Kaiserslautern

A city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rheinland-Pfalz at the edge of the Palatine Forest (Pfälzer Wald). The historic centre dates to the 9th century.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in June 1833.

 

Kalisz (Kalisch)

One of the oldest Polish towns, it has been identified as the Slavic settlement of Calissia mentioned in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy. It flourished as a trade centre from the 13th century. At Kalisz, Casimir III signed (1343) the treaty with the Teutonic Knights by which he conceded his rule over East Pomerania. The city passed to Prussia in 1793, was transferred to Russia in 1815, and was restored to Poland in 1919. In a treaty signed (1813) at Kalisz, Prussia and Russia formed an alliance against Napoleon I.

BkXXII:Chap3:Sec1 The Treaty of Kalisz, 1813.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Alexander’s proclamation from there of 25th March 1813.

 

Kaluga

A city in central Russia on the Oka River 188 km southwest of Moscow.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec4 Kaluga is connected to Moscow by an ancient highway known as the Kaluga Road, which was the favoured escape route from Moscow for Napoleon in the autumn of 1812. Kutuzov repelled Napoleon’s advances in this direction and forced the retreating French army onto the old Smolensk road, previously devastated by the French during their invasion.

 

Kamchatka

The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometer long peninsula in the Russian Far East. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (to the east) and the Sea of Okhotsk (to the west), and is washed by the Behring Sea. Between the peninsula and the Pacific Ocean runs the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench with a depth of 10,500 m.

BkXXVI:Chap3:Sec1 Chamisso there.

 

Karmine, Franz

He was a junior Customs officer in 1833.

BkXXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned but not by name.

 

Katte, see Quatt

 

Kaumann

A Guards captain in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kazan, Russia

The capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga (İdel) and Kazanka (Qazansu) rivers in central European Russia.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Keith, George, Lord, 10th Earl Marischal

c1693-1778. He served under Marlborough, and like his brother Francis, Marshal Keith, was a zealous Jacobite, taking part in the rising of 1715, after which he escaped to the continent. In the following year he was attainted, his estates and titles being forfeited to the Crown. He lived for many years in Spain, where he concerned himself with Jacobite intrigues, but he took no part in the rebellion of 1745, proceeding to Prussia, where he became, like his brother, intimate with Frederick the Great. Frederick employed him in several diplomatic posts, and he is said to have conveyed valuable information to the Earl of Chatham, as a reward for which he received a pardon from George II, and returned to Scotland in 1759.

BkXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1 He governed the principality of Neuchâtel for Prussia in 1762. Rousseau dubbed him ‘Milord Maréchal’, see Confessions XII.

 

Keith, George Keith Elphinstone, First Viscount

1746-1823. Nephew-in-law of Lord George, he served in the Navy during the Seven Years War, though only commissioned in 1770. He made his name by capturing Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1780 and, still a captain, helped take Toulon in 1793 at the start of the French Revolutionary War. He became a rear-admiral in 1794, took the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch in 1795, Ceylon in 1796 and received a barony in 1797. Keith took part in the British campaigns that drove Napoleon’s French forces out of Egypt and was an often disapproving commander-in-chief over Nelson in the Mediterranean at the time of the latter’s Neapolitan involvements, after the Battle of the Nile. He was promoted to Admiral in 1801 and in 1803 took command in the North Sea, thereafter being largely concerned in home defence against Napoleon’s threatened invasion. In 1812 he took over the Channel fleet and, though largely commanding from ashore, prevented the escape of Napoleon from France after Waterloo. As the Prince Regent’s representative, he received Napoleon’s final surrender and supervised the deposed French Emperor's removal to his last exile on St. Helena in 1815. He was elevated to Viscount in 1814.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 Held Desaix at Livorno.

BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Told Napoleon of the Act imprisoning him on St Helena.

 

Kellermann, François-Christophe, Duc de Valmy

1735-1820. A Marshal of France, born in Strasbourg, he served in the Seven Years War and won renown in the French Revolutionary Wars when he and General Dumouriez stopped the Prussians at Valmy (August 1792). In the Reign of Terror, he was accused of treason and imprisoned (1793–94), but was not convicted. Napoleon made him senator (1799) and Duke of Valmy (1808). Rallying (1814) to Louis XVIII, Kellermann was raised to the peerage.

BkIX:Chap15:Sec1 On the Moselle in September 1792.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Suggested as a deputy to Bonaparte in 1796.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kellermann, François-Étienne, Duc de Valmy

1770-1835. A French cavalry general, he was the son of François-Christophe. In the latter part of Bonaparte’s celebrated Italian campaign of 1796-97 the younger Kellermann attracted the future emperor’s notice by his brilliant conduct at the forcing of the Tagliamento. Later at Marengo he initiated and carried out one of the most famous cavalry charges of history, which, with Desaix’s infantry attack, regained the lost battle and decided the issue of the war. He distinguished himself at Austerlitz, and later during the Peninsular War. He joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and commanded a cavalry corps in the Waterloo campaign. At Quatre Bras he personally led his squadrons in the famous cavalry charge. He was disgraced at the second Restoration, and, on succeeding to his father’s title and seat in the Chamber of Peers in 1820, at once took up and maintained till the fall of Charles X, in 1830 an attitude of determined opposition to the Bourbons.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 His cavalry charge at Marengo.

 

Kensington, London

An area of west central London, it borders Hyde Park. Kensington Palace, a Jacobean mansion restructured by Wren for William III and Mary II, was the main royal residence from 1690 to 1760. The grounds form Kensington Gardens, a public park.

BkX:Chap5:Sec2 Chateaubriand used to walk there.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec2 Madame Récamier there in 1802.

 

Kepler, Johannes

1571-1630. German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonice Mundi and the textbook Epitome of Copernican Astronomy.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 He died at Regensburg, November 15th 1630. In 1632 his grave was demolished by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War. Kepler had composed the epitaph for his own tombstone, which read: ‘I measured the skies, now I measure the shades, the mind sky-bound, earth-bound the body rests.’

 

Kéralieu, for Kersalaün, Comte de

A naval officer involved, aged 45, in a duel at Rennes in 1789.

BkV:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kéralio, Chevalier de

An inspector of military colleges.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Quoted. He recommended Napoleon for the Military College in Paris in 1784.

 

Keratry, Comte de

1769-1839. Royalist deputy for Finistère 1818-1824, and 1827, he was a liberal who supported Chateaubriand. He wrote a historical novel Le Dernier des Beaumanoir of 1824. He edited the Courrier français which published Chateaubriand’s first speech to the Conclave on the 3rd of March 1829. Chateaubriand’s second speech was delivered on the 10th and responded to by Castiglione.

BkXXX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kératry, Comte de

d. 1779. Jean-François de Keratry, an obscure younger brother from Cornouaille who was involved in a duel in 1735 in which he killed a certain Comte de Sabran.

BkV:Chap2:Sec 2 Mentioned.

 

Kerkeni, Islands

A Mediterranean island group (ancient Cereina) in the north of the Syrtis Minor, the Latin name used in Ancient Rome for the gulf of the Mediterranean Sea along the coast of North Africa, roughly from modern day Tripoli to Sfax, Tunisia.

BkXVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in January 1807.

 

Kew Gardens, England

The Royal Gardens at Kew, near Richmond, are on land once owned by the Royal Family. The first botanic garden was created there in 1759.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand visited to see the kangaroos. The Queen’s Cottage at Kew started as a single-storey structure attached to the royal ‘New Menagerie’, which housed exotic animals and birds from about 1771. In December 1793 the King’s apothecary, excitedly reported the pregnancy of a kangaroo. ‘I learnt yesterday that the man who has care of it perceived the head of the young one appearing out of its pouch’. By the time the menagerie was dispersed ten years later the kangaroos numbered about 20.

 

Kiev

The capital of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 Napoleon’s intention of attacking the city in 1812.

 

Kirgener, François-Joseph

1766-1813. A professor of mathematics before the Revolution, he became an officer of engineers. In 1809, he married a daughter of Senator Guéhéneuc, making him related to the recently deceased Marshal Lannes, whose second wife was a daughter of the senator. He was thus also related to Lannes’ aide Guéhéneuc, a son of the senator. Kirgener was instantly killed at Bautzen when a cannonball ricocheted off a tree and struck him. As he died, the cannonball ricocheted again and mortally wounded General Duroc.

BkXXII:Chap4:Sec1 His death.

 

Kirn

A town and a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, it is situated on the river Nahe, approx. 10 km north-east of Idar-Oberstein and 30 km west of Bad Kreuznach.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1833.

 

Kléber

1753-1800. After having achieved a distinguished career in the armies of the Revolution he retired but joined Napoleon on the Egyptian Campaign. He was wounded and appointed Governor of Alexandria. In the Syrian campaign of 1799, however, he commanded the vanguard, took El-Arish, Gaza and Jaffa, and won the great victory of Mount Tabor on 15/16 April 1799. When Napoleon returned to France towards the end of 1799 he left Kléber in command of the French forces. In this capacity, seeing no hope of bringing his army back to France or of consolidating his conquests, he negotiated the convention of El-Arish (24 January 1800) with Admiral Smith, winning the right to an honorable evacuation of the French army. But when Admiral Lord Keith refused to ratify the terms, Kléber attacked the Turks at Heliopolis, though he had only 10,000 men against 60,000, and utterly defeated them on 20 March 1800. He then re-took Cairo, which had revolted from the French. Shortly after these victories, a Syrian student living in Egypt assassinated Kléber by knifing him through the heart at Cairo on 14 June 1800, the same day on which his friend and comrade Desaix fell at Marengo.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec1 Went with Napoleon on the Egyptian Campaign.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec1 His victory at Heliopolis against the army of the Grand Vizier.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 His achievements in the East. Quoted regarding the siege of Acre.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec3 On the retreat from Acre.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 Napoleon’s last letter to him of 22nd August 1799.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec1 His assassination on the 14th of June 1800, the day of Desaix’s death at Marengo.

 

Kleinnister, Germany

A battle took place there in the Rhineland-Palatinate which Hoche won.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Klosterkamp, Clostercamp

A battle on the 16th October 1760, during the Seven Years’ War, in which Marshal de Castries defeated the army of the Prince of Brunswick.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Knowles, James

1784-1862. Anglo-Irish dramatist; cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, his chief plays, which are noted for their professional, workmanlike construction, include the tragedies Virginius (1820) and William Tell (1825) and the comedies The Hunchback (1832) and The Beggar of Bethnal Green (1834). In 1845, Knowles became a Baptist minister.

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

 

Knoxville, USA

The city in Tennessee, on the Tennessee River, is an inland port and agricultural trading centre.

BkVIII:Chap2:Sec1 It seems likely that Chateaubriand having travelled down the Ohio from Pittsburgh, and reached the confluence of the Kentucky and Ohio (near modern Carrollton), then left the river and with the group of traders headed south across Kentucky to strike a Nashville-Knoxville trail in Tennessee, around mid-October 1791. This is supported by places specifically mentioned as being visited, rather than those merely listed.

 

Königinhof (Drur Kalove)

A town situated in north-eastern Bohemia on the left bank of the Elbe, about 160 kilometres from Prague. Founded by King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (1278-1305), it was given by him to his wife Elizabeth, and thus received the name of Dvur Kralove (the court of the queen).

BkXXXVII:Chap11:Sec1 In 1817 Wenceslas Hanka, afterwards for a long period librarian of the Bohemian museum, declared that he had found an ancient MS. containing epic and lyric poems. This has subsequently proved to be a forgery.

 

Körner, Carl Theodor

1791-1813. A German soldier poet, often called the German Tyrtæus, born in Dresden; famous for his patriotic songs and their influence on German patriots; he died in a skirmish with the French near Rosenberg. His militaristic works were collected as Leyer und Schwert: Lyre and Sword in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Koller (Kohler), Franz Freiherr, Baron de

1762-1826. Austrian Commissioner for Elba in 1814 (3 May 1814 - 26 Feb 1815, not resident). The Field Marshal was based in Naples and Rome until 1818. He commissioned German artists and collected antique vases and small pieces. (The collection was given to the Berlin museums after his death.)

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec1 BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec2 Commissioner for Elba.

 

Kokhanov

A town in Belarus.

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Napoleon there in 1812.

 

Kolodrina, Russia

A place near Smolensk.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 Napoleon’s army there in 1812.

 

Kolsum

An ancient trading site, Suez was the location of the Greek town of Clysma, which became the Muslim Kolsum in the 7th century AD. After the Ottoman conquest Suez developed as a naval station. The port later declined until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Komierowsky, Colonel

A Polish Colonel, aide de camp to Marmont in 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Könisberg (Kaliningrad), Russia

A city of extreme western Russia on the Baltic Sea near the Polish border, it was founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Knights and joined the Hanseatic League in 1340. As Königsberg, it was an important Prussian city and the birthplace of Immanuel Kant (1724). Transferred to the USSR in 1945, it was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec2 Soult took Königsberg on June 16, 1807.

BkXX:Chap13:Sec1 Napoleon there in June 1812.

 

Koreff, David-Ferdinand, Doctor

1783-1851. A Jewish medical student, and student of magnetism, from Breslau, he arrived in Berlin in 1803. He lived in France from 1804-1811, and travelled with Madame Custine to Switzerland and Italy. Returning to Prussia he was secretary to Hardenberg from 1814-1822, while still pursuing his scientific studies. Expelled from Prussia in 1822, he returned to Paris.

BkXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kotzebue, Captain Otto von

1787-1846. A Russian naval officer and explorer, he accompanied A. J. von Krusenstern on his circumnavigation (1803–6) and commanded two voyages around the world (1815–18, 1823–26). He discovered some 400 islands in the South Seas, checked the location of others, and gathered new information on the Pacific coast of Siberia. He sailed North through the Bering Strait, explored the northwest coast of Alaska hoping to find a Northwest Passage, and in 1816 discovered and explored Kotzebue Sound. Scientists accompanying his expeditions made valuable reports on ethnography and natural history. Kotzebue’s own narratives were translated into English as A Voyage of Discovery (1821) and A New Voyage round the World 1830).

BkXXVI:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Kowno

Modern Kaunas is a city of central Lithuania on the Niemen (Neman) River south of Riga. Founded in the 11th century, it was a medieval trading post and a Lithuanian stronghold against the Teutonic Knights. Russia acquired the city in the third partition of Poland (1795).

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Napoleon’s army crossed the Niemen there during the advance into and retreat from Russia in 1812.

 

Krasnoy

A town about thirty miles south of Smolensk.

BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 Napoleon there 15th-17th November 1812.

 

Krüdner, for Krüdener, Julie de Vietinghoff, Baronne de

1764-1824. Daughter of the Governor of Riga, she married a Russian diplomat in 1782, but soon separated from him. She was a member of the Parisian literary set, and met Chateaubriand in the spring of 1802. She wrote a novel, Valerie, and Chateaubriand published some of her Pensées in Le Mercure.

BkXV:Chap3:Sec1 A letter from her.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Her relationship with Madame de Coislin.

 

Kutuzov, General Michael Ilarionovich, Prince of Smolensk

1745-1813. A Russian field marshal, he fought against the Polish Confederation of Bar and served in the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768–74 and 1787–92, in which he lost an eye. He took part (1805) in the battle of Austerlitz, which was fought against his advice. In 1811–12 he again took command against the Ottomans and defeated them in a brilliant campaign that brought Bessarabia to Russia. In August, 1812, Kutuzov replaced Barclay de Tolly as commander in chief against the invading armies of Napoleon I. Kutuzov was expected to engage the French in battle and to abandon his predecessor’s delaying tactics. The battle of Borodino was the result; after that butchery, Kutuzov resumed Barclay’s wise policy of retreat, which eventually led to Napoleon’s ruin. He pursued Napoleon relentlessly after the retreat of the Grande Armée from Moscow (1812–13). He was created prince of Smolensk for a victory there late in 1812.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec2 At Austerlitz.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 Napoleon’s comment on him in June 1812.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 At Borodino.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 His council of war after Borodino on 13th September 1812 in the village of Fili.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 His slow pursuit of the French.

BkXXIV:Chap3:Sec1 General Wilson urged him to finish off the French Army.