L’Estoile, Pierre de

1546-1611. A Chronicler, born in Paris, he was Usher to the Chancellery of Paris. He was imprisoned in 1589.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from his Mémoires et Journal de Pierre de l’Estoile concerning the Paris of Henri III and IV and the League.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 Chateaubriand quotes from the Journal.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes him.

BkXXXIV:Chap1:Sec1 See the Journal.

BkXXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 He relates this tale from June 1595.

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 See the Journal for January 1595.

BkXXXIX:Chap15:Sec1 See the Journal.

BkXLI:Chap7:Sec1 The lady, Sainte-Beuve, an ardent Leaguer is mentioned several times in the Journal.

 

L’Hôpital, Michel de

c1505-1573. A French Statesman, he was Chancellor of France under Catherine de Medici. He favoured the Edict of Romorantin (1560) which deprived the secular courts of jurisdiction in cases involving religion, and was responsible for edicts granting liberty of conscience (1561) and restricted liberty of worship (1562). He withdrew from court during the first War of Religion (1562–63) but returned to power and in 1566 was the author of important judicial reforms. After the outbreak (1567) of the second War of Religion he was forced out of office (1568) by Charles and Henri de Guise. In his retirement he composed Latin poetry.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 He imitated Horace in Book III of his Complete Works.

 

La Balue, Cardinal, see Balue

 

La Baronnais, François-Pierre Collas (?), Monsieur de

b. c. 1726 Father of the Chevalier, a former officer he was an inhabitant of Dinard. He married Renée de Kergu.

BkIX:Chap11:Sec1 His son the Chevalier died at Thionville.

 

La Baronnais, Chevalier de

Son of Monsieur.

BkIX:Chap11:Sec1 Killed at Thionville.

 

La Beauce, France

The region in northern France, located between the Seine and Loire rivers. It now comprises the Eure-et-Loir département and parts of Loiret and Loir-et-Cher. The region shared the history of the county of Chartres, which is its only major city.

BkXXXV:Chap16:Sec1 Known for its wheatfields.

BkXXXV:Chap17:Sec1 Madame de Colbert’s house, Montboissier, there.

 

La Bédoyére, Charles Angélique François Huchet, Comte de

1786-1815. He brought over to Napoleon the 7th Regiment of the Line, during the Hundred Days, and enabled the successful march on Paris. He was named by Napoleon a general and Peer of France. Arrested on the 2nd of May 1815, he was dragged before a court martial then shot on the Plain of Grenelle, on the 19th of August.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 His speech in the Chamber of Peers in June.

 

La Belinaye, Renée, Mademoiselle de

1728-1816. Aunt of the Comtesse de Trojolif, she was born and died in Fougères. She was also the aunt of the Marquis de La Rouërie.

BkIV:Chap10:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

La Besnardière, Jean-Baptiste de Gouey, Comte de

1765-1843. A section head in the Foreign Ministry from 1795 to 1819, he collaborated closely with Talleyrand and accompanied him to the Congress of Vienna. He was given a title on his return.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec2 At the Congress of Vienna.

 

La Billardière, David de

The son of Monsieur Launay, he was a childhood friend of Chateaubriand.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

La Billardière, Monsieur Launay de

A tobacco bonder, he lived at Combourg.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

La Bletterie, Jean-Philippe-René, Abbé de

1696-1772. A professor of the Collège de France, he left a Life of Julian (1735) and a translation of Tacitus (1755-1768).

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 His imitation of an epigram of Julian’s.

 

La Bouëtardais, Marie-Annibal-Joseph de Bedée, Comte de

 

La Bouillerie, François Roullet, Baron de

1764-1833. Former Deputy for the Sarthe, and a Peer of France he was Intendant General of the King’s Household.

BkXXIX:Chap14:Sec1 Chateaubriand had asked him to augment the pension which Charles X had granted Thierry.

 

La Bourdonnais, François Mahé de

1699-1753. A member of the nobility of Saint-Malo, La Bourdonnais was born in the city in 1699. Lieutenant in the East Indies Company in 1718, he took part in the capture of the main islands of the Seychelles archipelago in 1725 which were called Mahé after him. In 1735 he became a very young Governor of Mauritius and the Réunion islands, where he instigated economic development. He commanded a squadron in 1741 and defeated the Marathi who was attacking Mahé. Dupleix, the Colonial Executive and Nabob of India asked for his help against the English and La Bourdonnais took Madras in 1746. He had dealings with his previous enemies, and Dupleix complained. He was recalled to France and imprisoned in the Bastille for three years. At his trial in 1751, he was acquitted and ended his life in Paris.

BkI:Chap4:Sec5 Born in Saint-Malo.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

La Bourdonnaye, François-Régis, Comte de

1767-1839. Fought with the Chouans in the Vendée, and was an ultra-right wing member (leader of the White Jacobins) of the Chambre introuvable from 1815. Interior Minister under Polignac in 1829, he was quickly dismissed for extremism. He lost his position as Minister of State and Charles X private advisor in the July Revolution.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 A possible Chief Minister in 1827.

BkXXXI:Chap5:Sec1 Interior Minister in 1829.

 

La Bourdonnaye-Montluc, Chevalier de, of the Order of Malta

BkI:Chap1:Sec5. He is mentioned as assisting in the granting of Chateaubriand’s application to enrol in the order of Malta.

 

La Briche, Adelaide Prévost, Madame de

1755-1844. Married Alexis La Live de La Briche, youngest son of the financier La Live de Bellegarde. Widowed at thirty, her only daughter married Mathieu Molé in 1798.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec1 She inherited Le Marais, near Saint-Chéron, forty kilometres south-west of Paris, from her uncle before the revolution.

 

La Chalotais, Louis-René de Caradeuc de

1701-1785. A French magistrate (Advocate-General of the Breton Parlement in 1730-1752, Attorney-General in 1752) who led the Parlement (high court of justice) in a protracted legal battle against the authority of the government of King Louis XV particularly with the Duke of Pivot, who was Governor of Brittany and the King's representative, concerning the influence and fate of the Jesuit order. This led him to be seen as the head of the parliamentary opposition, and in 1765 he was imprisoned by Louis XV and later exiled. He was restored by Louis XVI in 1775. The struggle resulted in the purging and suspensions (1771–74) of the Parlements.

BkI:Chap3:Sec2 The affair involved Chateaubriand’s maternal relatives. His aunt and his cousin Moreau rashly having made false accusations were obliged to make a public retraction, and paid a heavy fine.

BkI:Chap4:Sec4 He wrote his Memoirs (published 1767) while imprisoned in the Château of Saint-Malo.

 

La Chartreuse, France

The Chartreuse mountain range is close to Grenoble. The mother-house of the Carthusian Order, La Grande-Charteuse was founded there.

BkXVII:Chap5:Sec1 Voreppe is a town between Lyons and Grenoble. Chateaubriand revisited it in July 1838 on his return from Cannes. Saint-Laurent is the oldest district of the modern city of Grenoble.

 

La Chiffone, frigate

Built for the French fleet in 1801, the 36 ton Frigate Chiffone Captain Pierre Guiyesse captured (June 1801) the British Bellona on her way to London with a rich cargo from Bengal. The Bellona and her prize crew were taken to Mauritius. In the encounter the Chiffone had her mizzen mast crippled, and while this was being repaired a vessel was seen to approach (19th August), flying the Tricolor. When close to the Chiffone the French flag was replaced by the Union Jack, this vessel being the British frigate Sybille, Captain Charles Adam. Both ships opened fire for a battle lasting 17 minutes before the French surrendered with 50 men dead. The Chiffone was repaired and re-commissioned as a British frigate and was in action off the Havre in 1805. Her total complement was 264.

 BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 On the 11th July 1801, she had arrived in the Seychelles carrying exiled Republicans.

 

La Conchée, Saint-Malo

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

BkI:Chap3:Sec4 Mentioned.

 

La Fare, Anne-Louis-Henri, Cardinal de

1752-1829. Archbishop of Sens from 1817, created Duke in 1822, a Cradinal from 1823. He died on the 10th of December 1829.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 He arrives at the Conclave of 1829.

 

La Fayette, Georges-Washington de Motier de

1779-1849 The son of the Marquis, after a military career he retired in 1807, then after 1815 pursued a political career. He accompanied his father to America in 1824. He was aide-de-camp to his father in 1830, and was an opposition politican under Louis-Philippe. He was Deputy for the Seine-et-Marne to the Constituent Assembly of 1848. 

BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

La Fayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Ives-Roch-Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de

1757-1834. General and Politician, he was prominent at the start of the Revolution. His early career was distinguished by military success against the British in American Revolution (1777-1779, 1780-1782). As a representative of the States-General he presented the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789. In 1792 the rising power of the radicals threatened him, and he went to Austria. He was later prominent in the July Revolution of 1830 which overthrew Charles X.

BkV:Chap9:Sec1 Appointed to lead the citizens’ militia which became the National Guard, after the fall of the Bastille in July 1789.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 BkXXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec1 Burnt in effigy for condemning the attack on the Tuileries.

BkIX:Chap5:Sec1 His efforts during the American War of Independence.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec2 A native of the Auvergne.

BkXIX:Chap3:Sec1 His noble birth.

BkXIX:Chap6:Sec1 He presented Paoli to Louis XVI.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec2 BkXXII:Chap15:Sec3 Used the common linguistic style of the age, as a defender of freedom.

BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 In Paris in 1815 during the Hundred Days.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec1 His speech to the House of Representatives after Waterloo.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 Accused by Napoleon of conspiring against him in 1815.

BkXXVIII:Chap13:Sec1 He responds to Chateaubriand’s article.

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

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

BkXXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Receives a students delegation on the 29th July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap11:Sec1 Proposed as President of a Republic in July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap14:Sec1 He refused the Presidency on the morning of the 31st of July 1830 and rallied to the Orléanists.

BkXXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIII:Chap6:Sec1 Louis-Philippe’s dominance over him.

BkXXXV:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned in April 1832.

BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s description of his life and politics. He received a triumphant welcome in America in 1824 despite his failure at home in the February 1824 elections.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

La Fayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Madame de

1634-1693. A French writer, she married in 1651 the Chevalier de Sévigné, and thus became connected with Mme de Sévigné, who was destined to be a lifelong friend. Her first novel, La Princesse de Montpensier, was published anonymously in 1662; Zayde appeared in 1670 under the name of J. de Segrais; and in 1678 her masterpiece, La Princesse de Cleves, also under the name of Segrais.

BkXIII:Chap1:Sec1 A friend of La Rochefoucauld.

BkXXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Her charming talent.

 

La Fayette, Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, Marquise de

1759-1807. The daughter of Jean-Louis-Paul-François, Duc d’Ayen and Duc de Noailles, she lost her mother and sister to the guillotine and barely escaped execution herself (1794). After a failed attempt to have her husband (they married in 1774) released from an Austrian prison, she shared his prison cell in Olmuts (1795-97). They had four children: Henriette, Anastasie, Virginie, and George Washington.

BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

La Feronnays, Pierre-Louis-Auguste Ferron, Comte de

1777-1842. A soldier then diplomat, he was the Ambassador to Copenhagen in 1817, and St Petersburg in 1819. He was French Foreign Minister (4 January 1828 - 24 April 1829).

BkI:Chap4:Sec5 A native of Saint-Malo.

BkXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 A plenipotentiary with Chateaubriand at the Congress of Verona.

BkXXVIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand writes to him in St Petersburg in 1824, and he replies.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Foreign Minister in 1828, a friend of Chateaubriand.

BkXXIX:Chap11:Sec1 Informs Chateaubriand of the surrender of Varna in September 1829. He had been obliged to take a few weeks leave due to illness, and rumours had spread of his resignation.

BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 Went to Italy due to illness in 1829.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand reports him cured of his illness in March 1829.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned as unable to fulfil a Ministerial role any longer.

BkXXXI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXL:Chap4:Sec1 Sent to Prague by the Duchess de Berry in 1833.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 In Udine in 1833. He was brother-in-law to Blacas.

 

La Flèche, corvette

Sunk by the English near the Seychelles on the 2nd September 1801, this French national corvette was commanded by Lieutenant Bonamy and armed with twenty long 8-pounders and two stern chasers. She had landed a number of banished Frenchmen in the Seychelles and was intending to sail to the Bay of Bengal to prey on British shipping. She was raised again in 1803 and was being refitted, but on being discovered by the English was abandoned and burnt.

BkXXIV:Chap10:Sec1 Used to transport Republican exiles to the Seychelles arriving July/August 1801.

 

La Fontaine, Jean de

1621-1695. Author of the Fables (1688-1694) sophisticated verse treatments of traditional fables from the collections of Aesop, Phaedrus and others. His many other works include his bawdy verse tales (Contes, 1664) which he supposedly repudiated after his religious conversion in 1692.

BkI:Chap5:Sec3 Chateaubriand, perhaps unconsciously, quotes the first verse of La Fontaine’s fable ‘The Acorn and the Pumpkin’ (Fables IX.4)

BkII:Chap7:Sec3 Chateaubriand quotes from ‘The Monkey and the Cat’ (Fables IX.16)

BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes the last line of Vieillard et les trois jeunes hommes (Fables XI.8)

BkIX:Chap1:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from La Cigale et la Fourmi (The Cicada and the Ant, Fables I.1), with himself as the singing Cicada in the first instance and George Sand in the second.

BkX:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to Le Chat, la Belette et le petit Lapin (Fables, VII.16)

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXII:Chap3:Sec1 His work ignored by the English in 1822.

BkXIII:Chap1:Sec1 A reference to ‘Discours á M. le duc de RochefoucauldFables X:14.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec3 A reference to Fables III:4.

BkXXV:Chap13:Sec1 A reference to Fables VII:9, ‘The Coach and the Fly’, where the Fly goads the horses up the hill, considers it has done all the work, and asks for payment.

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec2 A malicious reference to ‘The Two Cockerels’, Fables VII:14, line 3)

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 A reference to La Fontaine’s, Fables VII:12

BkXXXV:Chap13:Sec1 The reference is to ‘The Cockerel and the Pearl’, Fables I:20. The Cockerel would prefer the smallest grain of seed to the pearl he turns up.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 See La Matrone d’Éphèse: 149-150

BkXXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 See Fables XI:7 lines 11-13, Le Paysan de Danube.

BkXXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 See Fables X:1 line 52, L’Homme et la Couleuvre.

BkXXXVI:Chap11:Sec1 See Fables VI:18 Le Charretier Embourbé. The Carter Stuck in the Mud. Set in Quimper-Corentin in Brittany.

BkXXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 See Fables VII:3 line 10 Le Rat qui s’est retiré du monde.

BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 See Fables VIII:9 line 7 The Rat and the Oyster.

BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 The reference is to an anecdote of Racine’s in which La Fontaine arrived at Châlons to see his wife who was at prayer and so he left without seeing her.

BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 See Fables, the Fox and the Crow.

BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1autre injure des ans’ is from Philemon et Baucis: 66, the sense is ‘another victim of time’s injuries’.

 

La Force, Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, Marshal de

1558-1652. He was a marshal and peer of France.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

La France

Valet de Chambre to the Chateaubriand family.

BkI:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

La Galaisière

Minister under Louis XVI in 1789.

BkV:Chap8:Sec1 Appointed Comptroller-General in 1789.

 

La Goulette