Jacob

The Old Testament patriarch, son of Isaac and Rebekah, and ancestor of the Jewish People, his story is told in Genesis:25-50. He married Leah, and then Rachel, the daughters of Laban. His twelve sons gave their names to the twelve tribes of Israel.

BkII:Chap2:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Jacobins, Club des

The Jacobin Club was originally formed at Versailles in 1789 as the Breton Club as most of its member came from Brittany. On the removal of the Assembly to Paris it became known as the Jacobin Club because it met in the convent of the Jacobin Friars: Dominican Friars who were known as Jacobins since their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques. Moderate at first it became increasingly revolutionary. It was closed in November 1795.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 BkV:Chap7:Sec1 BkV:Chap14:Sec1 BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 BkIX:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkIX:Chap1:Sec1 The Cordeliers Club later merged with it.

BkIX:Chap4:Sec1 Their historical plagiarism.

BkXIII:Chap5:Sec1 Their transformation into the new aristocracy in 1800.

BkXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Bonaparte joined a Jacobin Club in Ajaccio.

 

Jacowleff, Monsieur

Brother of the former Russian minister (Baron von Jacowleff) in Stuttgart.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned in 1812.

 

Jacquemin

Innkeeper and potter at Cannes in 1838.

BkXXIV:Chap17:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s host.

 

Jacqueminot, Jean-François, Colonel

1787-1865. A Colonel at Waterloo, he became a textile manufacturer and Deputy for the Vosges in 1827. He became a Lieutenant-General (1838) under the July Monarchy, Commander of the National Guard (1842) and a Peer of France.

BkXXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 On the Rambouillet march, 3rd of August 1830.

 

Jacqueminot, Monsieur and Madame

They were characters in a story told by Madame de Coislin.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jacques L’Intercis, Saint James the Mutilated

4th century. A Persian Christian martyred by dismemberment, under the rule of King Shapur II.

BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jacquin Nicolas Joseph

1727-1817. Dutch botanist, born in Leyden. He was appointed in 1752, by Francis I, imperial botanist, and two years later went to America in search of unknown plants. He remained five years in South America and the West Indies, and returned to Europe in 1760, with a rich collection of plants and many specimens in natural history, which he presented to the emperor. They became afterward the property of the Museum of Schoenbrunn, which he contrived to make one of the most interesting in Europe. He was appointed in 1774 professor of botany and chemistry in the University of Vienna, and created baron by Joseph II in 1806. His numerous works include ‘Selectarum stirpium americanarum historia’ (Vienna, 1763), and ‘Enumeratio systematica plantarum quae in insulis Caribaeis, vicinoque Americae continente detexit’ (Leyden, 1760).

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 His work consulted by Chateaubriand.

 

Jacquin

Squadron commander of the Gendarmerie.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec3 Present at the interrogation of the Duc d’Enghien in 1804.

 

Jaffa, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel

The Mediterranean coastal city is situated in central Israel. Tel Aviv was originally a suburb of Jaffa (ancient name: Joppa). The city’s port lies at Ashdod to the south.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand left Constantinople for Jaffa on Thursday 18th September 1806.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec2 A letter dated from there.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec3 After the Battle of Jaffa (3rd-7th March 1799), 3000 Turkish prisoners-of-war were massacred on Napoleon’s orders.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec1 The Turkish ex-Governor Abdalla-Aga.

BkXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 See e.g. Gros’ painting of 1804.

 

James I, Stuart, King of England and Ireland

1566-1625. King 1603-1625. The son of Mary Queen of Scots, he acceded to the Scottish Throne as James VI (1567-1625) on her abdication. A mean-spirited Presbyterian he presided over a period of constitutional grievances, which led the Stuarts ultimately to precipitate the English Civil War.

BkXII:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

James II, Stuart

1633-1701. King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1685-1688), the second son of Charles I escaped to Holland after the Civil war and fought for the French and then the Spanish. At the Restoration he became Lord High Admiral. The threat of a Roman Catholic Succession caused his overthrow in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 which saw William III take the throne. He was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and at Aughrim in 1691. He died in exile in France.

BkXXXII:Chap7:Sec1 Not saved by the House of Lords.

BkXXXIII:Chap6:Sec1 The events leading to his overthrow.

BkXXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 His fall a delayed consequence of Charles I’s reign.

BkXXXVII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jamestown

The capital of St Helena it was founded in 1659, when the English East India Company built a fort and established a garrison at the site on James Bay, naming it after the Duke of York (later James II).

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Janiculum

A hill in western Rome, the second tallest hill (after Monte Mario), in the contemporary city, 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. It was a centre for the cult of the god Janus.

BkXL:Chap2:Sec4 Sant’Onofrio is built on the slopes of the Janiculum. Criminals, including indicted Senators, in ancient Rome were thrown to their deaths from the Tarpeian Rock on the Capitoline however. The French phrase pères conscrits meant Roman Senators.

 

Janissaries

The elite troops of the Ottoman Sultans, they were selected from subject peoples, especially Christian families, and were highly-trained powerful and politically adept. After their insurrection in 1826 they were eliminated by Mahmud II.

BkIV:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec4 BkXXXIII:Chap9:Sec1

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Janson, Madame la Marquise de Forbin-Janson

1763-?. She owned land by the Rhône (Les Issarts).

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Janus

The Roman two-headed god of doorways and beginnings, is equivalent to the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. The Janus mask is often depicted with one melancholy and one smiling face. The first month of the year in the Julian calendar was named for him, January (Ianuarius). His temple, with a statue of the god beneath an archway, stood between the Forum Romanum and Forum Iulium. Its gates were closed in times of peace, opened in times of war. ‘In the time of Augustus it was closed, after he had overthrown Marc Antony; and before that, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed a short time; then war broke out again at once, and it was opened.’(Plutarch, Life of king Numa 20.1-2)

BkXXIV:Chap16:Sec1 Napoleon allegorically closed the gates of war.

 

Japhet

Son of Noah. See Genesis 10:5.

BkV:Chap2:Sec1 The Indo-European family of languages was termed Japhetic as if appertaining to Japhet and his sons, Gomer etc. The Semitic languages were treated as if appertaining to the descendants of Shem, another of Noah’s sons.

 

Jassi, Treaty of

In 1792, the frontier between Turkey and Russia was fixed, and the freedom of Black Sea navigation confirmed, a further limitation of Ottoman power.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jaucourt, Arnail François, Marquis de

1757-1852. He took refuge in Switzerland to escape the Reign of Terror, and returned only after Napoleon’s 18th Brumaire coup, and the establishment of the French Consulate, entering the tribunate, of which he was the president for a short period. In 1803, Jaucourt entered the Senate, and became attached to the household of Joseph Bonaparte. He accompanied Joseph to Naples, and was created a Count of the Empire by Napoleon. During the following years, Jaucourt distanced himself from the Imperial cause, and, with the Bourbon Restoration became Minister of State and a Peer of France. After the outcome of the Hundred Days (during which he stood by Louis XVIII), he was Naval Minister in July-September 1815, but held no further office. He devoted himself to the support of the Protestant interest in France, and tried to reduce the effects of the White Terror. A member of the upper house after the July Revolution and throughout the reign of Louis Philippe (the July Monarchy), he was driven into private life by the establishment of the Second Republic, but lived to see the 1851 coup and to rally to the government of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, dying in Paris the next year.

BkXXII:Chap17:Sec1 A Member of the Provisional Government  in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 Acting Foreign Minister during Talleyrand’s absence at the Congress of Vienna 1814-15.

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

 

Jaugé, Théodore

A French banker (his father, also Théodore, an aide-de-camp to Lafayette, had been guillotined during the Terror) he was vice-president of the Electoral College for the Seine under the Restoration. He later acted as banker to the Duchess de Berry.

BkXXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 He provided Chateaubriand with the funds to travel to Prague in 1833.

BkXXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 And the funds for the Venice trip in 1833.

 

Javotte

Javotte is Chateaubriand’s name for the serving woman at Hollfeld.

BkXXXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jay, for Le Jay, Madame

She was the wife of Mirabeau’s publisher.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Mistress of Mirabeau.

 

Jean, de la Grille, Saint

1098-1163. Bishop of Aleth, his epithet deriving from the grille around his tomb to protect it from the massed devotion of the pilgrims there. Born in Brittany he entered Clairvaux and was ordained by Saint Bernard. Bernard sent him to Brittany to found the Abbey of Buzay. Appointed Bishop of Aleth he transferred the Episcopal See to Saint-Malo (from c1143).

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Jean (Jan) I of Luxembourg, called The Blind, King of Bohemia

1296-1346. King of Bohemia 1310-1346 as Jan I, he concluded a treaty with Philippe VI of France and was killed supporting him at Crécy.

BkXXXVI:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jean II, Le Bon, King of France

1319-1364. King of France 1350-1364.

BkIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Captured by the Black Prince at Poitiers in 1356 during the Hundred Years’ War, he remained in captivity in London, where he was forced to sign the unfavourable Treaty of Bretigny, until 1360. Released, he was unable to raise the ransom demanded, and returned to London where he died.

 

Jean, John or Jan III Sobieksi, King of Poland

1624-1696. King of Poland 1674-1696. A brilliant military commander he was elected King after defeating the Turks at Khotin in 1663. In 1683 he saved Vienna (and Europe) at the battle of Kahlenberg. He subsequently failed to capture Moldavia and Wallachia.

BkXVIII:Chap4Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jean III (John III) of Portugal

1502-1557. Nicknamed o Piedoso (‘the Pious’), John was the fifteenth King of Portugal and Algarves. His tomb is in the Monastery of Jerónimos in Lisbon.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 His epitaph.

 

Jean VI (John VI) of Braganza, King of Portugal

Don Maria Jose Luis de Braganza (1769-1826) second son of Peter III, exercised the regency in his mother’s name. He decided on the 24th of November 1807 to take refuge in Brazil. Proclaimed King as John VI, in March 1816, he did not return to Lisbon until 1821.

BkXX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned as Jean II in the text.

BkXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 His return to Portugal in 1821, which required him to sanction a liberal constitution. Brazil meanwhile proclaimed its independence.

 

Jean V, Duke of Brittany

1338-1399. Duke of Brittany from 1354, known as the Conqueror, he was the son of Duke Jean IV and Joanna of Flanders.

BkI:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Jean-Baptiste, St John the Baptist

5BC-c28/30AD. According to the Gospels, John’s role was to announce the coming of Jesus: see John 1:23. According to Matthew 3:4, he wore clothing made of camel hair and ate locusts and wild honey, and baptized people in the river Jordan. John was executed by Herod; as told in Matthew 14, Herod granted the demand of Salome to ‘give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’

BkXXVII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIII:Chap7:Sec2 See Matthew 3:4 again for St John’s simple way of life in the desert.

 

Jean-Bart

1650-1702. A French naval hero, born in Dunkirk of a seafaring family, he enlisted in the Dutch navy but entered French service as a privateer at the outbreak of the Dutch War (1672). In 1686 he was commissioned a navy captain. As a reward for his spectacular exploits, particularly in the War of the Grand Alliance, he was ennobled (1694) and made a rear admiral (1696) by Louis XIV.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 His visit to Versailles.

 

Jean Le Silentiaire

454-558 Saint John the Silent, John Hesychastes, Son of Enkratios, a military commander, and Euphemia; his brother and other family members were advisors to emperors. His parents died in 471, and at age 18 John used his inheritance to build the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Nicopolis. By age 20 he had founded a monastery for himself and ten fellow young monks. Bishop of Colonia (Taxara) by age 28; ecclesiastical duties permitting, he continued to live as a monk. In his tenth year as bishop, his brother-in-law, Pazinikos, was appointed governor of Armenia, and immediately began meddling in Church affairs. Overwhelmed by secular matters he was not prepared for, he secretly fled to Jerusalem, praying for a place to hide from the world. Accepted as a novice at Saint Sabas monastery, working as a steward and construction worker. After four years at the monastery, he was being considered for ordination, and felt compelled to reveal his secret the the Jerusalem Patriarch Elias. Elias permitted him to take a vow of silence, and wall himself into his cell for another four years. Lived as a hermit in a hut built against a rock face in the desert wilderness for nine years; legend says he was protected from brigands by a lion that stayed nearby. Saint Sava convinced John to return to the monastery. His secret came out, and he lived many years at the monastery under the protection of Sava. Late in life he left his solitude to fight the Origenists.

BkIX:Chap12:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jemmapes, Belgium

The Battle of Jemappes (November 6, 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Belgium, near Mons. Charles François Dumouriez, in command of the French Revolutionary Army, defeated the greatly outnumbered Austrian army under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and of François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt.

BkXXXII:Chap11:Sec1 The young Duc d’Orléans fought there.

BkXXXVIII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

John Sigismond, Elector of Brandenburg

1572-1619. He succeeded his father as margrave of Brandenburg in 1608. He gave the Reichshof Castrop to his teacher and educator Carl Friedrich von Bordelius. He became Duke of Cleves in 1614. He succeeded his father-in-law as Duke of Prussia in 1618, and held all three titles until his death.

BkXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Jean Sans Terre, John Lackland

1167?-1216 King of England 1199-1216. The youngest son of Henry II, he succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother Richard I. He lost the French possessions and in 1215 John was compelled by the barons to sign the Magna Carta.

BkIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXLI:Chap4:Sec1 Chateaubriand compares Henri V to him.

 

Jean de Bruges, see Van Eyck

 

Jeanne d’Aragon

Daughter of Alphonse of Aragon.

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 Married Brien, younger son of the ninth Baron de Chateaubriand.

 

Jeanne d’Arc, Joan of Arc

1412-1431. The Maid of Orleans or Jeanne la Pucelle is a national heroine of