Wace

c1100-c1175. An Anglo-Norman poet, he was made a canon of Bayeux by Henry II of England. His major works are the Roman de Rou (1160-1174) concerning the history of Normandy and the Roman de Brut (1155) dedicated to Eleanor of Aquitaine and containing material from the Arthurian myth cycle.

BkI:Chap6:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkX:Chap3:Sec2 The Roman du Rou mentioned.

 

Wachau

A village south of Leipzig, where there was fighting there during the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations 16th-19th October 1813) on the 16th of October 1813. Latour-Maubourg lost a leg there.

BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Wagram, Battle of

July 5-6th 1809. The victory for Napoleon forced Austria to sign an armistice and led eventually to the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October, ending Austria’s 1809 war against French control of Germany. The battle was fought on the Marchfeld (a plain northeast of Vienna) between 154,000 French and other troops under Napoleon and 158,000 Austrians under Archduke Charles.

BkXVI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXX:Chap9:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 Described.

 

Waldburg (Waldbourg-Truchsess), Friedrich Ludwig, Graf Truchsess von

1776-1844. Prussian Commissioner for Elba in 1814 (3 May 1814 - 26 Feb 1815, not resident). His account of Napoleon’s journey to Elba (1815), distressed Napoleon.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec1 Commissioner for Elba.

 

Waldeck, Christian-Auguste, Prince of

1744-1799. He was Commander of the Austrian Corps in the Army of the Princes.

BkIX:Chap11:Sec1 BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkIX:Chap15:Sec1 At Thionville in September 1792. His attack described, 4th September.

 

Waldmünchen

A town in the district of Cham, in Bavaria, Germany, it is situated near the border with the Czech Republic, 18 km north of Cham, and 18 km southwest of Domažlice.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in May 1833.

BkXXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 He arrived there on Tuesday the 21st of May 1833.

BkXXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 He was obliged to halt there in order to obtain a visa for entry into Bohemia. The ‘dying man’ was probably Sebastian Kaiser a hatter who died at midnight on the 21st May 1833. He was interred on the 23rd the day of Chateaubriand’s departure.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 A description of the village. The extant chapel is that of the Mount of Olives.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec2 Textile production there in 1833.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec3 BkXXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 A synonym for the remotest corner of the world.

BkXLI:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand passes nearby in September 1833.

 

Waldor, Mélanie

1796-1871. A French poetess, she was the wife of an officer, daughter of the journalist de Villenave, and friend of Alexander Dumas.

BkXLII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Wales, Prince of, see George IV

 

Wales, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Princess of

1768-1821. Married the future George IV in 1795, but separated from her husband a year later.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Walewska, Countess Marie

1789-1817. The wife of Count Athenasius Walewski, mistress of Napoleon and mother of Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count Walewski. Her parents were Count Mathieu Laczynski and Eva Zaborowska. She met Napoleon in 1807 and had an affair with him lasting until 1810. Her first husband died, and in September of 1816 she married a first cousin of Napoleon, Count Philippe Antoine d’Ornano. She died in labour, in 1817. Her heart was placed in the crypt of the d'Ornano family in Père Lachaise in Paris and her body returned to Poland.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 She visited Elba (1-3 September 1815) with her son to see Napoleon.

 

Walewski, Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count

1810-1868. He was the illegitimate son of Marie and Napoleon I, and Foreign Minister under Napoleon III.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 He visited Elba (1-3 September 1815) with his mother to meet his father Napoleon.

 

Wallenstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von

1583-1634. A Bohemian soldier and politician who during the Thirty Years’ War served the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Archduke of Styria, King of Hungary and Bohemia. Schiller wrote a celebrated trilogy about his life (1798).

BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 In December 1633 he retired with his army to Bohemia, around Pilsen. A patent charging Wallenstein with high treason was signed on February 18, and published in Prague. Losing the support of his army Wallenstein realized the extent of his danger, and on February 23 with a company of some hundreds of men, he went from Pilsen to Cheb, hoping to meet the Swedes under Duke Bernhard. After the arrival of the party at Cheb, certain senior Scottish and Irish officers in his force, loyal to the emperor, killed him when the party entered Eger, on the night of February 25. Wallenstein was buried at Jicin.

BkXXXVII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned. The date was 1604.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 See Schiller’s play The Death of Wallenstein, Act IV.

 

Walsh, Vicomte Édouard

Director of the Ultra-Royalist La Mode from 1835, he met Chateaubriand in Prague and continued to serve the Duchess de Berry’s interests.

BkXLII:Chap9:Sec1 The letter to Chateaubriand suggested the writing of a new pamphlet in support of Henri V, which Chateaubriand rejected.

 

Walter, William Joseph

1789-1846 The English translator of Chateaubriand’s Les Martyrs was born in England, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a professor at St. Edmund’s college, Ware, England until 1839 when he emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia, where at the time of his death he acted as secretary to the British Consul.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 His preface to his translation (The Two Martyrs: 1812, and119) made references to the allusions to Napoleon’s court in Les Martyrs.

 

Walthuren, Bavaria

Presumably Waldthurn, Bavaria is intended. The Fahrenberg hill in Waldthurn in eastern Bavaria has a baroque chapel. It was a place of Pilgrimage from1204, miracles being claimed for its statue of Mary.

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 Pilgrims returning from there.

 

Wandering Jew

In literary and popular legend, a Jew who mocked or mistreated Jesus while he was on his way to the cross and who was condemned therefore to a life of wandering on earth until Judgment Day. The story of the wanderer was first recorded in the chronicles of Roger of Wendover and Matthew of Paris (13th cent.), but not until the early 17th cent. was he identified as a Jew. The story is common in Western Europe, but it presents marked national variations. Among the innumerable treatments of the subject is Shelley’s Queen Mab.

BkX:Chap2:Sec1 In Brussels.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Warden (Ward), Doctor William

1777-1849. Navy surgeon on the Northumberland, the ship that conveyed Napoleon to St Helena, he was a graduate of St Andrews.

BkXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Published his Letters on his return to England in 1816.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Warens, Françoise-Louise, Madame de

1699-1768. Benefactor and mistress of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who met her on Palm Sunday 1728, she gave Rousseau the education he lacked and fulfilled his need for love. She left M. de Warens in 1726. Rousseau never forgot her. When he returned from England in 1767 and was wandering through France and Switzerland, he found out in August of 1768 that his maman, as he called her, had died in poverty in March of that year.

BkXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Rousseau stayed at her country home, Les Charmettes, near Chambéry in Savoy, where he began his first serious reading and study.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Her apocryphal Memoirs (1785) were written by General Doppet, then a doctor.

 

Warsaw

The capital of Poland and its largest city is located on the Vistula river roughly 370 km from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. It was annexed in 1795 by the Kingdom of Prussia to become the capital of the province of New East Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon’s army in 1806-7, it was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Following the decisions of the Congress of Vienna of 1815, it became the center of the Polish Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia. Following the repeated violations of the Polish constitution by the Russians, the 1830 November Uprising broke out. However, the Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the uprising’s defeat and in the curtailment of the Kingdom’s autonomy.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 Murat entered Warsaw on November 28th 1806.

BkXXII:Chap1:Sec1 The Russians took Warsaw on 8th February 1813.

 

Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of

1428-1471. He was known as the Kingmaker, in England, during the Wars of the Roses.

BkXLII:Chap8:Sec1 mentioned.

 

Washington, DC

The capital of the USA, in the east, on the Potomac River, is co-extensive with the District of Columbia. It is the centre of government chosen by George Washington and approved by Congress in 1790. Planned by the French engineer, Pierre L’Enfant (1754-1825) its first construction dated from 1793.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 Its radiating road system.

BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Washington, George, President of the American Republic

1732-1799. U.S. Statesman and general, first President 1789-1797, he came from a wealthy Virginian family and was a surveyor before gaining his reputation in the French and Indian Wars. From 1759-1774 he was a member of Virginia’s House of Burgesses and an opponent of British rule. On the outbreak of the American Revolution (1775-1783) he was appointed Commander-in-Chief. Following the final victory at Yorktown in 1781 he presided over the Constitutional Convention and was elected President of the new Republic.

Preface:Sect1 BkXLII:Chap17:Sec1 Chateaubriand mentions meeting him.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 Chateaubriand asked La Rouërie for a letter of introduction to him.

BkVI:Chap6:Sec2 BkXXIV:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap17:Sec1

Washington was living in Philadelphia in 1791. He set out on his tour of the southern states (Virginia, Georgia and the South Carolinas) on the 21st March and returned to Philadelphia on the 6th July, the earliest Chateaubriand could have met him. In fact Washington refused audiences for a fortnight. His house was at 190 High Street.

BkVI:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand compares Bonaparte and Washington. Napoleon had died at St Helena on the 5th May 1821, Washington in 1799.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 He was involved in the reprieve of Charles Asgill.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand quotes reasonably accurately from Washington’s speech on quitting the Presidency in 1797 (Washington’s original text is used in this translation). He chose not to run for the office in the forthcoming election.

BkXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand again juxtaposes Washington and Napoleon.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 His retirement from public life.

BkXXIV:Chap1:Sec1 A suggestion Napoleon might have retired there in 1815.

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 French support for the American Revolution.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec2 BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Waterloo

The Battle of 18th June 1815. Napoleon was defeated by British, Dutch, Belgian and German forces commanded by Wellington and the Prussians under Von Blücher. Napoleon caught Wellington three miles south of Waterloo in Belgium and attempted a direct offensive. The British lines held until the Prussians arrived, and a concerted charge brought victory and four days later Napoleon’s second and final abdication.

BkVII:Chap10:Sec1 BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXX:Chap7:Sec1

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec3 BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2  BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1

BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXV:Chap1:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXIII:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap13:Sec1 Chateaubriand heard the sounds of the distant battle.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec1 The battles of the preceding days celebrated in Paris.

 

Weimar, Germany

A city in central Germany, on the River Ilm near Erfurt, it was the cultural centre of Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries given its associations with Goethe, Schiller and Liszt. It was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from 1815.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1821.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 Goethe’s residence in later life.

 

Weisse, Christian Felix

1726-1804. He was a German poet and scholar born in Leipzig.

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

 

Weissenstadt, Bavaria

A town in the district of Wunsiedel, in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, it is situated in the Fichtelgebirge, on the river Eger, 11 km northwest of Wunsiedel.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand there 2nd June 1833.

 

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of

1769-1852. His parents purchased a commission for him in the British army in 1787. He served in Europe and in 1797 his regiment was sent to India where his brother became Governor General later that year. In India, Wellington saw active service until he returned home in 1805. He sat as an MP for Rye between 1806 and 1809, becoming Irish Secretary in 1807. In 1809 he was sent to assume command in Portugal. Wellington gained military distinction in the Peninsular Campaigns during the French Wars, culminating in the victory at Waterloo. He was raised to the peerage as the Duke of Wellington in recognition of his achievements and he sat in the House of Lords for the rest of his life. In 1818 Wellington joined the administration of Lord Liverpool as Master-General of the Ordnance; in 1827 he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, an office in which he was confirmed for life in 1842. Wellington led the Tories in the Lords and threw his weight behind most of the administrations between 1818 and his death in 1852.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkX:Chap7:Sec1 Present at Chateaubriand’s reception in 1822.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec2 Relatively unknown in 1801.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec1 Wellington’s army landed in Portugal on the 1st of August 1808.

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

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap15:Sec1 In Ghent at various times during the Hundred Days.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec3 Ordered not to commence hostilities first against Napoleon.

BkXXIII:Chap17:Sec1 At Waterloo.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec1 His comment on Napoleon’s second abdication.

BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec2 Urges Fouché’s appointment at the second Restoration.

BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1 Ensconced in the Louvre after the Hundred Days.

BkXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 A portrait of him and related items at Plantation House, St Helena. Note that Wellington by chance stayed at The Briars there.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 He frequented Almack’s in 1822.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 Apsley House (now 149 Piccadilly) on the south-east corner of Hyde Park was Wellington’s London residence from 1817-1852.

BkXXVII:Chap9:Sec1 He and Lord Clanwilliam took Castlereagh’s place at the Congress of Verona, after the latter’s suicide.

BkXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Wellington’s ‘Tory’ government lasted from 1828 to 1830.

 

Wels, Austria

The old town of Wels lies on the left bank of the Traun in the Alpine foreland region southwest of Linz.

BkXLI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in September 1833.

 

Wenceslas IV, The Drunkard

1361-1419. King of Bohemia from 1378, King of the Romans from 1400, a supporter of Jan Huss, notorious for his cruelty.

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Wendel, Clara

Accused of complicity in a political murder of an anti-clerical Councillor of Lucerne, Xavier Keller, in 1816, she confessed and was condemned to life imprisonment, ending her life in a Lucerne psychiatric clinic, that of St Urban.

BkXXXV:Chap16:Sec1 Chateaubriand sees her in Lucerne in 1832.

 

Werfen

A town about 50 kilometres south of Salzburg in Austria

BkXLI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in September 1833.

 

Werther, Heinrich Wilhelm, Baron

1772-1859. Prussian Foreign Minister 1837-1841.

BkXXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Werther

The title of Goethe’s influential Romantic novel is The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and Werther is the name of its protagonist.

BkXII:Chap4:Sec2 It influenced Chateaubriand.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 In Napoleon’s library.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Wertingen, Bavaria

There was a minor battle here on the 8th October 1805 when Lannes and Murat attacked the Austrian troops.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Westminster, London

An area of London, it lies at the heart of London’s West End. It includes Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey, begun 1245 in the French style by Henry III replacing Edward the Confessor’s building dedicated 1065. Since William I most English monarchs have been crowned there and some are buried there. It contains Poet’s Corner where Chaucer, Spenser and others are commemorated. The western towers of the Abbey (1745) were designed by Wren and modified by Hawksmoor.

BkX:Chap5:Sec2 BkX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s visits there in 1793, and again later in 1822.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXXVII:Chap9:Sec1 Castlereagh’s funeral on 20 August 1822 was greeted with jeering and insults along the processional route, although not to the level of unanimity projected in the radical press. A final cheer was raised as the coffin entered into Westminster Abbey, departing from the public eye for the last time. Lord Londonderry was buried in the Abbey in the shadow of his mentor, William Pitt the Younger; a funeral monument was not erected until 1850 by his half-brother and successor, Charles Vane.

 

Westmoreland, John Fane, 10th Earl of

1759-1841. Lord Privy Seal 1798-1806 and 1807-1827.

BkXXVII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned in 1822.

 

Westphalia, Treaty of

The Peace agreement of 1648 was a general settlement ending the Thirty Years War. It marked the end of the Holy Roman Empire as an effective institution and inaugurated the modern European state system. The chief participants were the allies Sweden and France; their opponents, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire; and the various parts of the empire together with the newly independent Netherlands. The outcome of the religious deliberations was significant. Territorial rulers continued to determine the religion of their subjects, but it was stipulated that subjects could worship as they had in 1624. Terms of forced emigration were eased; Calvinism was recognized; and rulers could allow full toleration, at their discretion. Finally, religious questions could no longer be decided by a majority of the imperial estates. Future disputes were to be resolved by compromise. BkXX:Chap5:Sec3 BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Wheler, Sir George

1650-1723. Born in Holland, during the exile of his parents for their loyalty to Charles II, he travelled in Italy and France 1672-75, and in Greece and the Levant 1675-76 with Spon, collecting plants, coins, classical manuscripts and antique marbles. He published Journey into Greece in 1682, the year in which he was knighted. In 1684, he became a Canon at Durham, and was rector of Houghton-le-Spring from 1709 until his death.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Whitbread, Samuel

1758-1815. English politician: came of a Bedfordshire Nonconformist brewing family. He began by entering the brewing business; but after his marriage with the daughter of the 1st Earl Grey in 1789 took to politics, attaching himself to Fox. He became known as a social and financial reformer, and the principal representative of Liberal criticism in the House. He opposed the Regency, championed the Princess of Wales, and led the peace party. In 1809 he became chairman of the committee for rebuilding Drury Lane theatre, and immersion in the controversies connected with it seems to have unstrung his mind, leading him to commit suicide in1815.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand heard him speak.

 

Whitelocke, Sir Bulstrode

1605-1675. English lawyer and parliamentarian. Commissioner of the Great Seal during the Commonwealth. Wrote his Annals (still in manuscript), and Memorials of English Affairs from the supposed expedition of Brace to this Island to the end of the Reign of James I, published in 1709.

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand probably refers to the Memorials.

 

Wibicki, Józef

1747-1822. A Polish general, poet and political figure, in 1797, he wrote Dąbrowski’s Mazurka which was adopted as the Polish national anthem in 1927. He was Napoleon’s plenipotentiary in the Polish lands occupied by the French during the campaigns of 1806 and 1809, and after 1815 a high-ranking official in the Poland Congress Kingdom.

BkXX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 He met Napoleon in Vilna in June 1812.

 

Wieland

Wieland is the hero of Charles Brockden Brown’s novel of the same name.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand quotes fairly accurately from the novel. (Brown’s original text is used in this translation.)

 

Wiesenbach (Rhein-Neckar)

The town is in the north-west of Baden-Württemberg Germany. 

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in June 1833.

 

Wignacourt, Antoine-Louis, Marquis de

1753-1833. He was a military man.

BkII:Chap3:Sec1 Lieutenant-Colonel of the Conti Regiment in 1778.

 

Wilberforce, William

1759-1833. A British politician and humanitarian, he was elected to Parliament in 1780 and during the campaign formed a lifelong friendship with William Pitt, whose measures he generally supported in the House of Commons. He pressed unsuccessfully for more humane criminal laws and, joined with Thomas Clarkson and others in the long campaign for the abolition of the slave trade (achieved 1807). He also organized (1802) the Society for the Suppression of Vice and took part in other evangelical activities for social improvement. He wrote A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians (1797), a work that enjoyed wide popularity both in Britain and on the Continent.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand heard him speak.

 

Wilhemine, Friederike Sophie Wilhemine, Margravine of Bayreuth

1709-1758. A daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and his Queen consort Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. In 1735 she married Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. The baroque buildings and parks built during her reign constitute much of the present appearance of the town of Bayreuth.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Voltaire’s Ode on her death (1759).

 

Wilkowiski

A town in Lithuania, it was formerly in Prussia.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 Napoleon headquartered there on 21st-22nd June 1812.

 

William I, the Conqueror, King of England

c1027-1087. King 1066-1087. Known alternatively as William of Normandy, William the Conqueror and William the Bastard, he was the illegitimate and only son of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva, the daughter of a tanner. Born in Falaise, Normandy, now in France, William succeeded to the throne of England by right of conquest by winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066 in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. As king he adopted a feudal constitution

BkVIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkX:Chap3:Sec2 BkXII:Chap5:Sec1

BkXXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 He supposedly stumbled on landing in England but quickly grasped the shingle and said : ‘See how I have already taken England.’

BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Charles X held the title Duke of Normandy from 1785 to 1789.

 

William I of Württemberg

1781-1864. He ruled from 1816 to 1864, and married his first wife, Katerina the daughter of Paul I of Russia in 1816. 

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 King in 1833.

 

William I of the Netherlands, William Frederik of Orange-Nassau

1772-1843. Named ‘Sovereign Prince’ of the Netherlands in 1813, he proclaimed himself King in 1815, abdicating in 1840. William I was also the grand duke of Luxembourg.

BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Hostilities between Belgium and Holland were suspended on the 21st May 1833, but William I did not recognise the separation of Belgium and Holland until 1838.

 

William II of the Netherlands, William Frederik George Lodewijk

1792-1849. He ruled from 1840 till his death.

BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Prince of Orange in 1833.

 

William III, King of England

1650-1702. King of England 1689-1702. Stadholder of the United Provinces 1672-1702. Known as William of Orange, he was the grandson of Charles I and son of William II. He married James II’s daughter Mary. In 1688 he was invited to invade England by the opposition and was proclaimed king in 1689 (The Glorious Revolution). He defeated the former King at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690. He was successful in the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-1697) against Louis XIV leaving a strong army that, under the Duke of Marlborough, inflicted defeat on the French after his death.

BkI:Chap4:Sec4 The English attacked Saint-Malo in 1693 in order to destroy corsair ships which were threatening English trade. On the night of the 29th November they launched a massive fire-ship which reached the city wall and caused significant damage.

BkXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 As a notable King of England.

 

William IV, King of England

1765-1837. He was the third son of King George III and younger brother and successor of King George IV.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 He was 69 before he ascended the throne and by then had a weak chest.

 

Wilson, Alexander

1766-1813. Naturalist William Bartram, Alexander Wilson’s neighbour on the Schuylkill River just below Philadelphia, encouraged Wilson to collect specimens of birds and learn to draw and paint them. Wilson, an ornithologist, produced his comprehensive work, American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States (1808-1814. 9 volumes) covering the eastern United States north of Florida, based almost entirely on his own observations. The plates were produced by engravings from his drawings; he coloured a sample proof for use as a model by hand-colourists. American Ornithology is a landmark in American natural history.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec3 His Ornithology.

 

Wilson, General Sir Robert Thomas

1777-1849. A British general and politician he served in Egypt, Prussia, and was seconded to the Imperial Russian Army in 1812. He sat as the Liberal MP for Southwark from 1818 to 1831. He served as the Lieutenant Governor of Ceylon and later as the Governor of Gibraltar from 1842 until his death. In 1802 he published an account of the expedition to Egypt, which was shortly afterwards translated into French, and created a considerable impression by its strictures upon French officers’ barbarity. Wilson shortly afterwards produced a translation of General Regnier’s work on the same campaign, with comments.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec3 His account of the English expedition to Egypt. In the early part of the Peninsular War, he raised and commanded the Lusitanian Legion, an irregular Portuguese corps, which did good service in 1808 and 1809 and formed the starting-point of the new Portuguese army organized by Beresford in 1810.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec3 BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 In Russia in 1812.

BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1 He urged Kutusov to finish off the French army.

 

Wimpfen, Georges Félix, Baron de

1741-1814. He was deputy for Caen to the States-General, future Lieutenant-General in the Imperial army.

BkIX:Chap11:Sec1 At Thionville in 1792 in the Army of the Princes.

 

Windsor

The town in south-central England is on the Thames River southwest of London. Windsor Castle has been a royal residence since the time of William the Conqueror.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec3 BkXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Royal Lodge is a house in Windsor Great Park, located 3 miles south of Windsor Castle. It was developed as a Royal residence by George IV in the contemporary style of the cottage orné, with thatched roofs, verandas, and a conservatory. It became known as the Prince Regent’s Cottage after the prince moved into it in 1815. The house (then known as the ‘King’s Cottage’) became known as the Royal Lodge in the late 1820s.

 

Winterthur, Switzerland

In the Canton of Zurich, the city is located in a basin south and east of the River Töss. The Eulach also flows through the city. Zurich lies to the southwest.

BkXXXV:Chap18:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in late August 1832.

 

Witt, Johan de

1625-1672. A Dutch politician, Grand Pensionary of Holland (1653-1672), he and his brother Cornelius (1623–1672) were murdered by a mob because of their opposition to William of Orange.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec3 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 The fourth volume of de Witt’s Letters and Negotiations concludes with the correspondence of Pieter Grotius with the Grand Pensionary during Pieter’s embassy at Stockholm.

 

Wittenberg, Germany

A town in East Germany, it is on the River Elbe. The Reformation began here on 31st October 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints Church.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1821.

 

Wladimir (Vladimir) I of Kiev, Saint, Prince of Russia

956-1015. Grandson of Saint Olga. Son of the pagan Norman-Rus prince Svyatoslav of Kiev and his consort Malushka. Grand prince of Kiev. Prince of Novgorod in 970. On the death of his father in 972, he fled to Scandinavia, enlisted help from an uncle, and overcame Yaropolk, another son of Svyatoslav, who had attempted to seize Novgorod and Kiev. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea, and had solidified the frontiers against Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 Around 987, he was baptized, took the patronal name Basil, then ordered the Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod. Idols were thrown into the Dnieper River, and the new Rus Christians adopted the Byzantine rite in the Old Church Slavonic language.

 

Wolfe, James

1727-1759. British general who captured Louisbourg and Quebec in the French and Indian War. He was born in Westerham England, and joined the army at the age of 14. In 1757 William Pitt appointed Wolfe second in command to General Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander in North America. Wolfe's capture of Louisbourg, N.S. in 1758 made him a Major-General in charge of the Military and Naval Forces in Quebec. In June 1759, he sailed up the Saint Lawrence River with about 9000 troops and attacked them on July 31. The attack failed and on the night of September 12, Wolfe moved 5000 of his men downstream about 1.9 km Southwest of Quebec. They climbed a cliff to the Plains of Abraham above Quebec, on September 13, and forced a confrontation which resulted in a British victory. Wolfe was shot in the wrist and died a few days later of infection. The French commander, Marquis Louis Joseph de Montcalm de Saint-Véran, died the next day.

BkVII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 His death.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec2 A popular engraving of his death. Woolett’s engraving of Benjamin West’s painting (1771).

 

Wordsworth, William

1770-1850. British poet, whose most important collection, Lyrical Ballads (1798), published jointly with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped establish romanticism in England. The Prelude, his long autobiographical poem, was completed in 1805, though it was not published until after his death. His next collection, Poems in Two Volumes (1807), included the well-known “Ode to Duty,” the “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” and a number of famous sonnets. Thereafter, Wordsworth’s creative powers diminished. Nonetheless, some notable poems were produced after this date, including The Excursion (1814). He was appointed poet laureate in 1843.

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

 

Wrède, Charles-Philippe, Prince de

1769-1838. He took part in the Campaign of 1810 on the French side and was wounded at Wagram. He played an honourable role in the 1812 Russian Campaign. During the Campaign of 1813 he sided firmly against Napoleon, and having reorganized the Bavarian army concluded the Peace of Ried with the allies; leading an Austro-Bavarian corps at Hanau (30-31 October, 1813), he was defeated and received a wound to the head while leading a counter-attack. During the Campaign in France he defeated Oudinot at Bar sur Aube; which victory earned him the title of prince. He took part in the Congress of Vienna, and was named commander in chief of the Bavarian troops in 1822.

BkXXII:Chap6:Sec1 His defeat at Hanau.

 

Wurmser, Dagobert Siegmund, Count von

1724-1797. An Austrian general during the French Revolutionary Wars, he took the famous Weissenburg lines in 1793, commanding Prussian and Saxon forces. He is most remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to retake Mantua from Napoleon. On July 18, 1796, von Wurmser advanced with 55000 soldiers from Trent to relieve Mantua, which was held by Napoleon with considerably less forces. Apparently due to the bad strategy of von Wurmser and good tactics by Napoleon, the Austrians were defeated. Successor to Beaulieu.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Actions against him at San-Giorgio (a suburb of Mantua containing the ducal castle) and La Favorita (near Mantua, site of Ferdinand Gonazaga’s villa).

 

Würzburg (Wurtzburg)

A city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany, it is located on the Main River, and is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Unterfranken. The regional dialect spoken by people in Würzburg is Franconian. Ruined in the Second World War the Baroque town has been substantially rebuilt as it was.

BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand there 2nd June 1833.

 

Wycliffe, John

c1320-1384. An English theologian and early proponent of reform in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century, he made an English translation of the Bible in one complete edition.

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.