Rabbe, Colonel

Commander of the 2nd Regiment Paris Municipal Guard.

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

 

Rabelais, François

1483-1553. The French humanist and satirist became a Franciscan then a Benedictine monk, left the calling to study medicine, and visited Italy with his patron Cardinal Jean du Bellay (1492-1560). He expressed his humanism in coarse and inventive satire, including Pantagruel (1532) and Gargantua (1534). His attacks on superstition were condemned by theologians.

BkI:Chap1:Sec8 Mentioned.

BkIV:Chap8:Sec4 The Abbey of Thélème built by Gargantua had for its motto: Fay ce que vouldras: do as you wish. (Gargantua I, Chap. 57)

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 BkXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from Pantagruel, Chap 6, where Pantagruel meets a Limousin who mutilates the French language.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to a celebrated incident in Le Quart-Livre (de Pantagruel: 1548-1552) LVI where the travellers hear the frozen sounds of a winter battle melting in the spring.

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 The creator of French Literature.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 His visit to Rome. Chateaubriand refers to Pantagruel V:1. Jean des Entoumerres is a character from the work.

 

Racine, Jean

1639-1699. A dramatist, he received a Jansenist education at the convent of Port-Royal but began play-writing in 1664. His classic verse tragedies include Andromaque (1667), Bérénice (1670) and Phèdre (1677). He retired from the theatre in 1677 married a young pious girl and accepted a post at Louis XIV’s court. His final works Esther (1689) and Athalie (1691) were based on Old Testament subjects.

BkI:Chap1:Sec11 Read by Chateaubriand’s mother.

BkII:Chap3:Sec4 The pleasing sound of his verse.

BkII:Chap6:Sec3 Chateaubriand quotes from the Cantiques Spirituels IV. Racine recalls Exodus XVI.

BkII:Chap7:Sec3 BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 Perrin Dandin is the comical judge in Racine’s Plaideurs (Act II, scene 8), who appears at his attic skylight to summon the cats in the gutters to appear before him. He also is suddenly gripped by compassion for the guilty (Act III, scene 3, line 827)

BkV:Chap15:Sec2 BkXI:Chap2:Sec2 BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXII:Chap3:Sec1 Ignored by the English in 1822.

BkXIII:Chap9:Sec1 His characters interpreted by Talma.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 His plays a fusion of Greek situation and Christian characters.

BkXV:Chap1:Sec1 Madame de Beaumont quotes from Phèdre Act I Scene III:258.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 His work was supported and defended by Boileau.

BkXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Esther and Athalie performed for the first time, at Saint Cyr, for Louis XIV.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 An allusion to his comedy Les Plaideurs (The Litigants, 1668). In the last scene between Isabelle and Dandin, Isabelle says: ‘Monsieur, can one watch wretched people suffer?....Well, it always passes an hour or two.’

BkXXIII:Chap15:Sec1 The allusion is to Phèdre V:6 (line 1506), the speech of Théramène.

BkXXIV:Chap14:Sec1 His classical style, compared with Chateaubriand’s romantic and religious style, by Napoleon. The quotation is from Iphigénie I.1, Agamemnon speaks.

BkXXV:Chap11:Sec1 The quotation is from Athalie:144, and is an allusion to the Duchesse de Berry’s then pregnancy.

BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Racine so translates Euripides ( Alcestis 252-253) in his preface to Iphigénie.

BkXXX:Chap8:Sec1 Athalie mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 See his play Mithridate (1673), III:1 line 797.

BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 See Athalie ActI: Scene I: 145-146.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 His grandson died in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

 

Radcliffe, Anne (Ward)

1764-1823. The English novelist, was the daughter of a successful tradesman, she married William Radcliffe, a law student who later became editor of the English Chronicle. Her best works, The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797), give her a prominent place in the tradition of the Gothic romance. Her excellent use of landscape to create mood and her sense of mystery and suspense had an enormous influence on later writers, particularly Walter Scott.

BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned, as a popular authoress.

 

Radet, Etienne, General

1762-1825 General of the Gendarmerie: Provost of the Grand Army 1813.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap8:Sec1 On the night of July 5-6 1809, General Radet entered the Quirinal and arrested Pope Pius VII.

 

Radicofani, Italy

For centuries, one of the most important strongholds in Italy, beside the Via Cassia, it controlled the border between Latium, Umbria and Tuscany.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec2 Pius VII passed through on his journey to France.

 

Radzivill, Frederica-Dorothea-Louise of Prussia, Princess

1770-1836. Niece of Frederick II and sister of Prince Augustus, she married (1760) a Polish aristocrat, Anton Radzivill (d.1833)

BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 In Berlin in 1821.

 

Raguse, Duc de, see Marmont

 

Raimond de Saint-Gilles, Comte de Toulouse, see Raymond VI

 

Rainneville, Alphonse-Valentin, Vicomte de

1798-1864. He was Secretary-General of the Finance Ministry, and a colleague of Villèle in 1823.

BkXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rambaut

Commanded the Grenadiers assault at Acre in May 1799, and was killed.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Killed at Acre.

 

Rambouillet, France

A commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, located 30 miles southwest of the centre of Paris. The old fortified Château de Rambouillet (14th century foundations) was acquired by Louis XVI in 1783 as a private residence; it is now the official summer residence of French presidents. In 1784 Louis XVI had a wing built as a meeting place for the government (the palace was subsequently rebuilt and occupied as the Palais du Roi de Rome by Napoleon Bonaparte’s son). Charles X went into exile from there in 1830, François I died there in 1547, Louis XIV gave it to his son, the Comte de Toulouse.

BkXXIV:Chap2:Sec1 Napoleon stopped there in 1815. The farm there created by Louis XVI had the first flock of merino sheep in France.

BkXXXII:Chap1:Sec1 Charles X hunting there on the 26th July 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap2:Sec1 Charles X leaves Trianon for Rambouillet on the evening of the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 Charles X issued notice of his and the Dauphin’s abdication from there.

BkXXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1

A procession left Paris to force his departure from France.

 

Ramillies

The Battle of Ramillies, 23 May 1706, was a major battle in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Duke of Marlborough, leading British, Dutch, and German troops, defeated a French army led by the Duc de Villeroi at Ramillies-Offus, near Namur, on the bank of the river Mehaigne.

BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rancé, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de,

1626-1700. A French religious reformer, he was the founder of the Trappists. Of a noble family, he was well-educated and lived at court as a worldly priest. In 1664 he retired to the Cistercian abbey at La Trappe (in Normandy eighty-four miles from Paris), where he was already abbot in commendam (i.e. he received its revenues, but performed no duties). There, as regular abbot, he established a discipline stricter than the primitive Benedictine rule. In a few years La Trappe was famous, and its reform spread; out of the movement came the Trappists.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec2 His hair-shirt, an attribute.

 

Ranelagh Gardens, London

Ranelagh gardens adjoining the Pensioners hospital became popular as a place to escape the city and take in the cleaner air of Chelsea. Balls, concerts, dinners and gossip were shared here almost daily. It quickly exceeded Vauxhall in popularity, but its popularity waned until the season of 1804 when the fashionable set abandoned it entirely.

BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Raphael, Rafaello Sanzio

1483-1520. The Italian Renaissance painter and architect, he trained under Perugino in Perugia, before moving to Florence in 1504. Influenced by Leonardo and Michelangelo he painted numerous Madonnas, and portraits. He decorated the Vatican with important frescoes, and succeeded Bramante in 1514 as architect of Saint Peter’s Rome.

BkI:Chap4:Sec8 His archetypal Madonnas.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXL:Chap2:Sec2 The Farnesina villa in Rome, Italy, built (1508-11) by Peruzzi for the banker Agostino Chigi at the foot of the Janiculum on the right bank of the Tiber is one of the finest examples of Italian Renaissance architecture, famous for its frescoes by Raphael and his pupils. It was long the residence of the Farnese family.

BkXIII:Chap9:Sec1 The limited use of chiaroscuro (light and shade effects) in his art.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec2 His Holy Family of 1518, commissioned by Leo X and given to Claude wife of Francis I (not all by Raphael’s own hand, but from his workshop). His work on the Vatican.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap12:Sec2 BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap13:Sec1 The Transfiguration is Raphael’s last masterpiece, commissioned in 1517, an enormous altarpiece that was unfinished at his death and was completed by his assistant Giulio Romano. It is a complex work that inaugurated the Mannerist movement and tends toward the Baroque. It now hangs in the Vatican Museum having been moved there from San Pietro in Montorio in 1809, and replaced by a copy of Guido Reni’s Crucifixion of St Peter, made by Vincenzo Camuccini.

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

BkXX:Chap7:Sec2 Raphael paintings at the Escorial Palace (e.g. The Madonna della Tenda, c1514).

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap7:Sec1 His association with the Villa Borghese in Rome.

BkXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Paintings of his looted, restored in Paris, now in Madrid.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 His St Cecilia with Saints (or in Ecstasy) c1513-1516, was ceded to France by the Treaty of Tolentino but returned to Bologna in 1815 where it has remained.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 His Madonna of Foligno of 1511-1512, was formerly in the Church of St Anna in the Monastery of the Contesse at Foligno, passed by the Treaty of Tolentino to France, and was returned from Paris to reach the Vatican Pinacoteca in 1816.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 His work on the Villa Farnesina (Via del Lungaro, Rome), owned by the Farnese family, including his 1512 fresco masterpiece the Triumph of Galatea.

BkXXX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap15:Sec1

BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1 His proposal for clearing the Roman Forum.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 The Sistine Madonna in Dresden. Rouen had a late copy.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Raphael’s Loggia (a thirteen-arch gallery, 65 metres long and 4 wide) in the Vatican contains scenes from the Old and New Testaments, begun by Bramante and finished by Raphael.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 The distraught Virgin appears in Raphael’s painting (Rome 1516-17, partly by the School of Raphael) Christ Falls on the Way to Calvary, created for the Convent of Santa Maria dello Spasimo in Palermo, Sicily but moved to Madrid. Taken to Paris in 1813 it was returned to Spain in 1822. It is now in the Prado, in Madrid.

BkXXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 Drawings by him in the Accademia in Venice.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec2 Raphael was born in Urbino which is on a hill between  the Metauro and Foglia Rivers.

BkXLI:Chap3:Sec1 His paintings in Dresden, in particular the Sistine Madonna of 1513/1514.

 

Rapp, Jean, General

1771-1821. A French general, born at Colmar; he served under Napoleon with distinction, and held Danzig for a whole year against a powerful Russian army. He was kept prisoner by the Russians after the surrender, then returned to France. He submitted to Louis XVIII after Waterloo.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 In Vienna in 1809.

 

Rastadt, Congress of

Rastatt, is a city in Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany, on the Murg River, near the French border; sometimes spelled Rastadt. First mentioned in 1247, Rastatt was destroyed (1689) by the French, but was soon rebuilt and served (1705–71) as the residence of the margraves of Baden-Baden. The Treaty of Rastatt (March 1714) complemented the treaties signed at Utrecht and Baden in 1713–14 together they ended the War of the Spanish Succession. As a result of the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), a congress of the states of the Holy Roman Empire (attended by France) was held (1797–99) at Rastatt in order to determine compensation for the member states that had lost territory near the Rhine River to France during the French Revolutionary Wars; the congress was prematurely adjourned after the resumption of hostilities against France. Noteworthy city buildings include a baroque palace (17th–18th cent.) and several 18th-century churches.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 The Congress of 1797-99.

BkXX:Chap1:Sec1 As the three French representatives were leaving the town in April 1799 they were waylaid, and two of them were assassinated by some Hungarian soldiers. The reason for this outrage remains shrouded in mystery.

 

Ratisbon (Regensburg), Germany

A city in south-east Germany, in Bavaria, it lies at the confluence of the Danube and the Regen. It has a Gothic cathedral (1275-1524). Originally a Celtic settlement it became a Carolingian capital and medieval trading centre. Imperial diets were held there from 1663 until 1806.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXLI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Raulx

A game-keeper, attached to Chateaubriand, he was killed by a poacher.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rauzan, Claire-Henriette-Philippine-Benjamine de Duras, Duchesse de

1799-1863. Claire or Clara, the younger daughter of the Duchesse de Duras, She married Henri Comte de Chastellux in 1819.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 In Ghent in 1815.

 

Ravenna, Italy

A city of northeast Italy near the Adriatic Sea northeast of Florence, it was an important naval station in Roman times, an Ostrogoth capital in the fifth and sixth centuries and the centre of Byzantine power in Italy from the late sixth century until c. 750, when it was conquered by the Lombards. Ravenna became part of the papal dominions in 784, was the subject of local power struggles from the 12th century, was Venetian from 1441-1509, and was included in the kingdom of Italy in 1861.

BkXIX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 The battle of April 11th 1512, during the War of the League of Cambrai, in which the Vicomte de Lautrec defeated a Spanish Army fighting for the Papacy. The column commemorating the battle was erected in 1557 on the right bank of the Montone River, south-west of the city.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec2 BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 The Chateaubriands were there in October 1828. The churches of San Vitale and Sant’ Apollinaire in Classe are in the Byzantine style.

BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1 Byron and Madame Guiccioli were together in Ravenna 1819-1823.

 

Ravaillac, François

1578-1610. A schoolteacher and religious extremist, he stabbed Henri IV to death on the Rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris (now south of the Forum des Halles) while his carriage was stopped by traffic, on Friday the 14th of May 1610.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ravier, Colonel

Commander of the 18th Infantry Regiment (Line)

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

 

Raymond VI, Comte de Toulouse

1156-1222. Count of Toulouse (1194-1222). His tolerant attitude toward the Albigenses resulted in his repeated excommunication, although he temporarily made peace with the church in 1209. Attacked (1211) by Simon de Montfort, he received the support of his brother-in-law Peter II of Aragón. In 1213 he and Peter were defeated at Muret, and Raymond went into exile in England. Although obliged to grant Toulouse and Montauban to Montfort and Provence to his own son, he returned (1217) and fought with his son against Montfort and Montfort’s son. By the time of his death, Raymond had recaptured almost all of his territory for his son.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 BkXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXVI:Chap11:Sec1 Excommunicated by Innocent III for supporting the Albigenses. His remains were said to have been left in an open coffin to be eaten by the rats.

 

Raynal, Abbé Guillaume-Thomas-François

1713–96, French historian and philosopher. Raynal was a priest, but he was dismissed from his parish in Paris; he then turned to writing and sought the society and collaboration of the Philosophes. Two historical works, one on the Netherlands (1747) and one on the English Parliament (1748), established his career. His most important work, completed with the assistance of Denis Diderot, was a six-volume history of the European colonies in the Indies and Americas (1770). It was condemned by the Parlement of Paris (1781) for impiety and its dangerous ideas on the rights of the people to revolt and to give or withhold consent to taxation. Nevertheless, the History was extremely popular, going through 30 editions between 1772 and 1789; the radical tone becoming more pronounced in later editions. Placed on the Index of the Roman Catholic Church in 1774, Raynal's book was burned and he was forced into exile in 1781. Allowed to return to France, but not Paris, in 1784; his Parisian banishment was rescinded in 1790. Elected to the States General in 1789, he refused to serve and later advocated a constitutional monarchy.

BkIV:Chap6:Sec1 His Histoire philosophique des deux Indes (1780) which strongly condemned European colonialism for destroying cultures and peoples was read by Chateaubriand’s father who admired the author.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 The young Napoleon wrote to him.

 

Rayneval, Comte de

1778-1836. A career diplomat he was Under-Secretary of State, 1820-21, having succeeded Chateaubriand as Ambassador in Berlin. He was also at various times Ambassador to Vienna, Rome and Madrid.

BkXXVIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand writes to him in Berlin in 1824.

 

Raynouard, François Juste Marie

1761-1836. French littérateur and philologist, born in Provence, he was of the Girondist party at the time of the Revolution, and imprisoned. He wrote poems and tragedies, but eventually gave himself up to the study of the language and literature of Provence.

BkXXII:Chap7:Sec1 A Member of the Legislative commission in 1813.

 

Réal, Pierre-Francois, Comte

1757-1834. Public Accuser to the Revolutionary Tribunal, Councillor of State and Comte under Napoleon, he ran the ‘hautes polices’ till 1815. Exiled after Napoleon’s fall, he subsequently located himself at Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, New York, with other exiles, possibly with an intention of rescuing Napoleon from St Helena.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 BkXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Involved in the abduction of the Duc d’Enghien.

BkXIX:Chap11:Sec1 His Essai sur les Journées de Vendémiaire which expresses Barras’ views.

 

Reboul, Jean

1796-1864. Poet of Nîmes. Disciple of Lamartine. Published verse in the royalist press after the Restoration. Published Poésies in 1836 and Poésies nouvelles in 1846.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec4 Chateaubriand was in Nîmes on 24th July 1838.

 

Récamier, Jacques

1751-1830. The husband of Madame Récamier he was a wealthy banker. He was Regent of the Bank of France from 1802 to October 1806 when he was bankrupted.

BkXXVIII:Chap19:Sec1 His bankruptcy.

 

Récamier, Jeanne-Françoise-Julie-Adélaïde Bernard (Juliette), Madame

1777-1849. A French society hostess, she was married, from 1792-1830, to a wealthy Parisian banker. Her salon was attended by influential statesmen and politicians opposed to Napoleon. Madame de Staël was a close friend, and at the end of his life Chateaubriand.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 Her presence in London in the spring of 1802.

BkX:Chap9:Sec2 BkXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Her friendship with Chateaubriand alluded to.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand attended her salon in 1801.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 Her return to France after the Empire.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Her influence over Benjamin Constant.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 She refused to divorce and marry Prince Augustus of Prussia in 1808.

BkXXVI:Chap3:Sec1 Her portrait painted on glass.

BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Her letter to Chateaubriand from Naples of 29th October 1824.

BkXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 In Lausanne with Madame de Staël.

BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 Chateaubriand returns to 1800 to pick up the thread of her story.

BkXXVIII:Chap20:Sec1 Madame de Staël’s letters to her.

BkXXVIII:Chap21:Sec1 Madame Récamier joined Madame de Staël in exile at Coppet in August 1811, and was herself exiled in the September.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand excised his Book on Madame Récamier from the 1847-1848 revision of the Memoirs, influenced by the opinions of his circle, and Madame Récamier herself, placing some of the material into the last four chapters of Book XXVIII. Chapter I here presents further extracts from the Book, extracts which the translator feels it would be wrong to omit, in giving a complete picture of Chateaubriand’s sentiments.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 Her trip to London in 1802-3 with her mother, Madame Bernard, the ambitious wife of a Receiver of Taxes.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec3 In Naples in 1814 with Caroline Murat.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec4 Chateaubriand meets her again in 1817.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec5 BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 She co-rented the Vallée-aux-Loups in 1817. She had an apartment from 1819 in the Abbaye-aux-Bois, at 16 Rues des Sèvres, a Bernadine convent transformed into a retreat after the Revolution (see the 1824 lithograph by François-Louis Dejuinne, 1786-1844, in the Louvre, which matches Chateaubriand’s description). The ruined Abbaye was demolished in 1908 during alterations to the Boulevard Raspail.

BkXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s letter to her of 11th October 1828 from Rome.

BkXXIX:Chap14:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1

BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap10:Sec1 Letters to her from Rome, December 1828 to May 1829.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 Christian de Chateaubriand met her in Rome in 1813.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand meets her in Dieppe in July 1830, and then writes to her later from Paris.

BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand at her residence in August 1830.

BkXXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand writes to her in May/June 1831. He explains in a note not translated here, that she leant him the copies of these letters in order for him to reproduce them.

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 Lafayette a visitor in 1831/2.

BkXXXV:Chap7:Sec1 Visits Chateaubriand under house arrest in 1832.

BkXXXV:Chap18:Sec1 In Constance in late August 1832, and meets Chateaubriand there.

BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 At the Château of Wolberg near Arenenberg in  August 1832.

BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 A guest at Arenenberg on the 29th of August 1832.

BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 She visits Madame de Staël’s grave.

BkXXXV:Chap22:Sec1 Chateaubriand walks with her by the Rhône at Geneva. The location is the Saint-Jean Cliffs on the right bank of the river at the foot of the Sous-Terre Bridge, the walk leads from the garden of the ruined Benedictine Priory of Saint-Jean to the Pont de la Jonction. On the 24th of October the eve of her departure she wrote to her nephew Paul David, expressing her sadness at leaving, having tried to convince Chateaubriand to spend the winter in Paris.

BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 She had been exiled to Châlons in 1811.

BkXXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 The model for Canova’s busts of Beatrice.

 

Récollets

A Franciscan monastery, of the time of Henri IV, in the Faubourg Saint-Martin, it was disused in 1790. In 1802 it became a hospice, later a military hospital.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned. Père Jean Morel, future curé of Saint-Leu, was living on the second floor of the monastery until August 1792, when it became completely deserted.

 

Recouvrance, Quai de, Brest

The heart of the Old Quarter of Brest.

BkII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Regensburg

Also known as Ratisbon, the city in Bavaria, south-east Germany, is located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there 20th May 1833. The Alte Kapelle, the Old Chapel, has a Rococo interior in white and gold.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Reggio, Duc de, see Oudinot

 

Regnaud or Regnault de Saint-Jean-D’Angely, Comtesse (Laure Gesnon de Bonneuil)

1775-1857. The wife of the French statesman Michel Louis Etienne Regnaud de Saint Jean d’Angely (1762-1819), who was Councillor of State under the Consulate, Secretary of State to the Imperial family in 1810, and Minister of State under Napoleon in 1814. Lebrun painted her in 1805.

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

 

Régnier, Mathurin

1573-1613. A French poet, he wrote 16 vigorous, realistic, and often licentious verse satires in the manner of Latin authors, first published as a whole in 1613. Régnier displayed remarkable independence and acuteness in literary criticism, and the famous passage (Satire IX, À Monsieur Rapin) in which he satirizes Malherbe contains the best denunciation of the merely correct theory of poetry that has ever been written.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Chateaubriand refers to Satire X, line 18.

BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 See Satire XIII: line 31.

 

Régnier-Desmarais, François Séraphin

1632-1713. He was a poet and grammarian.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from Poésies françaises (1716).

 

Regulus

Marcus Attilus Regulus, d.c251BC. A Roman general in the First Punic War, in 256 he defeated the Carthaginian Navy, invaded Africa, and overwhelmed the Carthaginians. Rejecting his peace terms, in 255 the Carthaginians utterly defeated him. He was captured and sent to Rome to negotiate peace. Urging continued war he returned to certain death in Carthage.

BkI:Chap5:Sec1 Gesril compared to him in heroism.

 

Reichstadt, Duc de, see Napoleon II

 

Reiffenberg, Frédéric Baron de

1795–1850. Historian and poet; professor at Leuven and Liège: first Keeper of Belgium’s Royal Library.

BkII:Chap3:Sec2 BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 Chateaubriand quotes (a late addition to his text) from a medieval chronicle published at Brussels in 1836, and refers again to the quotation in Book XVIII.

 

Reims, see Rheims

 

Reinhard, Charles-Frederick

1761-1837. A colleague of Talleyrand’s, he was made a Peer under the July Monarchy.

BkXLII:Chap8:Sec1 The funeral eulogy was delivered on the 3rd of March 1838. Talleyrand died in May 1838.

 

Rembrandt

1606-1669. The Dutch painter whose works are unmatched in their portrayal of subtle human emotion. His masterpieces include historical and religious scenes, group portraits, such as The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632) and The Night Watch (1642), and a series of self-portraits. His profound humanism is always apparent.

BkXIII:Chap9:Sec1 The masterly use of chiaroscuro (light and shade effects) in his art.

 

Remiremont, Chapter of

Remiremont is a town in the Vosges region of north-east France. The ancient monastery there became a Chapter of canonesses drawn from the daughters of the nobility. The Dukes of Lorraine were Counts of Remiremont from the fifteenth century. The Chapter was terminated during the Revolution, in December 1790.

BkI:Chap1:Sec3 BkXIII:Chap8:Sec1 Lucile was admitted as a Canoness in 1783 to L’Argentière but was destined for Remiremont.

BkII:Chap10:Sec1 However despite acquiring the title of Countess (22nd March 1783) Lucile failed to gain entrance to this exclusive foundation.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 Its requirement to prove sixteen quarterings in the line of nobility.

 

Rémusat, Jean-Pierre-Abel

1788-1832. A political Ultra, he was a professor at the Collège de France, founder of the Asiatic society, and a sinologist of repute.

BkXXXI:Chap4:Sec1 He wrote against Chateaubriand in 1829.

 

Rémusat, Claire-Élisabeth-Jeanne Gravier de Vergennes, Comtesse de

1780-1821. She was the wife of Antoine-Laurent de Rémusat, First Chamberlain to Napoleon.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec2 Played chess with Napoleon on the eve of the Duc d’Enghien’s execution (20th March, 1804, he was executed on the 21st).

BkXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Had Josephine’s promise to take an interest in the Duc d’Enghien’s fate. Her Memoirs were published in 1880.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec2 Chateaubriand asked her to intervene with the Empress regarding Armand’s fate.

 

Renart, Le Roman de

The Old French tale of Le Roman de Renart was written by Perrout de Saint Cloude around 1175, in which Reynard the fox (Goupil-Renart) signifying the Church goes to the Court of Leo the Lion to answer charges brought by Isengrim the Wolf (Ysengrin-le-Loup) signifying the Feudal Baron.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand suggests Quecq is in dispute with the church over the property.

 

Renaud, see Rinaldo

 

René

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

Preface:Sect2. BkX:Chap11:Sec1 BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 BkXII:Chap4:Sec1

BkXII:Chap4:Sec2 BkXIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1

BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap21:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 The story conceived in Kensington Gardens.

BkVII:Chap8:Sec1 His story set near Niagara.

BkXI:Chap5:Sec1 Worked on in parallel with (and initially as part of) Le Génie du Christianisme.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Separated out of the manuscript of Les Natchez in 1800.

BkXIII:Chap3:Sec2 Its supposed influence on Byron’s Childe Harold.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec2 Published in Le Génie in 1802. Its nature and influence.

BkXV:Chap7:Sec3 René had climbed Mount Etna’s volcanic cone in the story.

BkXXXV:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from the work.

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned by George Sand in the Revue des Deux-Mondes of 15th June 1833, in a review of a new edition of Senancour’s Oberman.

 

René I, The Good, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples

1409-1480. The King’s fame as an amateur painter led to the attribution to him of old paintings in Anjou and Provence, in many cases simply because they bear his arms. These works are generally in the Flemish style, and were probably executed under his patronage and direction, so that he may be said to have formed a school of the fine arts in sculpture, painting, gold work and tapestry.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 Connected with Marseilles.

 

Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara

1510-1575. The daughter of Louis XII, she married Ercole II in 1528. She was a patron of literature and favoured Reform, attracting Marot to Ferrara.

BkXL:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Renier Michiel, Giustina

1755-1832. She was the daughter of an ancient Venetian family, and author of a six-volume work, Origins of the Venetian Festivals, first published in 1817.

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rennes, France

The municipal capital of Brittany, it lies 190 miles south-west of Paris. The principal town of the Celtic Redones tribe, Rennes was subsequently taken by the Romans and by the 10th century had emerged as the capital of Brittany. The city was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1720.

BkI:Chap1:Sec4 A Tribunal held there to reform the nobility in 1669.

BkI:Chap1:Sec11 Chateaubriand’s maternal grandmother born there.

BkI:Chap6:Sec2 Once part of the Forest of Broceliande.

BkI:Chap7:Sec3 Combourg was on the high road to Rennes.

BkII:Chap6:Sec3 BkII:Chap7:Sec1 BkII:Chap7:Sec2 BkIV:Chap12:Sec2 BkV:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkII:Chap10:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s brother bought a post in the administration there.

BkIII:Chap1:Sec1 The seat of the High Court, to which occasional Combourg guests would be travelling.

BkIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkX:Chap8:Sec1 BkX:Chap8:Sec2

BkXXXV:Chap6:Sec1 Lucile imprisoned there, along with Chateaubriand’s  young wife and Julie de Farcy, from October 1793 to the 5th November 1794.

BkIII:Chap14:Sec2 BkIV:Chap1:Sec3 Chateaubriand goes there en route to his Regiment at Cambrai. He reached Rennes on 9th August 1786 in the evening.

BkV:Chap7:Sec1 The commune’s desire in 1788 to settle the question of fouage.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 Its law-school.

BkIX:Chap10:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s friend Boishue killed there in 1789.

BkXV:Chap1:Sec1 Lucile stayed at the house of Mademoiselle Jouvelle, 11 Rue Saint-Georges from early September 1803.

BkXXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 The butter of La Prévalaie in the Rennes region was the best in Brittany.

 

Rennes, College of

The Jesuit College at Rennes, the foremost Jesuit college in Brittany in the eighteenth century.

BkII:Chap7:Sec1 BkII:Chap7:Sec2 Chateaubriand commenced his Humanities course there in October 1781.

BkII:Chap7:Sec4 Its very religious educational scheme.

BkII:Chap7:Sec5 Chateaubriand attended Rennes in 1781 and 1782, but not the third trimester of the second year, that of rhetoric.

BkII:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s lesser regret at leaving the College.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 Chateaubriand passed by in 1802.

 

Reschid Pasha

1779-1857. Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Grand Vizir, he was the principal reformer of Ottoman institutions under Mahmud II and Abdul-Medjid.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Retz, Jean-François-Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de

1613-1679. A French churchman, one of the leaders of the Fronde rebellion (1648-1653) he used it to further his ambitions at the expense of Mazarin. He was made Cardinal in 1652 but arrested shortly afterwards. Exiled until 1662, he returned to France to become Abbot of Saint-Denis until his death. He is best known for his Memoirs.

BkV:Chap12:Sec1 Mirabeau compared to him.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 The reference is to his Memoirs, regarding the 21st of August 1651, when leaving the Great Chamber of Parliament, the Duc de La Rochefoucauld jammed his head in the door to try and assassinate him.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 His Memoirs.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 The episode described took place at the Conclave of 1655. See his Memoirs.

 

Réveillon Riot

28th April 1789. The ‘manufactory’ owned by Jean–Baptiste Réveillon in the Saint–Antoine neighbourhood of Paris made decorative wallpaper, a lucrative luxury item that required highly skilled (and generally well–paid) workers. When a rumour circulated about Réveillon’s ill–timed speech in which he linked reduced wages and lower prices, the animosity of many guildsmen erupted in violence. When troops intervened to suppress the protest by force, bloodshed ensued. To some observers, such as the Marquis de Ferrières this "riot" suggested a dangerous environment of popular unrest on the eve of meeting of the States–General.

BkV:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Revoil, Louise Colet née

1810-1876. A poetess, she married the musician, Hippolyte Colet, in 1834. A friend of Madame Récamier, she continued holding her salon after the latter’s death, where she met Gustave Flaubert, with whom she began an eight-year liaison. After their estrangement she published a bitter novel, Lui (1859), which caused a sensation. Her poetry includes Les fleurs du Midi (1836), Penserosa (1840), and Ce qui est dans le coeur des Femmes (1852).

BkXLII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Revolution, French

 

Revue des Deux Mondes

A monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine published in French, founded in 1829 to establish a cultural, economic and political bridge between France and the United States. It was purchased in 1831 by François Buloz, who was its editor until 1877.

BkXIX:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rheims (Reims)

The city in North-east France in the Marne department was an important Roman town and the scene of the coronations of most French kings.

BkIV:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap16:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand present at the crowning of Charles X in May 1825.

BkXXII:Chap9:Sec1 Napoleon captured the city from a small Russian force in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap13:Sec1 Clovis baptised there in 496.

BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 The Abbey of Saint-Rémi in Rheims was founded c. AD1000. It contains the relics of Saint Remi, a Bishop of Rheims who converted Clovis, King of the Franks, to Christianity at Christmas in AD 496, after his defeat of the Alamanni at the Battle of Tolbiac. The River Vesle a tributary of the Aisne flows through Rheims.

 

Rhexenor

The father of Arete, Queen of the Phaeacians, in Homer’s Odyssey.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 See Odyssey VII.

 

Rhine, River

A major river of Europe, 800 miles long, originating in the Swiss Alps it flows to the North Sea.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec2 The Circles of the Rhine derived from the Imperial Circles of the Holy Roman Empire. The Imperial Circles were territories in a common area grouped together. There were ten: Bavaria, Burgundy, Franconia, Electoral Rhine, Lower Saxony, Austria, Upper Rhine, Upper Saxony, Swabia and Lower Rhine-Westphalia. These Circles were regional diets in which cities and the different ranks of the nobility all had an equal vote.

BkXXXV:Chap14:Sec1 Its source and course.

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rhodes

The Greek island, in the south-eastern Aegean, is the largest of the Dodecanese group. Colonized by Dorians before 1000BC, it was most prosperous in the 3rd century BC. It was occupied by the Knights Hospitallers from 1282 to 1528, when it became part of the Ottoman Empire.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand touched there in September 1806.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 The song mentioned is a chelisdonamata sung in the March 1st rites in Greece and Macedonia to welcome in the spring.

 

Ricé, or Riccé, Gabriel-Marie, Vicomte de

1758-1832. Marshal de Camp then General de Brigade, he pursued a political career as a Prefect (for the Meuse, 1817, the Loiret, 1819, and 1830).

BkXXIII:Chap19:Sec1 At Mons during the return from Ghent in 1815.

 

Richard I, Coeur de Lion

1157-1199. King of England 1189-1199. A hero of medieval legend he spent most of his reign abroad. The third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine he became Duke of Aquitaine in 1168 and of Poitiers in 1172. He joined the Third Crusade in 1189 conquering Messina and Cyprus. His victory at Arsuf gained Joppa in 1191. On his way home from the Holy Land he was captured in Austria and released by Emperor Henry VI after payment of a huge ransom in 1194. He died campaigning in France.

BkV:Chap10:Sec1 The air ‘Ô Richard, ô mon roi!’ was written by Sédaine and Gretry in 1784. A song of loyalty it was supposed sung by Blondel at the foot of the tower where Richard was imprisoned, and became the Royalist rallying song.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 His death at Chalus, struck by a crossbow bolt, on the 10th of April 1199.

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

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 See William the Breton and La Philippide.

 

Richard III, King of England

1452-1485. Reigned 1483-5. The last Plantagenet and Yorkist King of England, he was the youngest son of Richard, Duke of York, and brother of Edward IV. Created Duke of Gloucester in 1461, he was defeated by Henry VII and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, 22nd August 1485.

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Richardson, Samuel

1689-1761. English writer whose epistolary novels include Pamela (1740), often considered the first modern English novel, and Clarissa Harlowe (1747–1748). He had a great success in France, and was read at Combourg.

BkXII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Richelieu, Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de,

1766-1822. French statesman, he was an émigré from the French Revolution, who served Russia as governor of Odessa (1803) and of the Crimea (1805). Made chief minister of France by King Louis XVIII after the Hundred Days (1815), he secured the quick payment by France of the indemnity imposed by the second Treaty of Paris (1815) and thus hastened the evacuation of occupation troops. In his domestic policy, Richelieu favoured leniency toward the ex-revolutionists and Bonapartists, thus displeasing the ultra-royalists headed by the king’s brother, the Comte d’Artois (later King Charles X). In 1816 Richelieu persuaded the king to dissolve the extremely reactionary Chamber of Deputies (the so-called chambre introuvable) rather than submit to its program. Richelieu resigned in 1818, but returned to power in 1820, after the murder of the Duc de Berry caused the fall of Élie Decazes. His measures against the radicals were not sufficient to suit the ultra-royalists, who applied pressure on Louis XVIII and secured (1821) Richelieu’s dismissal. With Richelieu’s successor, the Comte de Villèle, the ultra-royalists came to power.

BkXXII:Chap10:Sec1 BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap17:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 In Paris at the start of the Hundred Days. Chateaubriand meets him later in Brussels.

BkXXIV:Chap14:Sec1 Napoleon’s comment on him.

BkXXV:Chap2:Sec1 In the Chamber of Peers, 22nd February 1816.

BkXXV:Chap2:Sec1 His reaction to La Monarchie selon la Charte.

BkXXV:Chap6:Sec1 His decree, of the 20th of September 1816, striking Chateaubriand from the list of Ministers.

BkXXV:Chap13:Sec1 President of the Council from late February 1820. Chateaubriand writes to him.

BkXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 Chateaubriand was named as a Minister of State and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by decree on the 30th of April 1821, having been informed of it by the King in person the previous day. There is an ironic inverted reference to Job I:21.

BkXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Richelieu ordered an expedition to the eastern Mediterranean on 17th October 1821, the troops were assembling in Provence in early 1822.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXVII:Chap9:Sec1 His sudden death in Paris on the 17th May 1822.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 His intervention at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818.

 

Richelieu, Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de

1585-1642. The French statesman who increased the power and authority of France and the Crown. He was Chief Minister from 1629. He ruthlessly suppressed the Huguenots and directed France brilliantly in the Thirty Year’s War. A writer and patron of learning he founded the French Academy.

BkV:Chap12:Sec1 Mirabeau compared to him.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec4 He besieged Montpellier in 1622, for Louis XIII. The siege resulted in a peace treaty, and the razing of the fortifications.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 He was a believer in free trade.

BkXXV:Chap4:Sec1 More powerful in fact than the King.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 His Memoirs.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 The Grande Pastorale was a collection of theatrical pieces commissioned from five authors including Corneille, on subjects proposed by Richelieu. It was acted on 8th January 1637. His play Mirame was set to verse by the Group of Five in 1638 and performed on January 1st 1641.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 His military success in Europe.

BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 His flattery of Concini at the States-General in 1614.

 

Richelieu, Louis-François-Armand du Plessis, Marshal de

1696-1788. A grand-nephew of the Cardinal, and a distinguished soldier. Ambassador to Vienna (1725-1729), he served in the Rhine Campaign (1733-34), fought at Fontenoy, and drove the English from Minorca in 1756. His later life was spent in court intrigue.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 His poor spelling.

 

Richer

fl. 1255 A monk and chronicler of Senones (Vosges)

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Richmond upon Thames, England

Originally called Shene (Shining, or splendour) it became Richmond after Henry VII took up summer residence there (he was Earl of Richmond in Normandy before being crowned king, hence the name). Not be confused with the Yorkshire Richmond of Alain I.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s visited in 1799. The small village was a place of residence for émigrés including Mallet du Pan who died there in 1801.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Henry VII and Elizabeth I both died at Richmond Palace. Henry VIII’s Mound is the highest point in Richmond Park, located within the public gardens of Pembroke Lodge.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand aboard the Lord Mayor’s barge there in April 1822.

 

Ricord, Jean-François

1760-1818. He was a friend of Robespierre and a deputy to the Convention for Var, in 1792. He was sent on several missions to the Midi, including Toulon.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 One of the Representatives who ordered the siege of Toulon in 1793.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec2 His signed instructions to Napoleon dated 12th July 1794 (23rd Messidor, Year II), delivered at Loano near Savona on the Ligurian coast.

 

Riedmatten

 

Rietz, Wilhelmina Encke, Comtesse de Lichtenau

1753-1820. Mistress (from 1766 approximately) of Frederick-William II of Prussia, she was the daughter of a Berlin innkeeper and musician Encke. Frederick married her off to his valet de chambre and made her a Countess.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned in Mirabeau’s Secret History.

 

Rieul, Saint

d. 260. First bishop of Senlis.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 Patron saint of Senlis.

 

Rigaud, Jean-Jacques

1785-1854. He was the Premier Syndic of Geneva for eleven of the years between 1825 and 1843.

BkXXXIV:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rigord

1180-1226. A monk and chronicler of Saint Denis best known for a biography of King Philip II Augustus of France.

BkIX:Chap7:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rimini, Italy

A city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Rimini Province, it is located on the Adriatic Sea near the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient Ariminus) and Ausa (Aprusa).

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Chateaubriand there in October 1828.

 

Rinaldo

He is a character in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to Canto XVI, stanzas XX and XX, with their magic reflections.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 His achievements in the Holy Land.

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 Tasso’s poem Rinaldo in twelve cantos was printed at Venice in 1562.

 

Riom, France

The town is in the Auvergne, near Clermont-Ferrand.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec2 Montlosier was deputy for the nobility for Riom.

 

Riouffe, Honoré-Jean

1764-1813. A Girondist politician who left memoirs of the civil wars of 1793 and the subsequent imprisonment of the Girondist leaders (Mémoires d'un détenu pour servir à l'histoire de la tyrannie de Robespierre).

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from the work.

 

Rivaille, Madame

A woman of the Bordeaux Market in 1820.

BkXXV:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rivallon, Lord of Combourg

On of the Lords of Rivallon, Dol and Combourg.

BkI:Chap7:Sec3 About 1065 (?) a Rivallon offered the Benedictine Abbey of Marmoutiers (close to Turns) land at Combourg and an already existing church to the west of the current château to establish a priory devoted to the Holy Trinity.

 

Rivarol, Antoine de

1753-1801. French writer and epigrammatist. It appears his father was an innkeeper but a man of cultivated tastes. The son assumed the title of Comte de Rivarol, and asserted his connection with a noble Italian family, but his enemies claimed the name was really Riverot, and the family not noble. After various vicissitudes he appeared in Paris in 1777. After winning some academic prizes, Rivarol distinguished himself in the year 1784 by a treatise Sur l’universalité de la langue francaise, and by a translation of Dante’s Inferno. The year before the Revolution broke out he compiled, with some assistance from Champcenetz, a lampoon, entitled Petit Almanach de nos grands hommes pour 1788, in which writers of actual or potential talent and a great many nobodies were ridiculed in the most pitiless manner. When the Revolution enhanced the importance of the press, Rivarol at once took up arms on the Royalist side, and wrote for the Journal politique of Antoine Sabatier de Castres and the Actes des Apôtres of Jean Gabriel Peltier (1770-1825). He emigrated in 1792, and established himself in Brussels, whence he removed successively to London, Hamburg and Berlin.

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

BkIX:Chap8:Sec1 In Brussels in 1792. Chateaubriand met him there.

 

Rivarola, Agistino, Cardinal

1758-1842. Cardinal from 1817.

BkXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rivaux, Monsieur

Officer of the Guard in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rivière, Charles-François de Riffardeau, Duc de

1763-1828. An agent between the exiled Princes and the Vendée during the Revolution, he was condemned to death for his part in the Cadoudal conspiracy of 1804, but was pardoned and interned at Fort du Joux. He was made a Peer in 1815, and Ambassador to Constantinople, 1816-1820. He was then Captain of the Guards to Charles X, was made a Duke in 1825, and became tutor to the Duc de Bordeaux in March 1826.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap6:Sec1 Tutor to the Duke from 1826 until his death.

 

Rivoli, Italy

On January 14, 1797, Bonaparte defeated the Austrians under Baron Josef Alvintzy at Rivoli in northern Italy. Concentrating their forces on the plateau of Rivoli, the French easily repulsed the Austrian advance. In the end, the Austrians lost 12,000 men, along with 8,000 prisoners and 8 guns, while the French lost approximately 3,200.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec1 The battle mentioned.

 

Roanne, France

The town and commune in southern France in the Loire département, about 90km north-west of Lyons. It lies on the River Loire.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1805.

 

Robert II, Duke of Normandy

1054-1134. Robert Curthose, Son of William the Conqueror. Duke of Normandy 1087–1106. Aided by Philip I of France, he rebelled (1077) against his father. Father and son became reconciled, but Robert was later exiled. At William’s death he inherited Normandy. England fell to his younger brother William II, with whom Robert was intermittently at war (1090–96) until Robert went (1096–1100) on the First Crusade. While he was away, William II died and Henry I, youngest son of William I, was crowned. Robert invaded (1101) England but was forced to recognize Henry. In Normandy, Robert's misgovernment prompted an invasion by Henry (1105), who defeated (1106) Robert at Tinchebrai, seized Normandy, and kept Robert a prisoner.

BkX:Chap3:Sec2 Lost Jersey and the other Channel Islands, historically a part of the Duchy of Normandy, to the English.

 

Robert d’Artois III de Beaumont-le-Roger, Count of Richmond

1287-1342. Banished by Philippe de Valois (Philip VI) of France, his father-in-law in 1332. He arrived in England in 1334. In 1337 Philippe declared the duchy of Guyenne forfeited by Edward III for the latter's harbouring of d’Artois. Edward III sent a letter of defiance to ‘Pilip [sic] of Valois, who calls himself king of France’. These incidents are usually cited as the Beginning of the Hundred Years’ War. D’Artois died in the War of the Breton Succession.

BkX:Chap5:Sec2 His ashes buried in Westminster Abbey.

 

Robert the Strong, Count of Tours

d 866. Also known as Robert IV, he was nominated by Charles the Bald missus dominicus for the Tours and Angers regions in 853. After a rebellion against Charles II in 855, he became duke for the region between Seine and Loire. From this time he was responsible for fighting against Normans and Britons, and he eventually met his demise in 866 fighting the Normans in the Battle of Brissarthe. He was the father of Odo, Count of Paris and Robert I of France, who both became King of Western Francia. Robert was the great-grandfather of Hugh Capet and thus the ancestor of all the Capetians.

BkXXXIX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Robert II, The Pious, King of France

972-1031. The son of Hugh Capet he was King from 996.

BkXXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Robert, Léopold

1794-1835. A painter of genre scenes, such as those with Neapolitan shepherdesses and fisher-girls. He settled in Venice in 1832 where he died.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Robertson, Etienne-Gaspard Robert

1762-1837. From Liège in Belgium. He perfected a magic lantern show (a lantern on wheels, and known as the Phantascope) and toured Europe with it. He added the –son to his name as he felt an English stage name would be more effective. A variety of horrific images were projected to frighten the audience, examples being ghosts projected on smoke to give a frightening appearance and images that would move around the walls. Often the projector was behind a translucent screen, out of the view of the audience. This greatly added to the mystery of the show.

BkXIII:Chap4:Sec1 His magic lantern set up in the Capuchin monastery in 1797.

 

Robertson, William

1721-1793. Scottish historian. He wrote a History of Scotland 1542-1603 (1759) and a History of Charles V (1769), his most valuable work, highly praised by both Voltaire and Gibbon. His History of America appeared in 1777, and a disquisition on The Knowledge which the Ancients had of India in 1791.

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Robespierre, Augustin

After 1758-d.1794. He was Robespierre’s younger brother.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 His affection for Bonaparte.

 

Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de

1758-1794. Born in Arras, the lawyer and revolutionary was elected to the States General in 1789 and became leader of the radical Jacobin faction. He was instrumental in overthrowing the Girondins, and wielded supreme power on the Committee of Public Safety, instituting the Reign of Terror and his Cult of the Supreme Being. He was denounced and guillotined in 1794.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXV:Chap11:Sec1

BkXXXIV:Chap12:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkV:Chap12:Sec3 The supreme representative of pure democracy.

BkV:Chap13:Sec1 Chateaubriand heard him speak before he became well-known.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 The song is an ironic reference to the miraculous candle of Arras, which was venerated, and to Robespierre.

BkIX:Chap4:Sec1 Danton compared to him.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 Robespierre was arrested and the Paris Commune abolished by the Convention on the 9th Thermidor (27th July1794).

BkXIV:Chap8:Sec1 His replacement of Christianity by the Cult of the Supreme Being.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 His death in 1794 (28th July).

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Born in Arras.

BkXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Apologists for his excesses.

 

Robespierre, Marie Marguerite Charlotte de

1760-1834. She was the sister of Augustin and Maximilien Robespierre.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 The pension paid to her by the Restoration (first granted her by Napoleon and reduced but not discontinued).

 

Robiou

He was a gentleman of the neighbourhood of Combourg.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 Signatory to Chateaubriand’s father’s death certificate.

 

Rocca, Jean-Albert-Michel (John)

1788-1818. A Genevan citizen he exchanged promises to marry Madame de Staël in the spring of 1811 but their marriage was not celebrated, in the strictest secrecy, until the 10th of October 1816, at Coppet.

BkXXVIII:Chap21:Sec1 Secretly married to Madame de Staël in 1816.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec4 With the dying Madame de Stael in Paris in 1817.

 

Rochambeau, Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de

1725-1807. A Marshal of France, he took part in the wars of King Louis XV and was a lieutenant general by 1780, when King Louis XVI sent him, with some 6,000 regulars, to aid Washington in the American Revolution. He landed at Newport, R.I., and remained there a year because the French fleet was blockaded off Narragansett. In July, 1781, he joined Washington on the Hudson River and the two armies marched south against General Cornwallis. The result was the Yorktown campaign, which ended the war. In the French Revolution, Rochambeau was made (1791) a marshal and commanded the Northern Army, but he resigned (1792) after a disagreement with General Dumouriez. He was imprisoned during the Terror and barely escaped execution. Napoleon restored him to his rank. His memoirs of the American Revolution were translated in 1838.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 His ex-scullion, Monsieur Violet.

 

Roche, Achille

1801-1834. Publicist, secretary to Benjamin Constant.

BkXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Author of Messieurs le duc de Rovigo et le prince de Talleyrand (1823) where he acts as an apologist for Talleyrand.

 

Rochechouart, Madame 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.

 

Rochefort-sur-Mer

The port in western France lies on the River Charente.

BkIX:Chap9:Sec1 Naval officers from there in the émigré army in 1792.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap2:Sec1 Napoleon embarked there in 1815. He arrived on the 3rd of July.

 

Rocoules, Madame de

One of the tutors of Frederick-William I, she was a religious refuges living in Berlin.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rocroi

Rocroi is in the French Ardennes. The Battle of Rocroi, fought on May 19th, 1643, resulted in a decisive victory of the French army under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, at that time Duke of Enghien, against the Spanish army under General Francisco de Melo.

BkIX:Chap11:Sec1 BkXVI:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 The victory achieved there.

BkXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 A later Prince de Condé there in March 1815.

 

Rodrigo Diáz de Vivar, El Cid

c1040-1099. Nicknamed El Cid Campeador, he was a Castilian military and political leader in medieval Spain. Fighting against the Moors in the early Reconquista, he was later exiled by King Alfonso VI, left service in Castile and worked as a mercenary-general for other rulers, both Moor and Christian. Late in life, El Cid captured the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia, ruling it until his death in 1099.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec2 During the French siege of the Spanish city of Burgos in 1808, a regiment of dragoons, hoping to find gold and jewels, destroyed El Cid’s monument in San Pedro de Cardena near the city. The French governor of Castille, appalled at this sacrilege, salvaged what he could of the remains and built a new monument in Burgos

 

Rogers, Samuel

1763-1855. An English poet, banker, and art patron, Samuel Rogers published at his own expense several volumes of verse that were reasonably well regarded. He is best remembered, however, as a witty conversationalist and as a fried of greater poets.

BkXII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned as a recognised living poet in 1822.

 

Rohan-Rochefort, Princess Charlotte de

1767-1841. Daughter of Charles Jules Armand de Rohan, Prince de Rohan-Rochefort.

BkXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Secretly married to the Duc d’Enghien in February 1804.

 

Rohan, Édouard de

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 Married Marguerite de Chateaubriand.

 

Rohan, Ferdinand Maximilien de, Archbishop of Cambrai

 

Rohan, Les

The Rohan family.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rohan-Guémené, Renée de

1558-1616. Daughter of Louis VI de Rohan, Comte de Montbazon (1540-1611) and Léonore de Rohan, Comtesse de Rochefort (1539-1583), she married Jean de Coëtquen, Comte de Combourg (1578).

BkIII:Chap1:Sec2 Her black marble tomb in Combourg church.

 

Rohan-Chabot, Louis-François-Auguste, Duc and Cardinal de

1788-1833. Ordained in 1822, he was Archbishop of Auch then of Besançon (1828). He was Duke of Rohan from 1816. Created cardinal priest in the consistory of July 5, 1830, the fall of the Bourbon monarchy after the Revolution of July 1830 forced him to go to Belgium and then to Switzerland. He participated in the Conclave of 1830-1831.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 Christian de Chateaubriand met him in Rome in1813.

BkXLI:Chap5:Sec1 He died shortly afterwards in 1833.

 

Roi est morte: vive le Roi!, Le

A pamphlet of thirty-seven pages by Chateaubriand.

BkXXV:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 It was published on the 18th of September 1824.

 

Roland, Vicomtesse Jeanne-Marie (or Manon) Roland de la Platiere, Madame

1754-1793. A Girondist, she was arrested and thrown into the prison of the Abbaye in 1793, ultimately being transferred to the Conciergerie. In prison she wrote her Appel à l'impartiale postérité, memoirs which display a strange alternation between self-laudation and patriotism, between the trivial and the sublime. On November 8, 1793, she was conveyed to the guillotine. Before placing her head on the block, she bowed before the clay statue of Liberty in the Place de La Réception, uttering the famous remark for which she is remembered: O Liberté, que de crimes on commet en ton nom! (O Liberty! what crimes are committed in thy name!) Shortly after her execution, her husband, Jean Marie Roland, committed suicide.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 She sought the Queen’s execution.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec2 Her character and death.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Her daughter Theresa Eudora (1781-1846?) mentioned. Eudora had married Pierre Léon Champagneux in 1796.

BkXLII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Roland de la Platière, Jean-Marie

1734-1793. A French revolutionary, an inspector general of commerce at Rouen and Amiens, he went to Paris in 1791 and published the Financier patriote. Largely through the influence of his wife, Jeanne Manon Roland de la Platière, Roland rose to power with the Girondists and became (1792) minister of the interior. King Louis XVI dismissed him in July, 1792, but he was restored to office after the overthrow of the monarchy (Aug. 10, 1792). Accused of being a royalist in 1793, he resigned and fled Paris. When he learned that his wife had been executed, he committed suicide.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 BkIX:Chap6:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rollin, Charles

1661-1741. French historian and educationalist. He was the son of a cutler, and at the age of twenty-two was made a master in the College du Plessis. In 1694 he was rector of the University of Paris, rendering great service among other things by reviving the study of Greek. He held that post for two years instead of one, and in 1699 was appointed principal of the College de Beauvais. He held Jansenist principles, and unfortunately his religious opinions deprived him of his appointments and disqualified him for the rectorship, to which he had been re-elected. It is said that the same reason prevented his election to the French Academy, though he was a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. Shortly before his death he protested publicly against the acceptance of the bull Unigenitus. Rollin’s literary work dates chiefly from the later years of his life, when he had been forbidden to teach. His once famous Ancient History, and the less generally read Roman History, which followed it, were avowed compilations, uncritical and somewhat inaccurate. But they instructed and interested generation after generation almost to the present day. A more original and really important work was his Trait des études. It contains a summary of what was even then a reformed and innovating system of education, including a more frequent and extensive use of the vulgar tongue, and discarded the medieval traditions that had lingered in France.

BkII:Chap6:Sec3 The type of an educationalist.

 

Romain, Giulio Romano

1499?-1546. An Italian painter, architect, and decorator. A prominent pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th century style known as Mannerism. Giulio also designed tapestries and the erotic album I Modi which was expertly engraved by Raimondi, a project that landed him in jail in Rome.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Romanzov (Romanzoff), Nicolai Petrovitch, Count von

1754-1826. Russian Chancellor, and Foreign Minister under Alexander I, he sponsored several long exploratory voyages, including Otto von Kotzebue’s 1815-1818 voyage to the California Coast, the Bering Sea, and explorations for a north-east passage.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rome, Italy

The capital of Italy on the River Tiber, was founded according to legend in 753BC by Romulus its first king, on the Palatine Hill. It soon spread to six other hills nearby, the Aventine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline and Caelian. Seven kings were followed by the Roman Republic, and Empire founded in the 1st Century BC. It declined in the 5th Century, and Rome was sacked by the Germanic tribes. It regained importance as an ecclesiastical centre, and in 800AD Charlemagne was crowned there. It was sacked by Arabs, Normans, and was the source of continual struggle between the Popes and Emperors. It remained under Papal control until 1871 when it became the capital of the newly unified Italy.

BkIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 The Capitol, or Capitoline Temple, was built on the Capitoline Hill by Tarquinius Priscus (d. 578BC) but not dedicated until 509. It was destroyed and re-built several times before being plundered by the Vandals in 455AD.  The Roman road system radiated from its foot.

BkXIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand set out for Rome on Tuesday the 26th May 1803.

BkXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand sides with the Romans against the Carthaginians.

BkXIV:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap17:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrived on the 27th June 1803 to take up his post as Secretary to the Embassy.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 An obsidional crown or garland was bestowed upon a general who raised the siege of a beleaguered place, or on one who held out against a siege.

BkXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Pius VII returned there in May 1814.

BkXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrived on the 9th of October 1828. The Embassy, from 1819, was on the Corso, in the Simonetti Palace, today the Bank of Rome. The Duc de Laval then lived there.

BkXXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Ausonia is an ancient name for Italy, from Auson a son of Ulysses. The Acqua Felice is the ‘Moses’ Fountain erected by Domenico Fontana (1543-1607) in 1585-1587, in the Piazza San Bernardo, near the Baths of Diocletian, and taking its name from Felice Peretti, Pope Sixtus V (1521-1590).

BkXXIX:Chap9:Sec1 Though the second tallest hill (after Monte Mario), in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city. The Janiculum was a center for the cult of the god Janus.

BkXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 The Villa Panfili was built for Camille Pamphili in the 17th century, and was then owned by the Doria family. It was behind the Janiculum in a vast park celebrated for its pine-woods.

BkXXIX:Chap14:Sec1 St John Lateran, the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, is the cathedral church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope. Since Henri IV, the French King was a member of the chapter, and was represented at votive Mass celebrated for France on the 13th December by the Ambassador.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec2 Presumably Chateaubriand is referring to the Anglican ‘granary chapel’ of All Saints, by the Porta del Popolo, which was to serve as the ‘home in Rome’ for English Anglicans and their friends for more than sixty years (1825 to 1887).

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec1 Rome described as the New Jerusalem, employing the phrase from Apocalypse.

BkXXX:Chap9:Sec1 An ancient Roman columbarium was a building with tiers of niches for the reception of cinerary urns.

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Its river, the Tiber, is mentioned.

BkXXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Since 1929, the Vatican is a City State within the City of Rome and includes St Peter’s Square, St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Palace and the Papal Gardens as well as some outlying properties, including the Pope’s summer palace at Castel Gandolfo. Chateaubriand here refers to the Vatican Palace specifically.

BkXXX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 The basilica of St Paul’s was erected by Theodosius on the supposed site of Paul’s martyrdom. It was destroyed by fire on the night of 15th of July 1823. Rebuilding was completed under Pius IX.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Holy Cross is the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Lauds in the modern liturgy designates an office composed of psalms and canticles, usually recited after Matins.

BkXLII:Chap9:Sec1 Its founder Romulus mentioned.

 

Rome, King of, see Napoleon II

 

Romeo and Juliet, see Steibelt

 

Roncevaux (Roncesvalles), France

The site of a famous battle in 778 in which Hroudland (later changed to Roland), prefect of the Brittany March, was defeated by the Basques. this minor battle was romanticized by oral tradition into a major conflict between Christians and Muslims, when in fact both sides in the real battle were Christian. The Basques have been replaced by 400,000 Saracens. Charlemagne did fight the Saracens in Spain itself, not in the Pyrenees. The Song of Roland was written down by an unknown troubadour of the 11th century; it is the earliest surviving of the Chansons de geste or epic poems of medieval France.

BkXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Wellington’s army finally drove Soult back over the Pyrenees (July 25th 1813) at Roncesvalles during the Peninsular War.

 

Ronsard, Pierre de

1524-1585. The French poet, who turned to literature when deafness interrupted his career at Court, became a leading member of the Pléiade. His Odes (1550) and Amours (1552) gained him the patronage of Charles IX. His Sonnets pour Hélène (1578) contains his best known poems.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 Full of Classical allusions and Classicised language.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Ronsard’s Elegy (XXV in the Poems of 1587) on Mary Stuart.

BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 The quotation is from Discours des misères de ces temps (1562), with shades for souls in the second line.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec4 A quotation: ‘la nueuse idole fraudant les doigts’.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 Charles IX was his patron and friend.

 

Rosalind

The heroine of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

BkX:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rosanbo, Aline-Thérèse Le Peletier de, see Chateaubriand, Comtesse de

 

Rosanbo, Louis VI Le Pelletier, Marquis de

1777-1858. Son of Louis V Le Pelletier.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rosanbo, Louis V Le Pelletier, Marquis de

1747-1794. Président at High Court of Paris, and Malesherbe’s son-in-law, he married Antoinette-Thérèse-Marguerite de Lamoignon de Malesherbes in 1769. He was guillotined in 1794.

BkIV:Chap10:Sec3 BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 Father-in-law of Chateaubriand’s brother, he was right-wing and monarchist in his politics.

BkV:Chap15:Sec2 Argued with Chateaubriand as to his politics.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec2 Spent the 14th July 1792 with Chateaubriand and his brother in the Tivoli Gardens.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 Grandfather of Christian de Chateaubriand on the mother’s side.

 

Rosanbo, Henriette d’Andlau, Marquise de

Grand-daughter of Helvetius.

BkXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Her husband Louis de Rosanbo inherited the Château du Mesnil on the right bank of the Seine to the north of Mantes.

 

Rosanbo, Marie-Thérèse-Marguerite de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, Madame le Pelletier de

1756-1794. Daughter of Malesherbes, and wife of the Marquis, Le Pelletier, she was guillotined 22nd April 1794.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkIX:Chap15:Sec1 Mentioned. Initially sympathetic to the revolutionary ideals.

BkX:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand learnt of her death and those of his other relatives, executed on the 22nd of April 1794 at 5pm, in the Place de la Révolution.

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

BkXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap14:Sec1 Grandmother of Christian de Chateaubriand.

 

Rosbach

The Battle of Rosbach during the Seven Years War was fought on November 5, 1757 and resulted in the victory of King Frederick II of Prussia over the French and Bavarians under General Soubise and General Saxe-Hildburghausen. The victory blocked the French invasion of Germany.

BkIV:Chap1:Sec2 BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Roscius, Quintus Roscius Gallus

126-62BC. A Roman actor, born a slave at Solonium, he became the greatest comic actor of his time. From the dictator Sulla, Roscius received the honor of the gold ring signifying equestrian rank. In a lawsuit, Cicero, whom he had taught elocution, defended him by an extant oration, Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo.

BkXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rose

Maidservant in the London Embassy in 1822.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rose, Madame (Madame Thodon)

The wife of a haberdasher of Rennes, named Todon or Thodon.

BkIV:Chap1:Sec3 Travelling companion of Chateaubriand on his first journey to Paris.

BkIV:Chap2:Sec1 She takes pity on him.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Roseau, Jean

d. 1594. The Paris executioner under the League, who was executed in turn for assisting the assassins who executed President Brisson and various counsellors of the Parlement in 1591 on the orders of the Sixteen.

BkIX:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Executed the counsellor Tardif at the same time as Brisson. He was executed in turn.

 

Rosetta, Egypt

An important military base, lying between the Mediterranean and the Western Nile. The Rosetta Stone is a dark grey-pinkish granite stone (originally thought to be basalt in composition) with writing on it in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, using three scripts, Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. Because Greek was a well-known language, the stone was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec2 Taken by Napoleon’s troops in 1798.

BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rosinante

The name of Don Quixote’s broken-down horse which appears in Cervantes’ novel.

BkXXXII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ross, Sir John

1777-1856. A British explorer, he travelled to the Arctic between 1829 and 1831. His nephew Sir James Clarke Ross who accompanied him to the Arctic discovered the North Magnetic Pole in 1831, and later explored the Antarctic.

BkXLII:Chap18:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rossignol, Jean-Antoine

1759-1802. A Revolutionary general, he was deported to Comoros by Napoleon with other Jacobins.

BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 Quoted, his deathbed words.

 

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio

1792-1868. The Italian composer’s father was a trumpeter and his mother an opera singer. He wrote 36 highly successful operas including The Barber of Seville (1816). He gave up operatic composition at the age of 37 though he wrote religious music in an operatic style. He invented a number of recipes including Tournedos Rossini.

BkXXVI:Chap4:Sec1 Frederick-William III’s dislike of his music.

BkXXX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap7:Sec1 His music played in 1829 at Chateaubriand’s receptions.

BkXXXVII:Chap12:Sec1 Tanti palpati was a popular air from Act I of Rossini’s Tancrède (Venice 1813, Paris 1822) while Moses’ Prayer appears in his Moïse of 1827.

 

Rostopchin, Count Fyodor Vasilievich

1763-1826. Fyodor Rostopchin had great influence over Paul I, who made him in 1796 adjutant general, grand-marshal of the court, then Foreign Minister. In 1799, he received the title of count. He was disgraced in 1801 for his opposition to the French alliance, but was restored to favour in 1810, and was shortly afterwards appointed military governor of Moscow. He has been generally charged with instigating the burning of Moscow the day after the French had made their entry; it is certain that the prisons were opened by his order, and that he took no means to stop the outbreak. He defended himself against the charge of arson in a pamphlet printed in Paris in 1823. Shortly after the Congress of Vienna, to which he had accompanied Alexander I, he was disgraced. He only returned to Russia in 1825.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 His defence of Moscow.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec2 His estate at Voronovo a village near Moscow.

BkXXII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap14:Sec1 His burning of Moscow.

 

Rostrenen, le Père Grégoire de

A Capucin monk, who wrote a Dictionnaire français-breton, published at Rennes in 1732.

BkV:Chap2:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Rothschild, James Mayer de

1792-1868. Founder of the French branch of the Rothschild banking empire, and brother of Nathan.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Arranged a Russian loan in London in 1822.

 

Rothschild, Nathan Mayer

1777-1836. A London financier, he was born in the Frankfurt-am-Main ghetto, the fourth child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) founder of the Rothschild banking empire, and Gutlé Schnapper (1753-1849).

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 He was a younger brother to Salomon Mayer (1774-1855), who founded the Austrian branch, and elder brother to James Mayer de Rothschild who founded the French branch. James was also in London negotiating a Russian loan. The dinner mentioned took place on the 6th of May 1822.

 

Rueil, France

A commune in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located 7.8 miles from the centre of Paris. It is now known as Rueil-Malmaison due to its proximity to the latter.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rouen

The city and port in north-west France, is the capital of the Seine-Maritime department on the River Seine. The ancient capital of Normandy, it is where Joan of Arc was tried and burned in 1431.

BkII:Chap6:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkV:Chap15:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s regiment garrisoned there in 1789-90.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there on the 26th of July 1830. The King had signed the royal decrees at Saint-Cloud the previous evening on the 25th.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Rumours of insurrection there in July 1830.

 

Rouërie, Marquis de la

(1751-1793) Born in Fougères in 1751, Armand Tuffin de la Rouërie became famous in America as Colonel Armand, during the War of Independence. On his return to Saint-Ouen-la-Rouërie, he founded the Breton Association which instigated the insurrection in 1791-1792, to defend Breton ‘privileges’, or rights. Betrayed by his friend Cheftel, who acted as a double agent for Danton, he was hunted down and died of exhaustion at the Château de la Guyomarais on January 30th, 1793. He was decapitated post-mortem.

BkII:Chap7:Sec5 His conspiracy.

BkIII:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 Described. Met Chateaubriand prior to his departure for America in 1791. Chateaubriand asked him for a letter of introduction to Washington.

BkVI:Chap7:Sec2 He had provided Chateaubriand with a letter of introduction to Washington, dated the 22nd March 1791, and couched in suitably flattering terms regarding the young Chateaubriand.

 

Rouillac, Abbé René de,

Principal of Dinan College in 1783-4.

BkII:Chap10:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste

1670-1741. The witty son of a shoemaker. After a short stay in London, as private secretary to the French ambassador, Tallard, be frequented the irreligious society which gathered at the Temple. His first dramatic attempts were failures, but his epigrams gained him a great reputation. He was elected to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres in 1700. For ‘Couplets infâmes’, a libel of a licentious character he was sentenced by the Parliament to pay four thousand livres damages, and soon after sent into exile. He went first to Switzerland, where he was sheltered by the French ambassador, Count de Luc, then to Vienna, to Prince Eugène’s Court, and finally to Brussels. He wrote operas, plays, odes and the epigrams which made him the greatest of the eighteenth century epigrammatists.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec3 His epigrams.

 

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

1712-1778. The philosopher and writer, was born in Geneva. Through meeting Diderot, he joined the Encyclopaedists. He argued that man’s perfect nature is corrupted by society. He was the author of La Nouvelle Héloise, Les Confessions, Émile (1762), Du contrat social (1762). His ideas were taken up by the revolutionaries, his romanticism by the English poets, and his Christian outlook counterbalanced Voltaire’s atheism and rationalism.

BkIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap8:Sec1 His persecution mania and pride.

BkIV:Chap8:Sec2 Chateaubriand refers to the opening of Book VII of the Confessions.

BkIV:Chap9:Sec4 A jibe at his personal appearance.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 His incomplete Dictionnaire de botanique consulted by Chateaubriand. Rousseau had made much use of Malesherbes’ library.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 A reference to his idea of the noble savage.

BkIX:Chap5:Sec1 His friendship with Malesherbes.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec2 His stay at the ‘Hermitage’ at Montmorency.

BkX:Chap8:Sec2 Hingant was referring to the start of Book VIII of the Confessions.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 A representative of an earlier literary style.

BkXII:Chap4:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 His work Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaires of 1782 influenced Chateaubriand.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec2 The reference is to the start of Book XI of the Confessions.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 Rousseau celebrated Madame d’Houdetot as Sophie in his Confessions.

BkXIV:Chap6:Sec1 From 1731 until 1740 Rousseau lived with or close to Madame de Warens. At her country home, Les Charmettes, near Chambéry in Savoy, Rousseau began his first serious reading and study.

BkXV:Chap7:Sec1 The incidents Chateaubriand lists here are taken from Rousseau’s Confessions.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXVII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to the Confessions Book IV.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec2 BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 His homeland, Switzerland.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 His work on a Corsican constitution in 1764-5. Chateaubriand quotes from Du contrat social Book II, Ch.10.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Rousseau’s Discourse on the origins of Inequality among men, 1755, is referred to.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 La Nouvelle Héloïse was in Napoleon’s library.

BkXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1 The reference is to the Fifth ‘Promenade’ of the Réveries.

BkXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Several scenes from La Nouvelle Héloïse are set in Meillerie. The book created a new genre of literature.

BkXXXV:Chap18:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 His love of the Swiss scenery.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 See Book VII of the Confessions, for the Scuole or Houses of Charity established for the education of young girls without fortune, to whom the Republic afterwards gave a portion either in marriage or for the cloister.  Amongst talents cultivated in these young girls, music was in the first rank.

BkXXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 See Book VII of the Confessions for the tale of Zulietta, and mention of Captain Olivet.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec1 He died at Ermenonville.

 

Rousseau, Madame

She was the proprietor of a restaurant on the Champs Élysées in 1801.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Roussel, or Rouxel

He was a French sailor, one of the crew of the boat that took Armand to France.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Roux, Jacques

1752-1794. A French revolutionary, and a priest in Paris, he abandoned the priesthood at the start of the French Revolution. Roux was a member of the Commune of Paris of August 1792. As a leader of the enragés in the Paris sections, he helped to instigate (1793) food riots in Paris. He was arrested in September 1793, was condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and committed suicide (January 1794).

BkXXV:Chap2:Sec1 A Revolutionary priest.

 

Rovedino

Singer at Opera-Buffa.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Roverella, Aurelio, Cardinal

1748-1812. Bishop of Palestrina.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec3 Co-author of a brief issued on the 20th of September 1811, promulgating the decrees of the Council of Paris.

 

Rovigo, General, see Duc de Savary

 

Roy, Antoine, Comte

1764-1847. A former Paris lawyer, he was an administrator for the Duc de Bouillon’s estates, acquiring them in 1798, and built his own fortune. He was Finance Minister in 1818, 1819-1821, and 1828-1829. He became a Peer in 1822.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 Finance Minister 4th January 1828-8th August 1829.

 

Roye, France

Between Paris and Lille, in Picardy, Roye is the Roman Rodium. Louis XVIII held a council of ministers there.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1815.

 

Roye, Gilles de

d1478. Egidius de Roya, a Flemish chronicler, was born probably at Montdidier, and became a Cistercian monk. He was afterwards professor of theology in Paris and abbot of the monastery of Royaumont at Asnières-sur-Oise, retiring about 1458 to the convent of Notre Dame des Dunes, near Fumes, and devoting his time to study. Gilles wrote the Chronicon Dunense or Annales Belgici, a résumé and continuation of the work of another monk, Jean Brandon (d. 1428), which deals with the history of Flanders, and also with events in Germany, Italy and England from 792 to 1478.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 A possible reference to him, since Chateaubriand is near Roye.

 

Royer-Collard, Pierre Paul

1763-1845. A French statesman and philosopher, he took part in the French Revolution and became a constitutional monarchist. During the Consulate he devoted himself entirely to philosophy, and from 1811 to 1814 he lectured at the Sorbonne. Becoming active in government after the Bourbon restoration, he sat in the Chamber of Deputies almost continuously from 1815 to 1839. From 1815 to 1820 he was president of the commission for public instruction. Royer-Collard was a leader of the Doctrinaires, a middle-of-the-road group

BkXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 He was nominated as President of the Chamber of Deputies on the 5th of February 1828. Chateaubriand introduces later material into his account of 1821-22.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap17:Sec1 Nominated by the electoral colleges in 1827. Chateaubriand recommends him for the Education portfolio.

BkXXXV:Chap24:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand attests to his loyalty to Charles X.

 

Royou, Jacques-Corentin

1745-1828. Lawyer, Journalist, dramatist, writer. Deported under the Directory and only returned under the Consulate. He was theatre censor during the Restoration. Brother of the monarchist Thomas Marie Royou (1743-1792) a professor of philosophy who co-founded the royalist journal L’Ami du roi in 1790.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 His History of France (1819).

 

Rozis, Captain

A captain in the Army of Egypt in 1798.

BkXIX:Chap15:Sec1 His comments.

 

Rubens, Peter Paul

1577-1640. The Flemish painter of the baroque period, he worked in Antwerp, Mantua and London.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 His heavy women.

BkXXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Byron’s dislike of his works.

 

Rubicon, River

A small river in northern Italy which in Roman times flowed into the Adriatic Sea between Ariminum (Rimini) and Caesena (Cesena). The actual modern identity of the river is uncertain; it is usually identified as the Pisciatello in its upper reaches and then the Fiumicino to the sea.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Chateaubriand crosses it in 1828.

 

Rudnay, Alexander, Cardinal

1760-1831. Archbishop of Esztergom (Gran) 1819, Cardinal and Primate of Hungary from 1828, he was an enlightened intellectual and a supporter of the Slovak National Movement.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Rudenture, etc. Architectural terms

A rudenture is the figure of a rope or staff, plain or carved, with which the flutings of columns are sometimes filled. A modillon (French text) is an sculptured corbel. A soffit describes the underside of any construction element. Examples of soffits include: the underside of an arch or architrave (whether supported by piers or columns), the underside of a flight of stairs, under the classical entablature or the underside of the projecting cornice. Ogives are diagonal groins or ribs of vaults.

BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Rulhière, Claude-Carloman de

1735-1791. A French poet and historian, he became aide-de-camp to the Duc de Richelieu, whom he followed through the Hanoverian campaign of 1757 and into his government at Bordeaux in 1758; and at twenty-five he was sent to St Petersburg as secretary of the legation. Here he saw the revolution which seated Catherine II on the throne. He became secretary to the Comte de Provence (afterwards Louis XVIII) in 1773, and he was admitted to the Academy in 1787.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 Mentioned.

BkIX:Chap2:Sec1 His house at Saint-Denis.

 

Rupert (Ruprecht), Saint

d. 710. He was the first Bishop of Salzburg and its founder. He was a Frank and Bishop of Worms until around 697, at which point he was sent to become a missionary to Regensburg in Bavaria. He promoted the area of Salzburg and re-named the site. His feast days are March 27th and September the 24th.

BkXLI:Chap2:Sec1 The patron saint of Salzburg. Chateaubriand was there on September 24th 1833.

 

Russell, Lord John, 1st Earl

1792-1878. A British politician, younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, and Prime Minister (1846–52, 1865–66), he entered Parliament in 1813. He was a strong advocate of reform and made it a cause of the Whig Party, leading the effort to pass the Reform Bill of 1832. He served in Viscount Melbourne’s government as Home Secretary (1835), reducing the number of crimes liable to capital punishment and beginning state support of public education. In the 1840’s he advocated free trade and forced Robert Peel out of office. Russell became prime minister in 1846 and established the 10-hour day in factories (1847) and a board of public health (1848), but party disunity defeated his attempts at wider social and economic reform.

BkXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 He supported Reform and Catholic emancipation.