Cacault, François

1743-1805. A Breton diplomat, he negotiated the Treaty of Tolentino (1797). A member of the Legislature, he returned to Rome in February 1801 to negotiate the Concordat with the Pope. He was made a senator in 1804.

BkXIV:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand met him as he relinquished his post in Rome in 1803.

 

Cacciaguida

1091-c1147. Dante’s great-great-grandfather, his son was Alighiero I. Cacciaguida’s wife was Alighiera of the Aldighieri family of Ferrara. He took part in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s crusade of 1147 under Emperor Conrad III, and was killed during the crusade

BkI:Chap4:Sec2 Chateaubriand quotes Paradiso XVII:58-69, where Cacciaguida foretells Dante’s future, having recalled his ancestry.

 

Cadet de Gassicourt, Charles-Louis

1769-1821. A pharmacist poet, he published various satires, some on Chateaubriand’s works e.g. Atala ou les Habitants du désert of 1801.

BkXXXV:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand confuses him with his son.

 

Cadet de Gassicourt, Charles-Louis-Félix

1789-1861. A Liberal activist he became Mayor of the 4th Arrondissement.

BkXXXII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 He pulled down the fleur de lis cross from the spire of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois and inscribed over the porch:  National Property.

BkXXXV:Chap1:Sec1 His proclamation of the 4th of April 1832 included invective against the Carlists.

 

Cadore, Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny, Duc de

1756-1834. French statesman and diplomat, foreign minister under Napoleon I. In 1804 he became minister of the interior, succeeding Talleyrand as foreign minister in 1807. Champagny was responsible for the annexation of the Papal States, for the abdication of Charles IV of Spain, for the Franco-Russian negotiations at the Congress of Erfurt (all in 1808), and for the Treaty of Schönbrunn between France and Austria (Oct. 14, 1809), for which he was made Duc de Cadore. He also negotiated Napoleon’s marriage to Marie-Louise (1810). In 1811 a disagreement with Napoleon led to Champagny's resignation as foreign minister, but he continued in ministerial and senatorial offices. After Napoleon’s fall Champagny adhered to the restored monarchy and was made a peer of France. His Souvenirs appeared posthumously.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Cadiz

The city and seaport, in Andalusia, in south-west Spain, was founded c1100BC by Phoenician merchants it was taken from the Moors by Alfonso the Wise of Castile in 1262. It prospered as a base for the Spanish treasure fleets, following the discovery of the Americas. 

BkI:Chap4:Sec6 Its affinity with Saint-Malo.

BkVI:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap15:Sec2 Napoleon laid siege to Cadiz in 1811.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1807.

BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 BkXXXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Moreau there in 1804. Chiclana de la Frontera is about five miles north of Barrosa in the Province of Cadiz, where Sir Thomas Graham defeated Marshal Victor on the 5th of March 1811. The Duc d’Angoulême installed his headquarters at Chiclana during the siege of Cadiz in September 1823.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 Cadiz was under siege by the British February 1797 to April 1798. The reference to Napoleon is curious as he was campaining in Italy in 1797, and setting out for Egypt in 1798.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 The 1823 siege.

 

Cadoudal, Georges

1771-1804. French royalist conspirator. A commander of the Chouans, he led the counter-revolutionists in the Vendée. He fled to England in 1801 after the failure of an attempted assassination of Napoleon. In 1803 he returned as the leader of another conspiracy. Generals Pichegru and Moreau were implicated in the plot. Insurrections were planned in Paris and in the provinces, but the conspiracy was uncovered by Fouché, and Cadoudal was executed. The conspiracy, exaggerated in report, was used as a pretext to transform the Consulate into Napoleon’s empire.

BkXVI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Arrested on the 9th March 1804.

BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 His trial mentioned.

 

Caen

The city and port in north-west France, capital of the Calvados department, on the River Orne, was captured by the English in 1346 and again in 1417,  and became a Huguenot stronghold in the 17th century.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 The governor, Henri de Belzunce was murdered in 1789.

 

Caesar, Gaius Julius

100-44BC. The Roman General became a Consul and Dictator from 49 to 44BC when he was assassinated by Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators.

BkI:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap16:Sec1

BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 His Commentaries.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned, in a reference to Napoleon.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec3 He captured Marseilles in 49BC, during his conflict with Pompey.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 His legions who died at Thapsus (Ras Dimas, on the coast well to the south-east of Carthage) in Tunisia. He defeated Cato the Younger there in 46BC.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 The Julian family claimed to be descended from Iulus the grandson of Venus and Anchises.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Chateaubriand attributes a poetic nature to him.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Caesar passed through Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor, where he reorganised the provinces before he returned to Rome in 47 BC.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Caesar was fighting as an ally of Cleopatra in Alexandria in 48BC. At one point when the Romans were forced to retreat from land to their docked ships, his own galley was sunk and he had to swim 200 paces to another nearby ship to reach safety.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec2 Anecdotes concerning him.

BkXX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap15:Sec2 His refusal of the crown in 44BC.

BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 See Suetonius, Life of Caesar, LXII.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec3 Assassinated in the Senate House on the Ides of March (March 15th 44BC)

BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 His literary ability.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec1 As a famous Italian military man.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec2 Caesar was deified and his apotheosis identified with the appearance of a comet at the time. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the last pages.

BkXXV:Chap8:Sec1 His conflict with Pompey in the Civil Wars.

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

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 He crossed the Rubicon in 49BC, with his army, initatiating the Civil War against Pompey.

BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap6:Sec2 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1 The descendant of Venus, via Aeneas’s father Ascanius, according to legend.

BkXXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 As a historian.

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 Montaigne’s view of his greatness of soul.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 A bridge at Mannheim, attributed by Chateaubriand to Caesar.

BkXXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 His age of the world.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec2 The legions transported to Epirus to fight Pompey in 48BC, left from Brindisium (Brindisi).

 

Caesarea, Maritima or Palaestina, Israel

The town built by Herod the Great about 25 –13 BC, lies on the sea-coast of Israel about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, on the site of a place previously called Pyrgos Stratonos (‘Strato’ or ‘Straton’s Tower,’ in Latin Turris Stratonis).

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Caffarelli du Falga, Louis Marie Joseph Maximilien de

1756-1799. Brilliant commander of the army of the Orient, he had his elbow smashed by a bullet at the siege of Acre. He had already lost his left leg to a cannonball on November 27, 1797, as he was serving under Kléber in the army of Sambre-et-Meuse. In Egypt he was known and adored by the entire army. The soldiers liked to say of him: ‘Caffa doesn't give a damn what happens; he’s always sure to have one foot in France.’ He was also a philosopher, who was elected to the Institute of Egypt on February 13, 1796 in the class of moral and political sciences. He was part of the commission in charge of drafting the regulations of the Institute of Egypt and accompanied Napoleon on the surveys to trace the route of what would one day be the Suez Canal. Stricken with gangrene he died of a fever. Napoleon wrote in the order of the day: ‘Our universal regrets accompany General Caffarelli to the grave; the army is losing one of its bravest leaders. Egypt one of its legislators, France one of its best citizens, and science, an illustrious scholar.’

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 With Napoleon on the Egyptian Campaign.

 

Caffarelli Palace, Rome

A seventeenth century palace built by Duke Caffarelli on the Capitoline Hill, on the ancient site of Jupiter’s temple to the south-west. Chateaubriand negotiated with Baron Bunsen for a let of the Palace.

BkXXX:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Caffe, Monsieur

A contact made by Chateaubriand on his travels.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 His letter to Chateaubriand from Alexandria.

 

Cagliostro, Alessandro, Conte di, (Giuseppe Balsamo)

1743-1795. An Italian adventurer, his pretended skills in alchemy and magic gained him fame in Paris and throughout Europe. He was arrested for promoting freemasonry and died in prison in Italy.

BkV:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Cahuzac, Henri-Roger, Comte de, see de Caux

 

Cairo

The capital of Egypt, in the north on the east bank of the Nile, the Arabic city of El Fustat was founded in 641AD, and from the 9th century as El Qahira it was the capital of the Fatimid, Ayyubite, and Mameluke dynasties. It declined following the Turkish conquest in the 16th century, but revived in the 18th century under Mehemet Ali.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3 BkXXX:Chap12:Sec1

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1

Chateaubriand was there in 1806.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec2 Napoleon entered Cairo (four miles distant) two days after the Battle of the Pyramids (fought on the 21st of July 1798). Napoleon made his headquarters what is now the Helwan-Shepard Hotel, a former Mameluke Palace.

BkXXIII:Chap8:Sec1 An example of French influence.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 A reference perhaps to the 10th century Al-Azhar mosque with its many-pillared interior.

 

Calais, France

The port in Northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais department, was besieged and captured by Edward III in 1346 and remained in British hands until 1558.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand landed there from Dover on the 6th May (16th Floréal) 1800. His expressed regrets at leaving England were possibly to do with a liaison with Madame de Belloy.

BkXXII:Chap 21:Sec1 Louis XVIII left Dover for Calais on the 24th April 1814.

 

Calcutta (Kolkata), India

The capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, it is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. The city served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911.

BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Caldiera

It was the location of a wartime engagement in Italy in 1813.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Calendario, Filippo

fl:1340-1360. He was a Venetian architect.

BkXXXIX:Chap19:Sec1 His work on the Ducal Palace. The 13th/14th century palace was built between 1340 and 1420. The main features visible today are 14th and 15th century.

 

Caligula, Gaius Caesar

12-41AD. A Roman Emperor (37-41) he was the son of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder. Succeeding Tiberius he initially enjoyed great popularity but his subsequent tyrannical and extravagant behaviour brought allegations of madness. He was assassinated.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 Marat compared to him.

BkIX:Chap8:Sec2 His  mother Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, gave her name to the city of Cologne, Colonia Agrippinensis.

BkXLII:Chap14:Sec1 As an example of a tyrannical ruler.

 

Callisthenes of Olynthus

c360-328BC. A Historian and biographer of Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied to Asia, he was a great-nephew and pupil of Aristotle. His Greek history (covering the years 387-356) and three books on the Third Sacred War are lost. During the campaign, Callisthenes’ main duty was to write the Alexandrou praxeis or Deeds of Alexander. In Babylon, Callisthenes supervised the translation of the Astronomical diaries, which were used by Callipus of Cyzicus to reform the Greek calendars. In the summer of 327, Callisthenes voiced protests against the introduction of  proskynesis (an aspect of the Persian court ritual) among the Macedonians, and lost Alexander's favour. He died in prison from torture or disease.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Callot, Jacques

c1592-1635. A French etcher and engraver, in the service of Cosimo II de' Medici, he created many works: the Capricci, small, vivacious figure groups; gay scenes of Medici court life; the vast Fair at Impruneta (1620); and sparkling illustrations of the theatre among them his Commedia dell'arte group, which was reproduced in his Balli (1621). On Cosimo’s death in 1621, Callot returned to Nancy and, under the patronage of the ducal court, gained a considerable reputation. He became known for his fantasies, grotesques, beggars, and caricatures, then much in vogue. He was commissioned in 1627 by the Infanta Isabella of Brussels to engrave the siege of Breda, and by Louis XIII to etch the sieges of Rochelle and the island of Ré and a series, Views of Paris. Too independent for court favour and deeply affected by the scenes of carnage he had witnessed, he retired to Nancy, where he executed in 1633 his masterwork, the two series entitled Miseries of War. These studies of human brutality and suffering were the first dispassionate, un-romanticized treatment of the horror of war. Callot produced nearly 1,500 plates and 2,000 drawings in a wide variety of styles and subjects. The grandeur and brilliance of his work profoundly influenced many major masters, including Goya, Rembrandt and Watteau. His technical innovations established important procedures for subsequent etchers.

BkXI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Calonne, Charles-Alexandre de

1734-1802 A French statesman, he was Controller-General of Finances (1783-87). Faced with a huge public debt and a steadily deteriorating financial situation, he adopted a spending policy to inspire confidence in the nation's financial position. He then proposed a direct land tax and the calling of provincial assemblies to apportion it, a stamp tax, and the reduction of some privileges of the nobles and clergy. To gain support, he persuaded King Louis XVI to call an Assembly of Notables, but the Assembly (1787) refused to consider Calonne’s proposals and criticized him bitterly. Dismissed and replaced by Étienne Charles Loménie de Brienne, Calonne fled (1787) to England, where he stayed until 1802. In 1766 he was Procureur-Général of the commission instituted to try La Chalotais.

BkV:Chap1:Sec2 BkV:Chap10:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkIX:Chap1:Sec1 Declared a traitor in December 1791.

 

Calvin, John

1509-1564. The French Protestant reformer and founder of Calvinism, whose attempts to institute reforms in Geneva in 1536 lead to his exile in 1538. After preaching in Strasbourg he was invited back to Geneva in 1541 living there as its virtual dictator until his death. He sought to re-shape Geneva as a model community where every citizen came under the sway of the Church.

BkXXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Calypso