Udine, Italy

A city in the north-east of Italy, capital of the region of Friuli, in the centre of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps, it was the traditional starting point of the route over the Saifnitz or Pontebba Passes to Villach in Carinthia, by way of Pontebba and Tarvisio.

BkXL:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in September 1833.

 

Ugolino, Gherardesca, Count

A leading Guelph of Pisa. He led one party while his grandson Nino de’ Visconti led the other. In 1288 Ugolino intrigued with Ruggieri degli Ubaldini the Archbishop, the nephew of Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, and leader of the Ghibellines in Pisa, who was supported by the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi and other families, and Nino was expelled. The Archbishop however betrayed him and had Ugolino and four of his sons and grandsons (his sons were Gaddo, and Uguccione, his grandsons Nino, called Brigata, and Anselmuccio or ‘little Anselm’) imprisoned in the Torre dei Gualandi in July 1288. When Guido da Montefeltro took command of the Pisan forces, in March 1289, the keys were thrown into the river Arno and the prisoners left to starve to death, even a priest being denied them. The tower was known afterwards as the Torre della Fame, the Tower of Famine. Ugolino had previously acquired a reputation by the surrender of certain castles to the Florentine and Lucchese after the defeat of the Pisans by the Genoese at Meloria in 1284. (The islands of Caprara and Gorgona mentioned, north-west of Elba, and south-west of Livorno respectively, were held by Pisa at the time.) Ugolino gnaws Ruggieri’s head in revenge in Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

BkX:Chap2:Sec1 See Dante’s Inferno XXXII, 127 et al, and XXXIII.

 

Uhlans

One of a body of horse cavalry that formed part of the Polish, German, Austrian, and Russian armies. (German, from Polish ulan, from Turkish oğlan, youth, from oğul, son.)

BkIX:Chap7:Sec1 The Austrian army near Tournai.

 

Ulliac

A student of Rennes.

BkV:Chap7:Sec1 Involved in a duel in 1789.

 

Ulm, Germany

A city of southern Germany on the Danube River southeast of Stuttgart, it was first mentioned in 854, it was later a free Imperial city and reached the height of its influence in the 15th century. Napoleon defeated General Mack’s Austrian troops there in October 1805.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec1 By October 16 1805 Napoleon had surrounded Mack’s entire army at Ulm and three days later Mack surrendered with 30,000 men, 65 guns and 40 standards. Some 20,000 escaped, 10,000 were killed or wounded and the rest made prisoner. About 6,000 French were killed or wounded. At the surrender, Mack offered his sword and presented himself to Napoleon as ‘The unfortunate General Mack’. Bonaparte smiled and replied, ‘I give back to the unfortunate General his sword and his freedom, along with my regards to give to his Emperor’. Francis II was not so kind however and Mack was court-martialled and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

BkXXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 On Chateaubriand’s route to Prague in 1833.

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 He arrived there on the 19th of May 1833.

 

Ultras

The term Ultra-Royalists, or simply Ultras, refers to the reactionary Royalist faction which sat in the French parliament from 1815 to 1830. It held a majority in the Chamber of Deputies in 1815-1816 (la Chambre introuvable) and from 1824 to 1827.Their primary target was the restoration of the Ancien Régime in France and was thus strongly supported by Charles X, while Louis XVIII inclined to more moderate constitutionalist royalists. After the July Revolution the Ultras softened their views and made the restoration to the throne of the House of Bourbon their new target. From 1830 on they were called Legitimists.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Ulysses

The Greek hero, son of Laërtes: See Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. The Odyssey tells of his wanderings over the sea after the Trojan War and his return home.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 In Alcinous’ palace. See Odyssey VII 146-147.

BkXVIII:Chap4Sec1 Chateaubriand portrays himself as Ulysses the wanderer.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 Detained by the demi-goddess, Calypso, living on the island of Ogygia in Homer’s Odyssey.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 In Odyssey IX and XXIII can be found the Lotus Eaters (Lotophagi) a people who live on the fruit of the ‘lotus’. Ernle Bradford speculates that they lived on the island of Jerba, off the coast of Libya (See ‘Ulysses Found’ chapter 5). The ‘lotus’ itself was possibly cordia myxa, which has a sloe-like fruit. The current inhabitants are Berbers, a possible source of the Greek word ‘Barbaros’ for a barbarian, one whose language was unintelligible. In Odyssey X, Mercury helps Odysseus by giving him the magic herb, moly which has been variously identified as ‘wild rue’, wild cyclamen, and a sort of garlic, allium moly. John Gerard’s Herbal of 1633 Ch.100 gives seven plants under this heading, of which the third, Moly Homericum, is he suggests the Moly of Theophrastus, Pliny and Homer – and he describes it as wild garlic.

 

Undaunted

The English thirty-eight gun frigate (Captain Thomas Usher) on which Napoleon travelled to exile in Elba in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Unkiar Skelessi

The Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi was a treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1833, following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829. It promised mutual assistance should either be attacked by a foreign power. A secret article exempted Turkey from sending military forces; instead, they were to close the Dardanelles to all non-Russian ships.

BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Urban V, Pope

1310-1370. Pope 1362-1370. A Provençal named Guillaume de Grimoard; successor of Innocent VI. He was a Benedictine renowned for his knowledge of canon law. The great event of his pontificate was the abortive attempt to return the papacy from Avignon to Rome. The success of Cardinal Albornoz in re-conquering the Papal States and the continued agitation by the devout, among them St. Bridget of Sweden, for the restoration of the Holy See, persuaded Urban to depart for Rome in 1367. The return made a great impression, and in 1368, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV reaffirmed his allegiance. The Byzantine emperor, John V, also submitted to the pope. In 1370, Urban, disturbed by the resumption of war between France and England, returned to Avignon hoping to end the conflict. His quarrel with Edward III of England over the payment of the annual tribute (dating back to King John) occasioned the antipapal polemics of John Wyclif. Urban was a patron of the arts and founded universities at Orange, Kraków, and Vienna. BkXIV:Chap2:Sec2 Petrarch’s letter to him of August 1366, urging a return of the Papacy to Rome.

 

Urfé, Honoré d’

1567–1625. A French novelist, he was the author of L'Astrée (5 vol., 1607–10), the principal French pastoral novel. It portrays shepherds and shepherdesses living in d’Urfé’s native Auvergne in the 5th cent. An embodiment of courtly manners and conversation in artificially learned style, the novel had wide popularity during the author’s lifetime and influenced Rousseau.

BkXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from L’Astrée.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Sylvander is a character in the pastoral, used here by Voltaire of himself.

 

Urgande la Déconnue

A beneficent sorceress, she is a character in Amadis de Gaule.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Ursins, Marie-Anne de La Trémoille, Princesse des

1642-1722. A French noblewoman and unofficial diplomat, after the death of her first husband, she married (1675) Duke Flavio Orsini, whose name was Gallicized to Ursins. She soon separated from her husband. In 1698 she solicited papal approval for the choice of a French prince, Philip of Anjou (later King Philip V), to succeed King Charles II on the throne of Spain. She arranged the marriage of Philip V with María Luisa of Savoy, whose lady-in-waiting she became in 1701. Until the queen’s death (1714) Mme des Ursins exerted virtually dictatorial power at the court of Madrid. She defied Philip’s grandfather, King Louis XIV of France, insisting on a Spanish policy of independence from France. It was largely because of her energy that Philip V kept the throne in the War of the Spanish Succession. When María Luisa died, Mme des Ursins advised Philip to marry Elizabeth Farnese, who, when queen, had her expelled (1714) from Spain. Ill-received in France, she went to the Netherlands and later to Rome. Her correspondence has been published.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Usquin, Monsieur

He was a claimant on the French Embassy in London in 1822.

BkXXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Ussé, Château d’

At Rigny-Ussé in Loire-Indre, the château was the residence of Claire de Duras from 1807. It was Perrault’s inspiration for his tale of Sleeping Beauty.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Utica

A town near the mouth of the Majardah (French Medjerda, ancient Bagradas) River in modern Tunisia. Founded by the Phoenicians in 1101 BC it was traditionally the oldest Phoenician settlement on the coast of North Africa. After its founding, Utica grew rapidly and was second only to Carthage among Phoenician settlements in Africa. In the Third Punic War (149-146 BC), Utica sided with Rome against Carthage; after the destruction of Carthage it was made the administrative centre of the Roman province of Africa. The capital of Africa Vetus, it had a conventus of Roman citizens and in 81 BC Pompey granted several prominent people citizenship. In the civil war between Caesar’s and Pompey’s supporters (49-45 BC) Cato of Utica supported by King Juba I was defeated by Caesar (at the Battle of Thapsus in 46BC).

BkXXXI:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Cato subsequently committed suicide.