. Gallienus checked the Alemanni near Milan. Later, however, the provinces became too rebellious. Postumus established his independence in Gaul, and in the East Odenathus. A force sent by Gallienus against Zenobia was defeated. Gallienus himself was murdered by his men at Milan, while resisting a revolt, eventually suppressed by his successor Claudius II. During his reign Gallienus reversed his father’s program of persecuting the Christians and managed to nurse the empire through a crucial period.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 His patronage of Plotinus.

 

Gallon or Gadlon or Gradlon, Celtish King

c330. King of Cornouailles in Brittany, and of the legendary drowned city of Ys in, what is now, the Bay of Douarnenez. He founded Quimper.

BkV:Chap2:Sec 2 Mentioned.

 

Gama, see Vasco de Gama

 

Gamba, Bartolomeo

1766-1841. He was a Librarian at the Marciana Library (facing the Doge’s Palace) in Venice. A former Inspector General of the Library under the French, he became Director of Censorship, and was also a publisher and editor.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand visits him on the 11th of September 1833.

BkXXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 He introduces Chateaubriand to Contessa Albrizzi.

 

Gamberini, Antonio Domenico, Cardinal

1760-1841. A lawyer he was ordained in 1824, subsequently consecrated Bishop of Orvieto, and was made a Cardinal in 1828.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned in 1829.

 

Gand, see Jean de Gand

 

Ganges, River

The great river of Northern India, rising in the Himalayas, at the Cow’s Mouth (Gaumukh) in the Gangotri Glacier, flows east across the Ganges plain to join the Brahmaputra and, as the Padma, flows into the Bay of Bengal. It is the Hindus’ most sacred river.

BkIII:Chap9:Sec1 BkXVIII:Chap3Sec3 BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1

BkXLII:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 Source of the Cholera epidemic of 1817-1832. It reached England in early February 1832, dying down by May, then Paris in late March where it remained until late September, killing over eighteen thousand people.

 

Ganymede

The son of Tros, brother of Ilus and Assaracus, he was loved by Zeus because of his great beauty. Zeus, in the form of an eagle, abducted him and made him his cup-bearer.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 A statue of the abduction.

 

Gap

The capital of the Hautes-Alpes department of south-east France, on the Luye River at the foot of the Dauphiné Alps, it was founded by Augustus c.14 BC and was the capital of medieval Gapen Cais, which was annexed to the crown of France in 1512. The city was devastated during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century.

BkXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 Napoleon passed through in March 1815 during his return from Elba.

 

Garat, Joseph-Dominique

1749-1833. He was minister of justice (1792-93) during the trial of Louis XVI and notified the king of the death verdict. Appointed (1793) minister of the interior, he proved inadequate in the post. He was twice imprisoned during the Terror, and held high government posts after the terrorists were overthrown. He also served under the Empire. After the Restoration he was forced to retire (1816). Garat wrote many works of political reminiscence and history, notably his Mémoires historiques sur le XVIIIe siècle et sur M. Suard (1820).

BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 His unkind article regarding Fontanes in the Mercure de France of 1st April 1780.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 He read Louis XVI’s sentence to the king on the evening of 20th January 1793.

 

Garda, Lake

The largest lake in Italy, it is located about half-way between Venice and Milan. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Verona (to the south-east), Brescia (south-west), and Trent (north). The ancient fortified town of Sirmione is located on the south of the lake: Catullus stayed there in a family villa. Virgil also celebrated the location.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Garonne

A river of southwest France flowing about 350 miles generally northwest from the Spanish Pyrenees to join the Dordogne River north of Bordeaux and form the Gironde estuary.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gasc, Honorine

fl. c1830. A French singer, she sang in Paris, and married the Danish consul. She was admired by Chateaubriand and Lamartine.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 Mentioned.

 

Gaspari, Monsieur

A contact made by Chateaubriand on his travels.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 His letter to Chateaubriand.

 

Gaugres

A village in Brittany, part of the titled estates of Chateaubriand’s father.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gay, Marie-Françoise-Sophie, Madame

1776-1852. The French authoress, who married the Receiver-General of the départment of the Riser or Ruhr. Her salon came to be frequented by all the distinguished litterateurs, musicians, actors and painters of the time. Her first literary production was a letter written in 1802 to the Journal de Paris, in defence of Madame de Staël’s novel, Delphine; and in the same year she published anonymously her first novel Laure d’Estell. Leonie de Montbreuse, which appeared in 1813, is considered by Sainte-Beuve her best work; but Anatole (1815), the romance of a deaf-mute, has perhaps a higher reputation.

BkXVIII:Chap8:Sec2 Her intervention on Chateaubriand’s behalf.

 

Gay, Delphine

1804-1855. Daughter of Sophie, the contemporary sketches which she contributed from 1836 to 1839 to La Presse, under the nom de plume of Charles de Launay, were collected as Lettres parisiennes (1843), and obtained a brilliant success. Contes d’une vieille fille a ses neveux (1832), La Canne de Monsieur de Balzac (1836) and Il ne faut pas jouer avec la douleur (1853) are among the best-known of her romances; and her dramatic pieces in prose and verse include L'École des journalistes (1840), Judith (1843), Cléopâtre (1847), Lady Tartufe (1853), and the one-act comedies, C'est la faute du mari (1851), La Joie fait peur (1854), Le Chapeau d'un horloger (1854) and Une Femme qui deteste son mari, which did not appear till after the author’s death. She ran an influential salon.

BkXXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 She married Émile de Girardin on the 1st of June 1831.

 

Gaysruck or Gaisruck, Monsignor Kar Kajetan Graf von,

1769-1846. Bishop (1801) of Derbe, he was Archbishop of Milan (from 1818) in 1829, having been made a Cardinal in 1824. Lombardy was then an Austrian province.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned in 1829.

 

Gazette de France

It was founded by Théophraste Renaudot the Royal historiographer to Louis XIII, in 1631, to record royal events. The word gazette from the Italian gazetta signified a small coin, the cost of the first ‘gazette’ published in Venice in the seventeenth century. Richelieu used the Gazette to promote his political ideas.

BkIV:Chap9:Sec2 It recorded Chateaubriand’s participation in the royal hunt, (on the 19th February 1787) in the edition of the 27th February 1787.

BkXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 As an ultra-Royal paper it was hostile to Chateaubriand in the 1820’s.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 A reference to gazettes as Venetian in origin.

 

Gazette de Leyde

Founded in 1677, the French language newspaper was published in Leiden. With Jean Luzac (1746-1807) as its editor it championed the cause of the American Revolution, and was read widely in Europe and America. It was muzzled by the Dutch Republicans in 1798.

BkIV:Chap6:Sec1 Read by Chateaubriand’s father.

 

Gébert, for Gesbert, Jean-Baptiste

 

Gelée, Claude, see Claude Lorrain

 

Gellone

Saint William of Gellone (755-c.812 or 814), was the second count of Toulouse from 790 until his replacement in 811. He is the hero of the Chanson de Guillaume, an early chanson de geste, and of several later sequels, which were categorized by thirteenth-century poets as the geste of Garin de Monglane. In 803, he took Barcelona from the Moors and in the next year (804) founded the monastery of Gellone (now Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert) near Lodève in the Diocese of Maguelonne, and made it subject to the famous Saint Benedict of Aniane, whose monastery was nearby. He became a monk there in 806, and later died there.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gemünd

A town near Villach.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1833.

 

Genesee River

The Genesee River's name is derived from the Iroquois meaning fine valley or pleasant valley. It flows northward through western New York from its source south of the town of Genesee in Pennsylvania and empties into Lake Ontario north of the City of Rochester, New York.

BkVII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Geneva, Switzerland

The city in southwest Switzerland located on Lake Geneva and bisected by the Rhône River. Originally an ancient Celtic settlement, it was a focal point of the Reformation after the arrival of John Calvin in 1536.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1805.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec2 The 19th century Fort d’Écluse (really two forts, one above and one below, connected by a stairway cut in the rock), southwest of Geneva, in a spectacular mountain situation, stands in a natural gateway between the Alps and the Jura, overlooking the Rhône valley. Gates once barred the defile.

BkXXVII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXIV:Chap7:Sec1 The Pâquis Quarter is a somewhat bohemian area of Geneva on the right bank of the Rhône near the lake. Chateaubriand stayed there in 1831.

BkXXIX:Chap9:Sec1 Simond died there in 1832.

BkXXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand states his intention of going there in 1831.

BkXXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand and his wife arrived there 23rd May 1831, and stayed in the Hotel des Etrangèrs or the Hotel Dejean, and soon took a furnished house with a garden in the same Pâquis quarter (on the 25th).

BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrived on the 11th September 1832 and took an apartment at what is now 13 Grand’ Rue on the 19th. Madame Récamier arrived from Zurich on the 7th October, stayed at the Hôtel du Nord and left on the 25th. Chateaubriand left for Paris on the 13th of November.

BkXXXV:Chap24:Sec1 Geneva overlooks the valley of the River Arve, which flows along the Salève mountain in France.

 

Genève, Mont

A southern pass through the Alps at Mont Genève, was possibly used by Hannibal.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 Napoleon’s troops (General Turreau) passed through in 1800.

 

Geneviève, Saint

422-512. Born at Nanterre, near Paris, during the siege of Paris by Childeric, king of the Franks, she went out with a few followers and procured grain for the starving citizens. Childeric, though a pagan, respected her, and at her request spared the lives of many prisoners. When Attila and his Huns were approaching the city, the inhabitants asked her aid; and listening to her exhortations undertook prayer and penance, thus averting the impending scourge, as she had foretold. Clovis, when converted from paganism by his holy wife, Saint Clotilda, made Genevieve his constant adviser. Sainte-Geneviève Abbey, on a hill-top, is one of the oldest churches of Paris. Here were buried the Saint, patroness of the city, and Clovis, the first Frankish Merovingian king. Nearby is the Pantheon. All over the hill colleges and schools took up residence, as well as the University, the Sorbonne.

BkXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 Her reliquary paraded during the plague in Paris in 1832.

 

Geneviève de Brabante

A heroine of medieval legend, probably based on the history of Marie of Brabant, wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine. Marie of Brabant was supposed of infidelity and subsequently tried by her husband, found guilty and beheaded on the 18th January 1256. The charge was false and Louis afterwards had to do penance. The change in name from Marie to Genevieve may be traced back to a cult of St Genevieve (c420-c500), patroness of Paris. The Genevieve tale first obtained wide popularity in L'Innocence reconnue, ou vie de Sainte Genevieve de Brabant (1638) by the Jesuit René de Cerisiers (1603-1662).

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Génie du Christianisme, Le

The Genius of Christianity, a work by Chateaubriand, started in England and completed at the country house at Savigny-sur-Orge of his mistress, Comtesse Pauline de Beaumont. Published complete in 1802, though an episode from it, Atala was published separately in April 1801 as a trial, and caused a sensation. It also contained René, another story ‘designed to illustrate the vagueness of the passions’ which made the mal du siècle, or mal du René the most fashionable ailment of the time and set the pattern for Romantic heroes and heroines for half a century. Chateaubriand dedicated the second edition to Napoleon. It satisfied a public need for colour and passion in literature, and supported Napoleon’s need for a Concordat with the Church.

BkI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand mentions it, as a proof of his fame comparable to that of Voltaire.

BkII:Chap6:Sec3 Mentioned. See the work itself I.1.7

BkIV:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned. See the preface to the work.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 BkVI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkVI:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to Part 1, Book V, Chapter 12. The moon was full on the 16th June 1791.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec2 Chateaubriand refers to this re-shaping of Montlosier’s phrase: ‘If you covet their cross of gold, they will take up a cross of wood; it is a cross of wood that saved the world!’

BkXI:Chap4:Sec1 BkXI:Chap5:Sec1 The origin of the work.

BkXII:Chap4:Sec2 BkXIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap7:Sec1

BkXXVIII:Chap17:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Partly written at Richmond in the summer of 1799.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap3:Sec2 The part printed work taken to France in 1800.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec2 BkXIII:Chap6:Sec2 The effect of its publication.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Heralded and advertised by Fontanes.

BkXIII:Chap8:Sec1 The work continued in 1801.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec1 Lucien Bonaparte would have read the proofs in early 1802, and reported in favour of the work. It went on sale in April 1802.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 René, an episode within the overall work.

BkXIII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap11:Sec2 The impact of the work.

BkXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Its effect on Napoleon.

BkXIV:Chap7:Sec1 BkXX:Chap9:Sec3 Chateaubriand sent the Pope a copy of the work in 1803.

BkXVI:Chap1:Sec1 It acted as a door-opener to Chateaubriand’s political career.

BkXVII:Chap1:Sec1 An inspiration for further work.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 It gained Chateaubriand spurious admiration.

BkXVIII:Chap8:Sec2 Proposed for the Decennial Prize in 1810 but rejected.

BkXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Extracts from Les Natchez used for descriptive passages.

BkXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Read by Frederick-William III.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Mrs Siddons quotes from it in 1822.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 Madame Récamier reads it in 1802.

BkXXXIII:Chap10:Sec1 Its significance in Chateaubriand’s literary career.

BkXXXV:Chap26:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 See the work where Chateaubriand describes the rural Rogations.

BkXXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 See Part I:III:2 and the chapter Snakes in Voyage to America.

BkXXXVII:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 BkXL:Chap3:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Translated into Italian by Armani (Venice 1805).

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap4:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap17:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Genlis, Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, Comtesse de

1746-1830. A French writer and educator, she wrote four volumes of plays for children and close to a hundred volumes of historical and other romances of which Mademoiselle de Clermont (1802) is the best-known.

BkXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXVIII:Chap19:Sec1 Her novel Athénaïs, ou le Château de Coppet en 1807, published 1832, in which she idealised Madame Récamier. Chateaubriand visits her.

BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Madame de Celles was her grand-daughter.

 

Genoa, Italy

A city of northwest Italy on the Gulf of Genoa, an arm of the Ligurian Sea it was an ancient settlement, Genoa flourished under the Romans and also enjoyed great prosperity during the Crusades.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec2 Napoleon ordered there in the summer of 1794 to report on the fortifications.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 The revolution there in May 1797.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 Surrendered by Masséna under orders on 2nd June 1800.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec2 Sampierdarena (San Pier d’Arena) is a town in Liguria in the province of Genoa, 21 miles west of that city. It is practically a suburb of Genoa and contains a number of handsome palaces.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 Napoleon intended a commercial treaty between Elba and Genoa.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Its climate suitable for American plants.

 

Gensonné, Armand

1758-1793. The son of a military surgeon, he was born at Bordeaux. He studied law, and at the outbreak of the French Revolution, he was an advocate of the parlement of Bordeaux. In 1790 he became procureur of the Commune, and in July 1791 was elected by the newly created department of the Gironde a member of the court of appeal. In the same year he was elected deputy for the department to the Legislative Assembly. As reporter of the diplomatic committee, in which he supported the policy of Brissot, he proposed two of the most revolutionary measures passed by the Assembly: the decree of accusation against the king’s brothers (January 1, 1792), and the declaration of war against the king of Bohemia and Hungary (April 20, 1792). He was vigorous in his denunciations of the intrigues of the court and of the ‘Austrian committee’; but the violence of the extreme democrats, culminating in the events of August 10, alarmed him; and when he was returned to the National Convention, he attacked the Commune of Paris (October 24 and 25). At the trial of Louis XVI he supported an appeal to the people, but voted for the death sentence. As a member of the Committee of General Defence, and as president of the Convention (March 7-21, 1793), he shared in the bitter attacks of the Girondists on the Mountain; and on the fatal day of June 2 his name was among the first of those inscribed on the prosecution list. He was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 24 1793, condemned to death and guillotined, displaying great courage.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gentz, Friedrich von

1764-1832. A Prussian publicist and diplomat, he acted as general secretary to the Vienna Congress, before becoming a colleague of Metternich.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec1 Chateaubriand attributes the anonymous pamphlet mentioned to him.

BkXXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 He died in 1832.

 

Geoffrin, Marie-Thérèse Rodet, Madame

1699-1777. A French hostess, her salon in the Hôtel de Rambouillet was an international meeting place of artists and men of letters from 1749 to 1777. The daughter of a valet, she married a rich manufacturer. Although lacking formal education herself, Madame Geoffrin was sensitive, an excellent listener, and naturally intelligent; she inherited the salon of the more unconventional Madame de Tencin, gave it an added tone of respectability, and became a generous, motherly patron to her guests and protégés. Her salon was also a centre for the Encyclopédistes, whose vast project she subsidized.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec2 Madame de Vintimille might have lived in her company.

 

Geoffroy, Julien Louis

1743-1814. Literary critic, born at Rennes. On the death of Élie Fréron in 1776 the other collaborators in the Année littéraire asked Geoffroy to succeed him, and he conducted the journal until its closure in 1792. He was a bitter critic of Voltaire and his followers. An enthusiastic royalist, he published, with Fréron's brother-in-law, the abbé Thomas Royou (1741-1792), a journal, L'Ami du roi (1790-1792), which possibly did more harm than good to the king's cause by its ill-advised partisanship. During the Reign of Terror, Geoffroy hid in the neighbourhood of Paris, only returning in 1799.

BkII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned as educated at Rennes College.

 

George III, King of England

1738-1820. King of Great Britain and Ireland (1760-1820) and King of Hanover (1815-1820). Responsible with Lord North for the loss of the American colonies, he suffered periods of madness from the 1780’s (due to the intermittent metabolic disease porphyria) and was permanently insane by 1811, after which the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV) acted as Regent.

BkX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec3 His meetings with Pitt. It is unlikely (thought not impossible) that Chateaubriand could have witnessed the scene he describes at Windsor since George was not in such a state until 1810, and died in 1820 before Chateaubriand returned to England.

BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1 King during Napoleon’s reign.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 He gave Henry Stuart, last of his line, a pension.

 

George IV, Prince of Wales then King of England

1762-1830. King of England 1820-1830. Eldest son and successor of George III, in 1785 he married Maria Anne Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic. The marriage was illegal, however; and in 1795, to secure parliamentary settlement of his enormous debts, he made a political marriage with Caroline of Brunswick. In constant and open opposition to his father, George associated closely with the Whigs, particularly Charles James Fox, whose friend he became in 1781. In 1811, after George III had become permanently incapacitated, George became Regent. The Tories, under the leadership of the Earl of Liverpool for most of the period, remained entrenched in power throughout the Regency and George’s subsequent reign. As Regent and as King, George was hated for his extravagance and dissolute habits, and he aroused particular hostility by an unsuccessful attempt, immediately after his accession (1820) to the throne, to divorce his long-estranged wife, Caroline. During his reign the monarchy lost a significant amount of power.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec1  BkX:Chap11:Sec1 Chateaubriand was ambassador to his Court in 1822.

BkX:Chap7:Sec1 His brother was Frederick, Duke of York.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 The Marchioness of Conyngham, one of his mistresses.

BkXXII:Chap7:Sec1 His reputed agents in France.

BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1 Napoleon writes to him in July 1815.

BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 The brother-in-law of the Duchess of Cumberland,  he was crowned on the 19th of July 1821. Her sister Queen Louise had died eleven years earlier on the 19th of July 1810.

BkXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 His prejudice against Monsieur Decazes.

BkXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand presented to him on the 19th of April 1822, and later spoke to him on the 23rd of May at the official dinner given for the Princess of Denmark.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 His fondness for his former Whig friends. His relationship with the Marquise d’Osmond.

BkXXVII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand  meets him on a number of occasions.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 Madame Récamier meets him at the Opera in 1802.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 He was in bad health by 1828.

BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 A reference to his speech to Parliament of 5th February 1829.

BkXXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 He died in 1830.

 

George V, King of Hanover

1819-1878. He was the only son of Ernst August I, King of Hanover (1851-1866) and 1st Duke of Cumberland (fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom) and his wife Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was a first cousin of Queen Victoria. He was the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Hanover and the ancestor of the German branch of the House of Hanover. He was deposed by the Prussians in 1866.

BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 He lost the sight of one eye during a childhood illness, and the other in an accident in 1833.

 

Georges, see Cadoudal

 

George William, Elector of Brandenburg

1595-1640. Of the Hohenzollern dynasty, he was Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia (1619-1640). His reign was marked by ineffective governance during the Thirty Years’ War.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

George Podiebrad, King of Bohemia

1420-1471. King of Bohemia 1458-1468. He sent Ambassadors to Louis XI to gain support against the King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus, but was dispossessed of his throne by the latter.

BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gérard, Baron François

1770-1837. The French portrait and historical painter was born in Rome. In Paris, after brief study under Pajou and others, he became a favourite pupil of David, who influenced such works as Psyche Receiving the Kiss of Cupid and Daphnis and Chloë, both in the Louvre. As a leading portraitist, Gérard was patronized by the court during the Empire and the Bourbon restoration. His portrait of Mme Récamier, of this period, is in the Louvre. Louis XVIII appointed him court painter in 1814. Many examples of his historical paintings are in the Versailles Museum.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 The 1805 portrait of Madame Récamier mentioned here is in the Carnavelet Gallery.

BkXXVIII:Chap19:Sec1 His painting Corinne of 1819.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 His full-length portrait of 1802 of Madame Récamier is at Versailles.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 His painting of St Theresa of 1828 was done at Madame Récamier’s instigation and given to Madame de Chateaubriand. It was installed in the Infirmary chapel on the 3rd of June 1828 and is still in situ.

 

Gérard, Etienne Maurice, General, Comte

1773-1852. A Napoleonic general, he distinguished himself at the battles of Austerlitz and Jena, and was made general of brigade in November 1806, and for his conduct in the battle of Wagram he was created a baron. He conducted himself brilliantly throughout the Russian campaign, at subsequent battles, and ultimately at Ligny. Gerard retired to Brussels after the fall of Napoleon, and did not return to France till 1817. He sat as a member of the chamber of deputies in 1822-1824, and was re-elected in 1827. He took part in the revolution of 1830, after which he was appointed minister of war and named a marshal of France. On account of his health he resigned the office of war minister in the October following, but in 1831 he took the command of the northern army, and was successful in thirteen days in driving the army of Holland out of Belgium. In 1832 he commanded the besieging army in the famous scientific siege of the citadel of Antwerp. He was again chosen war minister in July 1834, but resigned in the October following. In 1836 he was named grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour in succession to Marshal Mortier, and in 1838 commander of the National Guards of the Seine, an office which he held till 1842. He became a senator under the empire in 1852, and died on the 17th of April in the same year.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 On the retreat, at Malojaroslavets.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap6:Sec1 Mooted as a member of a Provisional Government in July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 His arrest ordered but not carried out on 28th July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned on the 30th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap15:Sec1 With the Duc d’Orléans on the 31st of July 1830.

 

Germain of Auxerre, Saint

c380-448. Bishop of Auxerre (418), he died at Ravenna. He was the son of Rusticus and Germanilla, and his family was one of the noblest in Gaul in the latter portion of the fourth century. He went on active missions to Britain.

BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Germanicus, Julius Caesar

15BC-19AD. Adopted by his uncle Tiberius in 4AD, in 17 he was appointed to govern Rome’s eastern provinces and died mysteriously in Antioch, perhaps poisoned. He was the father of Caligula.

BkXVI:Chap10:Sec1 His ashes were returned to Rome.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 See Tacitus, Annals, III.2 for Germanicus’ funeral.

 

Germé, or Germer, Abbé

A teacher at Rennes college.

BkII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gervais de Tilbury

13th Century. An English historian, he wrote a collection of pieces on physics, history and geography such as De mirabilibus orbis.

BkIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Gervaise, Dom François Armand

1660-1761. He was a Trappist Abbot and author. A discalced Carmelite, he entered La Trappe in 1695 becoming the third Abbot. He resigned in 1698. He was ultimately banished to the monastery of Reclus, Troyes, by the King, for his wayward views.

BkXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from his Life of Abelard (1720).

 

Gesbert, Jean-Baptiste

Sieur de la Noë-Seiche, he was Seneschal (principal judge, chief of police and administrator for the seigneurie) at Combourg. In 1792 he acted at Chateaubriand’s marriage. The first elected mayor of Combourg in 1790, he was judge and then president of the tribunal at Nantes from 1804 to 1816.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Gesril, or Géril, du Papeu, Joseph-François-Anne

1767-1795. Born 23rd February 1767, and eighteen months older than Chateaubriand, he was a childhood friend of Chateaubriand. They met again at Rennes, then at Brest in 1783. Gesril became a ship’s lieutenant in 1789. He emigrated in 1791, and saw his friend for the last time in May 1793 between Jersey and Southampton. Captured after the landing at Quiberon Bay by Hoche’s troops, he was executed by firing-squad on 27th August 1795, at Vannes, aged 28.

BkI:Chap5:Sec1 BkI:Chap5:Sec2 His diminutive for Joseph, Joson. Childhood adventures.

BkII:Chap7:Sec2 BkII:Chap7:Sec3 Chateaubriand meets him again at Rennes College.

BkII:Chap8:Sec2 They meet again at Brest. Gesril had become an aspirant in July 1782 and a member of the marine guard on 1st June 1783.

BkV:Chap15:Sec4 Remembered by Chateaubriand as he left for America.

BkX:Chap3:Sec3 BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand meets him on the Southampton packet in 1793.

 

Gesril de la Trochardais, Angélique

She was sister to Gesril du Papeu, Chateaubriand’s childhood friend.

BkI:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Gessler, Albrecht

c14th century. Gessler was the legendary Austrian bailiff of Altdorf, whose brutal rule led to the William Tell rebellion and the eventual independence of Switzerland.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Gessner, Salomon

1730-1788. A Swiss writer, translator, painter, and etcher, he was known throughout Europe for literary works of pastoral themes and rococo style. A town councillor and forestry superintendent, he also ran an important publishing house which published his books with his own excellent etchings. His pastoral prose Idyllen (1756–72) was praised by Chateaubriand.

BkXXXV:Chap18:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gèvres (Gesvres), Francoise-Marie de Guesclin, Duchesse de

Last of the La Roberie branch of the Du Guesclin line (both branches terminated), she married the Duke (Louis-Paris-Joachim Potier de Gèvres-Luxembourg, Duc de Gèvres et de Tresmes, Governor of Paris) in 1758. He was executed in 1794. In 1809, an octogenarian, she received a small pension from Napoleon as ‘the last of the Du Guesclins’.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ghent

The city in Belgium, it is one of Belgium’s oldest, at the confluence of the canalized rivers Scheldt and Lys.

BkXXII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap14:Sec1 Louis XVIII sought refuge there during the Hundred Days, from March 1815. Chateaubriand was summoned there.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Ghent is known for its excellent fish.

BkXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 By the ‘Pacification of Ghent’ in 1576, the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries were ceded to Spain. Ghent was then taken by Louis XIV in 1678, and later by the armies of the Republic.

BkXXIII:Chap15:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap19:Sec1 The city on the River Lys, which in French means Lily.

BkXXIII:Chap16:Sec1 Ghent is about thirty miles or so from the field of Waterloo.

BkXXIII:Chap19:Sec1 BkXXV:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand leaves Ghent at the second Restoration.

BkXXV:Chap6:Sec1 The pension granted to him on the 17th January 1816 of 24000 francs was withdrawn and he was left with his pension as a Peer fixed by royal decree of 29th December 1815 at 15000 francs.

 

Giaour, see Byron

 

Gibbon, Edward

1737-1794. British historian who wrote the classic text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1788).

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 He retired to Lausanne where he completed his work in 1788. He was friendly with the Neckers after their return to Coppet. He returned to his Protestant faith at the end of his life.

 

Gibert-Arnaud

He was a member of the Committee for the Medal-Winners of July.

BkXXXV:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned in April 1832.

 

Gil Blas

The work by Le Sage, though nominally set in Spain, is in fact French through and through. The picaresque adventures of its hero are described from naive youth through cunning servant to landed proprietor and nobleman, with a spell in jail, bereavements and fits of remorse along the way. It was an immense hit on publication, and was translated into most European languages. The version by Tobias Smollet was the first in English and one of the best, although rather free in parts. Its influence on Smollett’s own work is clear (Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle); Fielding (Tom Jones) and Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby) were also heavily influenced by it or its numerous imitators.

BkX:Chap5:Sec1 BkX:Chap7:Sec1 Peltier compared to the hero of the work.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 A reference to a celebrated episode in the work, Book VII, Chapter 4, where the quality of the prelate’s sermons is questioned.

 

Gilles de Bretagne

Brother of the Duke of Brittany, François I. Imprisoned and strangled on his brother’s orders in 1450.

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Ginguené, Pierre-Louis

1748-1815. French Author, born at Rennes. He hailed the first symptoms of the French Revolution, and joined Giuseppe Cerutti, the author of the Mémoire pour le peuple français (1788), and others in producing the Feuille villageoise, a weekly paper addressed to the villages of France. He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, and only escaped with his life through the downfall of Robespierre. He was appointed a member of the Tribunate, but Napoleon, finding that he was not sufficiently tractable, had him expelled at the first ‘purge’, and he returned to his literary pursuits. He was part of the Commission appointed to continue the Histoire littéraire de la France, and he contributed to the volumes of this series which appeared in 1814, 1817 and 1820. Ginguené’s most important work is the Histoire littéraire d'Italie (14 vols., 1811-1835). He was putting the finishing touches to the eighth and ninth volumes when he died.

BkII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned as educated at Rennes College.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec2 A follower of Chamfort. Description of the man. The Cadran-Bleu was a well-known restaurant in the Boulevard du Temple, until the Restoration. After the incident of his wife’s short skirt (en pet-en-l’air: not falling below the knee) reported in the Moniteur 26th June 1798, in an article inspired by Talleyrand, Ginguené was recalled. Note that Ginguené as a critic savaged Chateaubriand’s Atala in 1801 and later in 1802 his Génie du Christianisme. 

BkIV:Chap12:Sec3 His friend, the poet Lebrun.

BkV:Chap15:Sec2 Argued with Chateaubriand over his politics.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec2 His reaction to the invasion of the Tuileries in 1792.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand sent him a copy of the Essai.

BkXIII:Chap3:Sec2 Chateaubriand saw him again in Paris in 1800.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec1 His savaging of Le Génie in his journal La Décade philisophique (founded 1796, and the sole opposition journal during the Empire).

 

Ginguené, Madame

Marie-Ann Poulet married Pierre-Louis Ginguené in November 1786.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec2 She warned Chateaubriand’s family of the imminent atrocities.

BkV:Chap15:Sec2 She sent Monsieur Monnet and his daughter to see Chateaubriand.

 

Giocondo, Fra Giovanni

c1445-c1525. An Italian architect, antiquary, archaeologist, and classical scholar, he was born in Verona. The most beautiful building in Verona and one of the most perfect in all Europe, the Palazzo del Consiglio, famous for the decorations of its loggia, was designed by Giocondo at the request of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas de Quincey also attributes the church of Santa Maria della Scala to him. He worked also in France and Venice, and produced a critical version of Vitruvius.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Giorgini

Chateaubriand’s Italian Courier.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Giorgione, Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco

c1477-1510. A Venetian High Renaissance painter, he is believed to have been a pupil of Bellini and master of Titian.

BkXXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Girardin-d’Ermenonville, Comte Alexander de

1776-1855. The son of Rousseau’s patron, and father of the future director of La Presse, he served with distinction as a general. He supported the first Restoration, and though he joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, he retained royal favour as First Huntsman. He was also Inspector General of the Cavalry from 1816 to 1823.

BkXXV:Chap11:Sec1 At the scene of the Duc de Berry’s assassination in 1820.

 

Girardin, Delphine Gay, Dame de

 

Girardin, Sophie Gay, Dame de

 

Girodet, Anne Louis, de Roussy Triosson

1767-1824. The French Neoclassical painter studied under David but developed his own cooler atmospheric style. In 1812 he inherited a fortune and from then on mainly worked on poems on aesthetics.

BkXVIII:Chap5:Sec2 His 1809 portrait (St. Malo Museum Gallery) shows Chateaubriand, with windblown hair, meditating among the ruins of Rome. Napoleon commented that it looked like that of a conspirator who had come down a chimney.

 

Girona (Gerona), Spain

A city located in northeast Catalonia, at the confluence of the rivers Ter and Onyar.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec2 The inhabitants heroically resisted the French in 1809.

 

Girondin, Girondists

A relatively moderate revolutionary party several of its members coming from the Gironde, hence its name. Vergniaud, Buzot and Brissot were prominent members.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 Powerful in 1792.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 Ill-regarded in Toulouse. The cowardly faction, because they spoke in favour of the king and then voted for his execution.

 

Gisors, France

A commune in the metropolitan area of Paris it is located 39 miles northwest of the centre of Paris. Gisors is in the Vexin normand region of Normandy at the confluence of the Epte, Troesne and Réveillon rivers .

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand was there in July 1830.

 

Gisors, Louis-Marie Fouquet, Comte de

1732-1758. He died in battle at Krefeld (June 23rd 1758) during the Seven Years’ War.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gisquet, Henri-Joseph

1792-1866. Gisquet first rose to prominence as a somewhat shady and opportunistic businessman before being appointed Prefect of Police by his longtime protector Casimir Perier in 1831. He retained this post for five years, earning widespread condemnation, particularly in liberal circles, for his strong-arm tactics and general disregard for the finer points of constitutional and criminal law. Gisquet was very much in the news in late 1833 and early 1834 for his role as one of the principal point men in Louis-Philippe’s ongoing legal battle with the recently unshackled press.

BkXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 He visits Chateaubriand in his cell in June 1832.

BkXXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gisquet, Madame

She was the wife of the Prefect of Police, Guisquet.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gisquet, Naomi

She was the daughter of the Prefect of Police, Gisquet.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Giubega de Calvi, Laurent,

State prosecutor for Louis XV lived in Calvi, Corsica.

BkXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Napoleon’s godfather.

 

Giustina, Santa

The patron saint of Padua, she was said to have been martyred in 304 AD.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 The Basilica of Santa Justina (1502-1587) in Padua is in the Prato della Valle, Veronese’s Martyrdom of St Justina (c1575) is behind the high altar.

 

Giustiniani, Giacomo, Cardinal

1769-1843. He lived as a layman from 1798 to 1814, travelling throughout Europe. He was later Archbishop of Imola, and Papal Nuncio in Spain from 1817 to 1825. He was created a Cardinal in 1826. He was Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1837 until his death.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 A candidate for the Papacy in 1829.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec2 A possible candidate for French veto in the Papal Conclave of 1829. A pro-Jesuit voter.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 Rejected as a Papal candidate by France.

 

Giustiniani, Bishop of Nebbio

1470-1536 An annalist, he was Bishop of Nebbio in Corsica. Translator of the Polyglot Psalter, Genoa 1516 (Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum, et Chaldaeum). He also wrote a Description of Corsica.

BkVI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned. Genesis I.31 (‘and behold it was very good’) and Psalm XIX verses 1 (‘The heavens declare the glory of God’) and 5 (‘as a bridegroom…as a strong man’) are quoted.

 

Givré, Bernard Desmousseaux, Comte de

1794-1854. Attaché in London, he was second Secretary to the Rome Embassy in 1829. He was later Deputy for Dreux from 1837 to 1848, then a Member of the Legislature of 1849.

BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gjatsk

A town in Russia it is near Smolensk.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Globe, Le

It was the principal journal of Liberal youth in Paris from 1824 to 1830.

BkXXIX:Chap17:Sec1 Mentioned in 1829.

 

Gluck, Christoph Willibald

1714-1787. A German composer who reformed opera seria making it less artificial. He composed Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767), inspired by Calzabigi’s librettos.

BkXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Frederick-William III’s liking for his music.

 

Gnathene

A courtesan.

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Godard, Monsieur

Present at the exhumation of the Duc d’Enghien, 26th March 1816.

BkXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Godwin, William

1756-1836. English author and political philosopher. A minister in his youth, he was, however, plagued by religious doubts and gave up preaching in 1783 for a literary career. His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) recorded the view that men are ultimately guided by reason and therefore, being rational creatures, could live in harmony without laws and institutions. His views are also reflected in his novels - Things as they are, or the Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794), St. Leon (1799), and Fleetwood (1805). In 1797, Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft, who died the same year after giving birth to a daughter, Mary. He remarried in 1801 and in 1805 established a small, juvenile publishing business. His last years were an unceasing struggle against poverty and debt. Godwin’s works strongly influenced his younger contemporaries, particularly Shelley, whose elopement with Mary (1814) drew from Godwin an exhibition of sternness at variance with his earlier views. However, he was later reconciled to their marriage.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec3 BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 His novel Caleb Williams published in 1794.

 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

1749-1832. German poet, scholar and statesman, his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) won him international fame. He settled in Weimar, making a well-documented visit to Italy. His most famous work is his poetic drama Faust (1808). He was a man of multifarious interests, in science and the arts, and was a significant translator of works into German.

Preface:Sect3. He is mentioned by Chateaubriand as having recently died.

BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 Götz von Berlichingen (1773) a Sturm and Drang drama first brought Goethe to public notice. It was translated by Walter Scott (1799).

BkXII:Chap4:Sec2 A great exponent of the passion and tragedy of his age.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand labels him as a materialist.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 Goethe’s Italian Journey documents his travels there 1786-1788. Chateaubriand disliked what he saw as his materialistic and pagan tendency.

BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 His name in the visitors book at Carlsbad.

BkXXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 See his Venetian Epigrams and his Italian Journey. Goethe was in Venice September/October 1786.

BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Goethe’s famous poem ‘Kennst du das land…’

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 See Venetian Epigrams VIII.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 See his Torquato Tasso of 1789.

 

Goldoni, Carlo

1707-1793. He was a prolific and much imitated Italian playwright.

BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Le Baruffe Chiozotto, The Chiozotto Quarrel, is a comedy of 1760-62. Checca and Orsetta are fisher-folk.

 

Goldsmith, Oliver

1730?-1774. Irish writer and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770, written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-natur'd Man (1768) and She Stoops to Conquer (1773).

BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 Author of The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

 

Golfe-Juan

A town and harbour between Juan-les-Pins and Cannes.

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

 

Gomer

Son of Japhet. See Genesis 10:5.

BkV:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gomorrah

It was one of the five Cities of the Plain of Siddim, which were destroyed by fire, for their wickedness (See Genesis 10:19; 13:10; 19:24, 28).

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 The name is often paired with Sodom, and represents Lesbianism while Sodom represents Homosexuality (see Proust). There is a definite lesbian erotic element in Sand’s Lélia, which is atypical of her books, and which she identified as being in some sense autobiographical.

 

Gonesse, France

Gonesse is now a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. It is located 10 miles from the centre of the city. King Philip II of France was born there on 21 August 1165.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 Chateaubriand there with the King in 1815.

 

Gontaut-Biron, née Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Montaut-Navailles, Vicomtesse then Duchesse de

1775-1862. She married the Vicomte de Gontaut-Biron in 1792. From 1819 she was Governess of the royal children, receiving the title of Duchess in 1826, and following Charles X to Prague, where Chateaubriand met her in 1833.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec4 Emigrated to London.

BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap12:Sec1 In Prague in May 1833.

BkXLI:Chap4:Sec1 In Prague in late September 1833.

 

Goodwyn, Doctor Edmund

1756-1829. A physician, he was an expert on cases of death by drowning. Author of The Connexion of Life with Respiration (1795). A specialist in pulmonary disease, he practised at Woodbridge in Suffolk.

BkX:Chap4:Sec1 Treated Chateaubriand in London (or perhaps later in Suffolk).

 

Gordon, Captain

He was Commander of the British fort at Niagara in 1791.

BkVII:Chap7:Sec1 The British continued to administer the frontier post until 1796 despite the agreement to hand control to the United States after the War of Independence, as the States were not ready to man it.

 

Gorgon

Medusa, or Gorgo, was the best known of the Three Gorgons, the daughters of Phorcys. A winged monster with snaky locks, glaring eyes and brazen claws whose gaze turned men to stone. Her sisters were Stheino and Euryale.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 BkXXI:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec1 The type of ugliness.

 

Goritz

The new town of Nova Gorica, Slovenia, was built in 1948. The City Municipality of Nova Gorica lies by the Italian border, between the Alps and the sea.

BkXLII:Chap9:Sec1 Charles X died in the Graffenberg Palace in Goritz. His tomb is in the crypt of the Church of Saint Mary of the Annunciation, on Kostanjevica Hill (Castagnavizza), along with those of Henri V (Comte de Chambord) and Henri’s wife, Maria .

 

Gorodnia, Russia

The small village was not far from Maloyaroslavets.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 Napoleon stayed there on the retreat from Moscow on the night of 24th October 1812.

 

Göttingen, Germany

The town in Lower Saxony, halfway between Bonn and Berlin, was a major commercial centre as a member of the Hanseatic League between 1351 and 1572.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec2 In 1831 students and citizens stormed the Town Hall. 1837 the Göttinger Sieben (seven professors from the University of Göttingen - among them the famous Grimm brothers) protested the annulment of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover and were promptly fired.

 

Goujon, Jean

c1510-1568. The French Renaissance sculptor is best known for his marble relief of the Deposition for St Germain l’Auxerrois, now in the Louvre, the Tribune of the Caryatids supporting a gallery in the Louvre, and the reliefs pf nymphs for the Fontaine des Innocents.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 The Calvinist sculptor was said to have been killed on St Bartholomew’s day while working on the decoration of the new Louvre.

 

Gourgaud, Gaspar, Baron

1783-1852. General and Aide-de-camp to Napoleon, he fought through numerous campaigns and at Waterloo. He sailed with Napoleon to St Helena. He returned to active service in the army in 1830; and in 1840 proceeded with others to St Helena to bring back the remains of Napoleon to France. He became a deputy to the Legislative Assembly in 1849. He wrote a number of works on Napoleon and his experiences.

BkXVI:Chap6:Sec1 He collaborated with Montholon in the work entitled Mémoires pour servir a l’histoire de France sous Napoleon (Paris, 1822-1823.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 Reference to his Napoléon et la Grande-Armée en Russie (1825)

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec2 BkXXI:Chap4:Sec3 BkXXI:Chap5:Sec3

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Referenced.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 In 1815, he accused Ney of being responsible for defeat at Waterloo.

BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 Accompanied Napoleon to St Helena in 1815, and shared his captivity till 1818.

BkXXXII:Chap2:Sec1 He returned to the army with his previous rank under the July Monarchy.

 

Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Laurent, Marquis de, Marshal of France

1764-1830. He served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was made marshal following his victory at Polotsk (1812). After the Bourbon restoration he served twice (1815, 1817-19) as minister of war and was instrumental in passing a law to organize military recruitment by voluntary pledges and lottery and limit the arbitrariness of promotions. Because of these attempts to limit the influence of the émigré nobility in the officer corps, he was forced from office by the ultra-royalists. He wrote on the Napoleonic Wars and left personal memoirs. He was an actor in his youth.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Chateaubriand saw him perform as a youth in Beamarchais’ La Mere coupable in 1792.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 He showed his support for the Royalists in 1815.

 

Gouyon, La Citoyenne

An inhabitant of La Ballue, Saint-Servan in 1798.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s mother died at her house.

 

Gouyon-Miniac, Pierre-Louis-Alexandre de

Died 1818. Captain of the 7th Breton Company in the Army of Princes.

BkIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 Mentioned in 1792.

 

Goyon, Monsieur de

Officer of the Guard in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Goyon-Beaufort, Comte de

1725-1794.

BkI:Chap3:Sec1 The Beaufort title passed to the Goyon family.

BkIII:Chap1:Sec1 A visitor to Combourg.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 The Goyon family line.

 

Goyon-Vaurouault, Armand de

1769-1809. A naval officer, and cousin by marriage of Chateaubriand, he was executed with Armand de Chateaubriand.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec2 Compromised by sending a detailed report of the defences of Brest to Armand.

 

Goyon-Vaurouault, Julie-Renée Potier de la Savarière, Madame de

Died 1847. Wife of Armand. She was the grand-daughter of Julie-Angélique de Bedée and Jean-François Moreau, therefore a distant cousin of Chateaubriand.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec2 Her intervention achieved a reprieve and then commutation of sentence for the young Boisé-Lucas.

 

Gracchus, Gaius and Tiberius Sempronius, the Gracchi

Tiberius (163-133BC) was a Roman reformer who as tribune in 1333 proposed land reforms designed to create a class of small landowners. He was killed in a riot. His brother Gaius (153-121BC) was tribune in 123 and renewed Tiberius’ attempts. He was killed in riots over his proposal to grant Roman citizenship to Latins. The Gracchi’s attempts at reforms factionalised the aristocracy and prevented peaceful change.

BkV:Chap12:Sec1 Mirabeau compared to them.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 Their fate mentioned.

 

Graces

The Graces or Charites (the Roman Gratia) were the three sisters, daughters of Jupiter-Zeus and Eurynome, attendants to Venus-Aphrodite. Often depicted with arms entwined in dance (See Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’) their names were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. They signified giving, receiving, and thanking, later the Platonic triad, love, beauty, truth.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Graciosa

A volcanic Island in the Azores, nicknamed the White Island for its delicate landscape, it has a mild climate and gently rolling hills. Santa Cruz is the most important town. It was noted for its whaling industry now defunct, and its vineyards.

BkVI:Chap4:Sec1 BkVI:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand touched there on his voyage to America in 1791. His description of the island.

 

Gradisca d’Isonzo, Italy

A town in north-eastern Italy, on the Isonzo River, near the Slovenian border, it was founded (late 15th century) by Venice as a fortress against the Turks. From 1754 to 1918 it formed with Gorizia (Görz) the crown land of Görz-Gradisca in the Austrian province of Küstenland.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 Taken by Napoleon in 1797.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3 The capture of Gradisca on the 17th March 1797,  took place in the region of the Drave and Izonzo Rivers. Rising in the Carnic Alps, Northern Italy, the Drava or Drave flows generally east through southern Austria (where it is called the Drau) and enters Slovenia. It forms part of the Croatian-Hungarian border before joining the Danube River east of Osijek. The Mur River is its chief tributary. The Soča River, in Italy the Isonzo River, flows through West Slovenia and Northern Italy. An Alpine river in character, Soča-Isonzo has its source 1,100 m high in the Julian Alps, west from Mount Triglav (2864 m) in the Trenta valley: flowing south 140 km it enters the Adriatic Sea near Monfalcone in Italy.

 

Grammont, Duchesse de

d.1794 Executed during the Terror.

BkX:Chap8:Sec2 Her name appears on the death warrant exhibited, and she was executed with Chateaubriand’s brother.

 

Grandmesnil, (Jean-Baptiste Fauchard)

1737-1816. Actor and author. Famous as Harpagon in Molière’s L’Avare (1790, and again in 1799)

BkIV:Chap11:Sec1 Actor at the Théâtre-Français.

 

Granada

The city in Andalusia in south-west Spain, at the confluence of the Darro and Genil rivers, formerly the capital of the Kingdom of Granada, and the last Moorish stronghold in Spain until conquered in 1492. Its splendid architecture includes the Alhambra. 

BkIII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned as an exotic city.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807. The area west of Granada was once a crucial frontier between the Moorish kingdom of Granada and the Christian territory. Today, it is now dotted some dramatically sited villages, on rocky crags or hills overlooking the fertile Vega (plain).

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec2 A letter dated from there.

BkXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 The Vega is the plain outside Granada. The Zegris, like the Abencerages were noble families of Granada, The Darro (not Duero as Chateaubriand writes) and Xenil Rivers run through and past the city. The Generalife, the country estate of the Kings of Granada, is located just outside the northern fortifications of the Alhambra.

BkXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Lausanne compared to it.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 BkXXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Grand-Bé, Saint-Malo

Following plans designed by Vauban, engineer Siméon de Garangeau (1647-1741) extended the town, revamped its fortifications, and built sea forts on the small islands off the city, Petit Bé, Grand Bé and Fort Royal, later renamed Fort National, La Conchée, and Cézembre.

BkI:Chap3:Sec4 The site of Chateaubriand’s tomb (1848).

 

Grande-Force, Paris

A now-defunct prison in the Marais district of Paris divided into La Petite-Force for women and La Grande-Force for men.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Armand taken there.

 

Grandella, Italy

Manfred was defeated by Charles of Anjou the brother of Saint-Louis, near Benevento on the plain of Grandella in 1266 ending Hohenstaufen rule in Italy.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Grand-Turc

A traditional title for the Ottoman Sultan of Constantinople (Istanbul).

BkV:Chap15:Sec1 Selim III (1761-1808) was the 28th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 (April)-1807. He sent his ambassador to be presented to Talleyrand in July 1789.

 

Granet, François Omer

1758-1821. A revolutionary, Member of the Convention, and regicide. He returned to Marseilles his native town under the Empire, and was exiled to Brussels under the Restoration, but was pardoned and returned to France in 1818.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Granville

The coastal city in Basse-Normandie is sited on a rocky point commanding the Channel. Granville is situated on the Cotentin Peninsula at the mouth of Bosq and Pointe du Roc (Cap Lihou) which in part closes in the north of the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. It was at one time a corsair city which rivalled Saint-Malo, and it sent a large cod-fishing fleet to fish the Banks of Newfoundland. It was besieged by the English in 1803. Seventeen French Admirals were born there.

BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Its oyster-beds in 1822.

 

Gray, Thomas

1716-1771. English poet considered a forerunner of English romanticism. His most famous work is the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Translated by Lemierre.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s translation of Gray’s Elegy begins: ‘Dans les airs frémissants, j’entends le long murmure/ De la cloche du soir qui tinte avec lenteur…’ He also translates from the Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, here given in the original.

BkXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 A reference to Gray’s Elegy.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 From Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 The quotation is from Chateaubriand’s imitation of Gray’s Elegy.

 

Grey, Charles, 2nd Earl

1764-1845. Known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig statesman and Prime Minister. He became one of the major leaders of the Whig party. Grey was noted for advocating Parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. In 1830, the Whigs finally returned to power, with Grey as Prime Minister. His Ministry was a notable one, seeing passage of the Reform Act 1832, which finally saw the reform of the House of Commons, and the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. As the years passed, however, Grey became more conservative. In 1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving Lord Melbourne as his successor.

BkXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gray, for Grey, Lady Jane

1537-1554. She is remembered as the ‘Nine Day Queen’, before Mary Tudor was confirmed as queen in 1553, after the death of her half-brother Edward VI.

BkX:Chap5:Sec2 She as buried in the courtyard of the Tower of London after her execution.

 

Greenwich, London

A Roman foundation Greenwich became associated with the monarchy from an early date. Anglo-Saxon, Tudor and Stuart Kings lived there. Greenwich Palace built around 1427 was demolished in 1661 during the reign of Charles II. 

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned. The Royal Hospital was built by Wren at the end of the eighteenth century for Naval invalids, and became the Naval College in 1873.

 

Grégoire, Jean-François

He was a co-translator of Saint Jerome’s letters.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec5 The edition with Collombet of Saint Jerome’s letters was published 1836-39.

 

Gregory I, Saint Gregory the Great

c540-604. Pope from 590, his appointment was confirmed by the Emperor Maurice.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gregory V, né Bruno

c972-999. Pope from May 996.

BkXXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Silvester II his successor was actually Pope in 1001.

 

Gregory VII, Hildebrand, Saint and Pope

d1085. Pope 1073-1085. In Germany, Henry IV in dispute with Gregory was excommunicated (1076). The excommunication cost Henry much of his popularity, and in 1077 he humbled himself before the pope at Canossa. Gregory remained neutral in the civil war that followed in Germany but decreed (1079) Henry deposed when it became clear Henry would not cooperate with the forces working for peace in the empire. Henry answered by setting up an imperial antipope, Guibert of Ravenna (Clement III). When the civil war ended in Henry's favour, he marched (1081) into Italy. Gregory led the defence of Rome, but when Henry returned a second time (1083) the Romans betrayed Gregory. He fortified himself in Castel Sant’Angelo until rescued by his Norman ally, Robert Guiscard. The Normans plundered the city. With the antipope and Henry still in Italy, Gregory decided to join the Normans in their withdrawal south. He died a year later at Salerno.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned. On Christmas Eve, 1075, as the Pope was distributing Holy Communion at Midnight Mass in Santa Maria Maggiore, a group of men entered the Church, took Gregory captive, and demanded surrender of church property. Gregory refused to. Later that morning the local Roman people forced their way into the castle where Gregory was prisoner and freed him.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gregory X, Theobald Visconti, Pope

1210-1276. Pope 1271-1276. To him is due the bull which, subsequently incorporated into the code of canon law, regulated all conclaves for Papal elections until the reforms of Pope Paul VI (1963–78).

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gregory XVI, Pope Gregory XVI, See Capellari

 

Grégoire de Tours, Saint Gregory of Tours

538-594. A French historian, he was Bishop of Tours (from 573), born in Clermont-Ferrand, of a prominent family. He wrote accounts of miracles of the saints, an astronomical work to determine movable feasts, and a commentary on the Psalms. His masterpiece, Historia Francorum (History of the Franks), in 10 books, is a universal history; its account of contemporary events being of great importance.

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to his Historia III.26

 

Gregorio, Emmanuele, Cardinal de

1758-1839. A member of the Neapolitan nobility he was supposed to be an illegitimate son of Charles III. He was exiled to Paris in 1810, and imprisoned from 1811 to 1814. He was made a Cardinal in 1816, and in 1823 was of the zelante party. He was made Bishop of Frascati in May 1829.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 A candidate for the Papacy in 1829 when he received twenty four votes.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec2 An anti-Jesuit voter.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1 Supported as a Papal candidate by France.

 

Grenelle

The Field of Mars in Paris, the old Plain of Grenelle, between the Military Academy and the Seine, was used by Napoleon for military executions.

BkI:Chap5:Sec1 Armand executed there 31st March 1809.

BkXXII:Chap14:Sec1 Napoleon’s instructions to blow up the magazine there in 1814.

 

Grenier, Paul, Comte de

1766-1827. A General, he was appointed by Louis XVIII to the 8th military division. In the spring of 1815 he was elected to the new Chamber of Representatives of which he was elected vice-president.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 A member of the executive committee.

 

Grenoble

The City in south-east France is the capital of the Isère department. Capital of the Dauphine until 1341.

BkIII:Chap1:Sec2 The monastery of the Grand Chartreux or Charterhouse is the mother abbey of the Carthusian Order. St Bruno founded the Order in the Alpine valley. Chateaubriand visited it in 1805.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec2 Prisoners from Zaragoza held at Grenoble in 1809.

BkXXIII:Chap13:Sec1 Louis XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment, led by Marshal Ney to counter Bonaparte at Grenoble on March 7, 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted ‘Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man wishes to kill his emperor, he may do so now’. Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted ‘Vive L’Empereur!’ and marched with Napoleon to Paris.

 

Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron

1759-1834. British statesman; he was the youngest son of George Grenville. He was foreign secretary in the ministry of his cousin William Pitt from 1791 to 1801. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Grenville led the British war party and favoured Pitt’s repressive internal measures. He was also a champion of free trade and of Catholic Emancipation. In 1806 he formed the ‘Ministry of all the talents,’ which abolished (1807) the slave trade.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand heard him speak.

 

Grétry, André-Ernest-Modeste

1714-1813. A Belgian composer, who lived and died in France. He was one of the leading opera composers of his time, and an exponent of opéra comique.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 His daughters and their death.

BkV:Chap15:Sec2 La Barbe-bleue, Bluebeard, a comedy by Sedaine with music by Grétry, staged at the Théâtre-Italien in March 1789.

 

Grève, Place de

The Place de Grève was, before 1803, the name of the square, now the City Hall Square (Place de l’Hôtel de Ville), in Paris. It was the site of most of the public executions. The gallows and the pillory stood there. The highest-profile executions took place in the Grève, including the gruesome deaths of the regicides Jacques Clément, François Ravaillac, and Robert–François Damiens.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Grew, Nehemiah

1641-1711/2. Botanist. His first important work appeared in 1672 when he published An Idea of a Phytological History of Plants. He was secretary of the Royal Society from 1677, and published his second great work on the Anatomy of Plants (1682), in which he described the function of flowers and announced the sexual reproduction of plants. With the Italian microscopist Marcello Malpighi, he is considered to be among the founders of the science of plant anatomy.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 His work consulted by Chateaubriand.

 

Grey, see Gray

 

Griffi, Count

He was the Ambassador of Naples to Florence in 1833.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Grignan, Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, Madame de

1646-1705. Daughter of Madame de Sévigné she was the recipient of her famous letters, 750 or so, over a period of thirty years. She married, 1669, Comte François de Grignan, a Farmer-General, and lived on his estate of that name in the Drôme.

BkXV:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Grignon, Louis, General

A general in the Army of the West during the Revolution, he savagely suppressed revolt in the Vendée.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Arrested with Huchet and accused of atrocities. Suspended August 1794, re-instated October 1795.

 

Grimm, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von

1723-1807. His acquaintance with Rousseau, through a mutual sympathy in regard to musical matters, ripened into intimate friendship, and led to a close association with the encyclopaedists. A witty pamphlet entitled Le Petit Prophète de Boeh-mischbroda (1753), written by him in defence of Italian as against French opera, established his literary reputation. In 1753 Grimm, following the example of the Abbé Raynal, began a literary correspondence with various German sovereigns. Raynal’s letters, Nouvelles littéraires, ceased early in 1755. With the aid of friends, especially of Diderot and Mme d’Épinay, during his temporary absences from France, Grimm himself carried on the correspondence, which consisted of two letters a month, until 1773, and eventually counted among his subscribers Catherine II of Russia, Stanislas Poniatowski, king of Poland, and many princes of the smaller German States.It was probably in 1754 that Grimm was introduced by Rousseau to Madame d’Epinay, with whom he soon formed a liaison which led to an irreconcilable rupture between him and Rousseau. Rousseau was induced by his resentment to give in his Confessions a wholly mendacious portrait of Grimm's character. He became minister of Saxe-Gotha at the court of France in 1776, but in 1777 he left Paris on a visit to St Petersburg, where he remained for nearly a year in daily intercourse with Catherine. He acted as Paris agent for the empress in the purchase of works of art, and executed many confidential commissions for her. In 1792 he emigrated, and in the next year settled in Gotha, where his poverty was relieved by Catherine, who in 1796 appointed him minister of Russia at Hamburg. On the death of the empress Catherine he took refuge with Mme d'Epinay's granddaughter, Emilie de Belsunce, comtesse de Bueil.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 His association with Rousseau’s set.

 

Groignard, Antoine

1727-1799. Engineer-General of the Marine, he was Royal ship designer, and designer of the naval dockyards and harbours at Toulon (1774) and Brest (1781-83). He was recalled to service in 1793, and appointed as the naval administrator at Toulon.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 Napoleon sends him a letter of criticism.

 

Gros, Antoine Jean, Baron

1771-1835. The French Romantic painter principally remembered for his historical pictures depicting significant events in the military career of Napoleon. He was a pupil of David.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 His painting Bonaparte visiting the Plague-Victims of Jaffa, was displayed in the Salon of 1804.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec2 His painting Napoléon on the field of Eylau, portraying the battlefield aftermath on the 9th of February 1807. It was displayed in the Salon of 1808.

 

Grotius, Hugo (Huig de Groot)

1583-1645. The Dutch jurist, politician, and theologian, whose major work, On the Law of War and Peace (1625), is considered the first comprehensive treatise on international law.

BkXVIII:Chap8:Sec2 His sacred tragedy in Latin, Adamus Exul of 1601.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Seas) was published in 1609. Oxiensterna appointed him Swedish Ambassador in Paris in 1634, a position he held until 1644.

 

Grotius, Peter (Pieter de Groot)

1615-1678 Second son of Hugh, he was Pensionary of Amsterdam in 1660, later of Rotterdam, and Ambassador to Stockholm and Paris. BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 The fourth volume of de Witt’s Letters and Negotiations concludes with the correspondence with Grotius during his embassy at Stockholm.

 

Grouchy, Emmanuel de, Marshal of France

1766-1847. A French general during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, he was made a marshal after Napoleon’s return from Elba during the Hundred Days. His questionable tactical decisions, for example his failure to prevent the Prussians from joining the English, are often thought to be largely responsible for Napoleon’s defeat in the Waterloo campaign.

BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Commanded a mounted squadron during the retreat from Moscow.

BkXXIII:Chap17:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 At Waterloo, it was claimed that Grouchy insisted on pursuing the retreating Prussian army instead of ‘marching to the sound of the guns’. His conduct was criticised by Gerard in a noted war of words.

 

Grünstein, Baron

Adjutant to the Duc d’Enghien.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec2 Present at Ettenheim during the arrest of the Duc d’Enghien.

 

Guadagni, Giovanni Antonio, Cardinal

1674-1759. Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, he was a Cardinal from 1731.

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

 

Guadalquivir

The River, c.350 miles long, rises in the Sierra de Cazorla, south-east Spain, and flowing generally south-west past Córdoba and Seville into the Atlantic Ocean near Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It is the longest stream in the Andalusia region of southern Spain. Its Arabic name means the Great River, and its Roman name was Betis or Baetis.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guarini, Gian-Battista

1538-1612. He was an Italian poet, who served at the court of Ferrara and in Rome and Florence. His best known work is his pastoral drama The Faithful Shepherd (1590), emulating Tasso’s Aminta of 1573.

BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 He was born in Ferrara.

 

Gubica, Monsieur

He was Chief clerk to the State of Corsica.

BkXIX:Chap4:Sec1 A letter from Napoleon to him.

 

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s view of the factions.

 

Guénan, Chevalier de

He was an officer in the Navarre Regiment.

BkIV:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand encountered him in 1786.

 

Guer, Julien-Hyacinthe de Marnière, Chevalier de

1748-1816. Born at Rennes. Emigrée, royalist agent under the Directory, he ended his career as a prefect at the Restoration.

BkIV:Chap3:Sec2 Chateaubriand dined with him in Paris in 1786.

BkV:Chap3:Sec1 Among the Bretons imprisoned in the Bastille in July 1788 and released in the September when Loménie de Brienne was dismissed. BkV:Chap7:Sec1 Present at the Brittany States in December 1788.

 

Guerchino, Francesco Giovanni Barbieri llamado, called

1591-1666. He was an Italian Painter and engraver.

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

BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 A painting in Ferrara attributed to him by Chateaubriand.

 

Guérin, Pierre-Narcisse, Baron

1774-1833. A French painter, he won enthusiastic recognition in 1799 for his Marius Sextus (Louvre). A defender of the classicism of David, he became director of the École de Rome in 1822. He counted among his pupils Delacroix, Géricault, and Ary Scheffer, who were to launch the romantic school. Among his best-known works are Aeneas and Dido, Clytemnestra, and Andromache, all in the Louvre.

BkXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 He returned to Paris, but in ill health returned to Rome to die there in 1833.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand sees him in Rome in 1828. He was working on designs for his unfinished painting, the Last Night of Troy.

BkXXIX:Chap14:Sec1 Chateaubriand dined with him on the 11th of December 1828 at the Villa Medici.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Guerin’s painting of the Virgin, of 1821, disappeared in 1871 during the Commune.

 

Guernon-Ranville, Martial Côme Annibal Perpétue Magloire, Comte de

1787-1866. A lawyer he served as Minister for Education in 1829. He was condemned after the revolution of 1830, and was imprisoned in the fortress of Ham for five years, before retiring to his château of Ranville (Calvados).

BkXXXI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guernsey

It is the second largest of the Channel Islands, in the English Channel.

BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand nearly shipwrecked there.

BkX:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrives there in November 1792.

 

Guiccioli, Teresa Gamba, Comtesse

1799-1873. Byron’s mistress in Ravenna (1819-1823). She married again, in 1851, the Comte de Boissy (1798-1866) a collaborator with Chateaubriand in London and Verona in 1822, who became a Peer under Louis-Philippe, then a Senator of the Second Empire.

BkXII:Chap4:Sec3 Chateaubriand met her in Rome.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand sees her in Rome in 1829.

BkXXXIX:Chap17:Sec1 Byron met her at Contessa Benzoni’s.

 

Guiche, Antoine VII de Gramont, Comte (called Duc) de

1722-1801. Peer of France.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Guiche, Antoine IX-Héraclius-Geneviève-Agénor de Gramont, Duc de

1789-1855. Having fought under the British flag in the Peninsular War, he became a lieutenant-general in the French army in 1823, and in 1830 accompanied Charles X of France to exile in Edinburgh, then Prague. He returned to France in 1833 and took the title on the death of his father in 1836. He was the Comte d’Orsay’s brother in law and Chateaubraind presented them both to George IV on 12th June 1822.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Visited Chateaubriand in London in 1822.

BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 At Saint-Cloud on the 30th of July 1830.

BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 In Prague in May 1833.

 

Guiche, Anne de Grimaud, Duchesse de

1802-1882. She was the wife of Agénor (1818).

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned in London.

BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 In Prague in May 1833.

BkXXXVII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand visits her.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guillaume le Conquérant, called Le Bätard, King of England, see William I

 

Guillaume le Breton

1165-1227. A historian and poet, he was chaplain to Philippe Auguste. He was the author of La Philippide, a verse chronicle of the king’s reign, quoted by Chateaubriand.

BkI:Chap1:Sec3 A source of information on Chateaubriand’s lineage.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from La Philippide, canto I line 30.

BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from La Philippide, canto XII, line 782. (‘To whom with our help accrued a brilliant victory.’)

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Chateaubriand quotes from La Philippide, canto IV:317-321. Ascalon much further south is confused with Acre in the original.

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to La Philippide.

 

Guillaume III of Nassau, King of England, see William III

 

Guillaume de Prusse, Maria-Anna of Hesse-Homburg, Princess (William of Prussia)

1785-1846. Wife (1804) of Prince William, she was the daughter of Frederick V Landgraf von Hessen-Homburg (1748-1820) and Princess Caroline of Hessen-Darmstadt (1746-1821).

BkXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 The death of her mother 18th September 1821.

 

Guillaume de Prusse, Prince Wilhelm Frederick Louis, future William I of Prussia

1797-1888. Ruled January 1871 – March 1888 as German Emperor and January 1861 – 9 March 1888 as King of Prussia.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Guillaume I, William I of the Netherlands,

1772-1843 He was named ‘Sovereign Prince’ of the Netherlands in 1813, proclaimed himself King in 1815, ruled until 1830 when he became King of Holland alone, and abdicated in 1840. William I was also the grand duke of Luxembourg.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guillaume Tell, William Tell

A legendary hero (15th century tale) of disputed historical authenticity who is said to have lived in the Canton of Uri in Switzerland in the early 14th century. His defiance of the Austrians sparked a rebellion, leading to the formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Guillaumy

He was a fisherman of Saint-Pierre.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec3 BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Guilleminot, Armand Charles, General Comte

1774-1840. A soldier in the Revolution and combatant at Waterloo, he drew up the plans for the Spanish Campaign in 1823. He was Ambassador to Constantinople 1824-1831.

BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 He writes to Chateaubriand in 1829.

 

Guillon, Marie-Nicolas-Sylvestre Guillon, Abbé

1759-1847. Former chaplain to the Princesse de Lamballe, he was Bishop of Maroc. A specialist in canon law, attached to the Rome Embassy. Cardinal Fesch demanded his recall at the beginning of 1804.

BkXIV:Chap8:Sec1 His lies.

BkXV:Chap7:Sec2 Denounced by Fesch as a Russian agent.

 

Guinard, Joseph-Augustin

1799-1874 A radical he was involved in a number of plots, and had an important role in the Society of the Rights of Man. Condemned to deportation he escaped prison in July 1835 and fled to London. He returned to France in 1848 and was elected to the Constituent Assembly.

BkXXXII:Chap5:Sec1 At the Tuileries in July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap11:Sec1 A member of the Republican Municipal Commission in July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap16:Sec1 At the Palais-Royal on the 31st of July 1830.

 

Guiraud, Pierre Marie Jeanne Alexandre Thérèse

1788-1847. A French poet, dramatist, and author, he contributed to the opera Pharamond in 1825, for which he was made a Baron by Charles X.

BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 His Les Macchabées ou Le Martyre was staged in 1822. This may have been an adaptation. The Maccabees were Jewish rebels who fought against the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty, who was succeeded by his infant son Antiochus V Eupator. The Maccabees founded the Hasmonean royal dynasty and established Jewish independence in the Land of Israel for about one hundred years, from 165 BC to 63 BC.

 

Guischardt, Karl Gottlieb

1724-1775. A historian of Roman military matters, whom Frederick the Great called Quintus Icilius after Julius Caesar’s aide de camp.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guise, François de Lorraine, Duc de

1519-1563. 2nd Duc de Guise, he was leader with his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (1524-1574) of the Roman Catholic party in the Wars of Religion. He was assassinated by a Huguenot.

BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 At Thionville in 1558.

 

Guise, Henri I de Lorraine, Duc de, called Le Balafré (The Cicatrice)

1550-1588. Henri de Lorraine, 3rd Duc de Guise, son of François, helped to plan the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day and after 1576 formed the Catholic League. Immensely ambitious and popular, called ‘the people’s king’, he instigated the revolt of Paris against King Henri III (1588) and took control of the city. After an ostensible reconciliation, the king had him murdered at Blois.

BkIX:Chap4:Sec2 BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 His assassination.

BkXX:Chap12:Sec1 Imprisoned at Blois.

BkXXIII:Chap19:Sec1 Quoted.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap7:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 The Paris revolt in 1588.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 His visit to Achille de Harlay after the Day of the Barricades, 12th May 1588.

BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 His defence of Metz against Charles V (1552) crowned his reputation. After a siege of two months the emperor was obliged to retire with a loss of 30,000 men.

 

Guise, Charles de Lorraine, Duc de

1571-1640 Son of Henri I de Lorraine, in 1595 he captured Marseilles from D’Épernon who held it for the League.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 Connected with Marseilles.

BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 He fought and killed Saint-Pol after an altercation at Rheims on the 25th of April 1594.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guise, Henri II de Lorraine, 5th Duc de

1614-1664. French leader of the house of Guise, he was already archbishop of Rheims when he became Duc de Guise in 1640. After being sentenced to death for his part in a conspiracy against Cardinal de Richelieu (1641), he fled to Brussels and commanded the Austrian troops against France. He unsuccessfully led the Neapolitans in their war against Spain (1647, 1654), then spent the rest of his life at the French court, trying unsuccessfully to revive the power of the Guise dynasty.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guitaut, François de Comminges, Comte de

1579-1663. He was Captain of the Guards of Anne of Austria (1643) and Governor of Saumur 1650.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 His description of Henri II de Montmorency.

 

Guitton, Colonel

Commander 1st Regiment Cuirassiers.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec3 A member of the commission which tried the Duc d’Enghien in 1804.

 

Guizot, François Pierre Guillaume

1787-1874. French statesman and historian, he became a professor of modern history at the University of Paris. His friendship with Royer-Collard and his sympathy with the moderate royalists soon drew him into minor political office. As an opposition deputy he was involved in the July Revolution of 1830 and became one of the leading intellectual exponents of the bourgeois July Monarchy of Louis Philippe. As minister of public instruction (1832–37), Guizot introduced (1833) a new system of primary education. Turning more and more to conservatism, he became (1840) the chief power in the ministry nominally headed by Soult, who had displaced the more liberal Thiers as premier. In 1847, Guizot became premier. His leadership provided a stable government, but his complacent acceptance of the established order led to his overthrow in the February Revolution of 1848, which forced the abdication of Louis Philippe. Guizot devoted the rest of his life to writing. The best known of his many works, Histoire de la Révolution d'Angleterre (1826–56), illustrates his critical approach and his devotion to original sources as well as his admiration for middle-of-the-road British politics. He also wrote Mémoires pour servir á l’histoire de mon temps (1858–67) and the brilliant General History of Civilization in Modern Europe (6 vol., 1829–32; tr. by William Hazlitt, 3 vol., 1846). The last work, never completed, covers principally the civilization of France up to the 14th cent. In October 1809, aged twenty-two, he wrote a review of Chateaubriand’s Les Martyrs, which won Chateaubriand’s approbation and thanks.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 Absent from Paris at the moment of the fall of Napoleon in 1814, he was at once selected, on the recommendation of Royer-Collard, to serve the government of Louis XVIII, in the capacity of secretary-general of the ministry of the interior.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 At Ghent in 1815.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 His love for the Countess von Lieven.

BkXXIX:Chap14:Sec1 His historical system. Salic law (Latin, lex Salica) was a body of traditional law to govern the Salian Franks that was codified in the early 6th century, during the reign of Clovis I. Ripuary Law, of the Franks on the banks of the Rhine, was reduced to writing about 630 and sanctioned by Dagobert.

BkXXXI:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand helped his election as Deputy for a seat in the Calvados, which he won in January 1830. The relations between the two men were initially warm but later hostile as Chateaubriand considered Guizot a supporter of Press censorship and a political opponent in many respects, though he appreciated his literary work.

BkXXXI:Chap7:Sec1 He co-wrote the address for the opening of the Session of 1830 on the 2nd of March.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 Held a meeting of the monarchist party on 28th July 1830 at his house.

BkXXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Appointed as a Commissioner on the 30th July 1830 to confer with the Peers.

BkXXXII:Chap14:Sec1 Drafts a proclamation on Saturday the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXV:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gumbinnen (Gusev)

Formerly in Germany, in the Prussian province of East Prussia, it is on the Pissa, an affluent of the Pregel. Since 1945, as Gusev, it lies in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is situated close to the border with Lithuania, east of Chernyakhovsk.

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Murat there (17th December) on the retreat from Moscow. He renounces his support for Napoleon.

 

Gundling, Jacob Paul, Freiherr von

1673-1731. An enlightened scholar and historian who was laden with titles in ridicule by Frederick-William I. Humiliated by the king and frustrated at his sense of powerlessness, he gradually drank himself to death.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Günzburg, Bavaria

Ney approached Ulm via Günzburg on October 9th 1805, and a minor battle resulted in a French victory. The town lies at the confluence of the Günz and the Danube in Swabia, Bavaria.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gurowski, Adam, Count?

1805-1866. A Polish nobleman, and agent of the Polish Revolutionary Government, he took refuge in Paris in 1831. He was the author of The Truth about Russia (1835). He visited the United States in 1849 and died there in 1866.

BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 If this is the person identified, his name in the visitors book at Carlsbad.

 

Gusev (Gumbinnen), Russia

A town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is situated close to the border with Lithuania, east of Chernyakhovsk. Gusev was part of East Prussia and was known by its German name, Gumbinnen.

BkXX:Chap13:Sec1 Napoleon there in June 1812.

 

Gustaf IV Adolphe, King of Sweden

1778-1837. King of Sweden from 1792 until his abdication in 1809, he was the son of Gustav III of Sweden and his queen consort Sophie Magdalen. His despotism, his mental unbalance, and his disastrous policies led to his forced abdication when the Russians threatened Stockholm (March 1809). The crown was tendered to Charles XIII, who made peace with Russia, and Gustaf’s descendants were barred from succession. He spent most of his exile as ‘Colonel Gustafsson’ at St. Gall, Switzerland, where he died.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Protested at the abduction of the Duc d’Enghien, and recalled his ambassador to Paris in 1804, finally refusing to recognise Napoleon as Emperor.

BkXX:Chap11:Sec1 His loss of possessions to France and Russia.

 

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

1594-1632. Gustav II Adolf of Sweden was widely known by the Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus and referred to by Protestants as the ‘Lion of the North’. He was King of Sweden from 1611 until his death, and the only Swedish king to be styled ‘the Great’. Born in Stockholm, the son of Charles IX of the Vasa dynasty and Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, he was one of the major players in the Thirty Years’ War. He was married to Maria Eleonora, the daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg, and chose Prussia’s city of Elbing as base for his operations in Germany. He died in battle on November 6, 1632 at Lützen in Germany.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Guzman d’Alfarache

The picaresque hero of a work by the Spanish writer Mateo Alemán (1547-1614), popularised by Le Sage in 1732. The character is noted for his duality, self-contradictions, and a career dominated by reversals of fortune.

BkV:Chap12:Sec1 Mirabeau compared to him.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Gwydir or Gwidir, Clementina Sarah Drummond,Lady

1786-1865. Wife of the 2nd Baron Gwydir, Peter Robert Drummond-Willoughby, 21st Lord Willoughby de Eresby (1782-1865) she was a London hostess. Presumably she and not her mother Priscilla (died 1828) is intended.

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