Nagot, Abbé François-Charles

1734-1816. Superior of the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris, he was sent to America to found a new seminary at Baltimore and create a new Catholic diocese.

BkV:Chap15:Sec4 BkVI:Chap3:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand sailed with his party to America in April 1791.

 

Nain Jaune

The Yellow (or Green) Dwarf was a satirical journal written by members of Queen Hortense’s salon (Etienne, Jouy etc) which contained epigrams on Louis XVIII.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 The pun on duck feathers, plumes de cane, was a reference to Cannes, and the Golfe de Juan where Napoleon would land.

 

Namur

The town in southern Belgium, strategically positioned at the confluence of the Rivers Sambre and Meuse. It was besieged and captured many times.

BkX:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Chateaubriand passed through in 1792.

 

Nangis, Guillaume de

Mid 13th Century-1300. He was a monk of Saint-Denis, archivist from 1285, who produced a chronicle of his times (c1292).

BkIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Nantes

The major port in western France, it is the capital of the Loire-Atlantique Département on the Loire estuary.

BkI:Chap1:Sec6 A seat of the royal court of Brittany.

BkV:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkV:Chap2:Sec 2 BkXIX:Chap10:Sec1 At the height of the Terror in 1793 two thousand captives at Nantes were towed out in barges into the Loire and drowned, some stripped naked and bound in couples. These were the republican marriages Chateaubriand mentions.

BkV:Chap7:Sec1 Its young men summoned to agitate at the Brittany States in Rennes in 1789.

BkII:Chap7:Sec5 The Edict of Nantes in 1598 guaranteed French Protestants, the Huguenots, religious liberty. Proclaimed by Henri IV, it established religious tolerance, freedom of worship and limited civil equality. Henri hoped to prevent further wars of religion in France. it was revoked in 1685 by Louis XIV prompting a Huguenot diaspora and draining France of talent and skill.

BkIX:Chap3:Sec2 Fouché named as head of the college there in 1789.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec5 Chateaubriand there in 1802.

BkXVIII:Chap5:Sec2 Chateaubriand’s cousin Moreau retired there in 1808, and died there in 1812.

BkXXXV:Chap3:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap6:Sec1 Berryer there in June 1832. He was tried for his involvement with the Duchesse de Berry’s plot.

 

Napflion, Greece

On the eastern coast of the Peloponnese, south of Argos, the city served as the Greek seat of government from 1829 to 1834. It was probably the naval station for Argos in Mycenaean times and according to legend, was founded by Nafplios, son of Poseidon, and his son Palamedes, who is said to have invented dice, chess, and other board games to amuse his fellow Greeks during the Trojan War. In 1388, Nafplion was taken by the Venetians, who called it Napoli de Romanie and fortified it so securely that it resisted repeated Turkish attacks until finally handed over to the Sultan in a peace treaty in 1540. Except for a brief period of recovery by the Venetians (1688-1715) Nafplion remained under Turkish domination until won by Greece during the War of Independence.

BkXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Canaris’ letter dated from there.

 

Naples, Italy

The city in southern Italy, the capital of Campania, situated on volcanic slopes overlooking the Bay of Naples. Founded by Greek colonists about 600BC, it fell under Roman rule in 326BC. In 1139 it became part of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. After the Revolt of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, it became the independent Kingdom of Naples, until it fell to Garibaldi in 1860, and was united with the rest of Italy.

BkIII:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned as an exotic place.

BkXV:Chap7:Sec3 Chateaubriand arrived there 2nd January 1804. The Elysian Fields are the Campi Flegrei, the Fields of Fire, to the west of Naples.

BkXX:Chap1:Sec1 On 23 January 1799 the French-supported Parthenopaean Republic was proclaimed: the name Parthenope refers to an ancient Greek colony on the site of the future city of Naples. It lasted until June 1799 when the French withdrew.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec2 BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec3 The Kingdom of Naples was a bargaining chip at the Congress of Vienna.

BkXXVI:Chap7:Sec1 There had been a Carbonari insurrection there in July 1820. There was a Congress at Laybach to resolve the crisis which Chateaubriand asked in vain to attend. It was left to Austria (directed by Metternich) to occupy Naples, King Ferdinand I (1759-1825) of the Two Sicilies, who had fled, returning in May 1821.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec3 Madame Récamier there in 1814. Naples was called Parthenope from the Siren who threw herself into the sea out of love for Ulysses and was cast up in the bay of Naples.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec3 Mentioned as a major Italian port.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 Its lazzaroni, the homeless idlers who lived by chance work or begging – so called from the Hospital of St. Lazarus, which served as their refuge.

 

Naples, King of, see Joachim Murat

 

Napoléon, Saint

d. c300. Neopolus of Alexandria, martyred during the reign of Diocletian.

BkXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 His feast is celebrated on the 15th of August.

 

Napoleon I, Emperor of France

1769-1821. First Consul of France 1799-1804. Emperor of the French 1804-1815. Born Napoleon Bonaparte in Corsica, he became an artillery officer and rose to prominence in 1795 while defending the Convention in Paris. After campaigning in Italy (1796-97) and Egypt (1798-99) he became First Consul in the coup d’état of 18th Brumaire (9-10th November 1799). After his brilliant European campaigns which greatly expanded the French Empire, and his ultimately disastrous Russian Campaign of 1812, Europe rose up against him and he was defeated at Leipzig and exiled to Elba. In 1815 he escaped and after the Hundred Days was defeated decisively at Waterloo, spending the remainder of his life confined to the island of St Helena.

Preface:Sect1 Chateaubriand mentions meeting him.

BkI:Chap1:Sec2 Chateaubriand’s ambivalence towards Napoleon. He calls him Bonaparte rather than Napoleon.

BkII:Chap8:Sec1 Napoleon’s armies.

BkII:Chap9:Sec1 BkIV:Chap1:Sec2 Napoleon had been exiled to St Helena in 1815.

BkIV:Chap2:Sec2 BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 His fame.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec3 Viewed by Chateaubriand as an oppressor of freedoms.

BkV:Chap12:Sec3 The representative of despotism.

BkV:Chap15:Sec3 His rise from obscurity paralleled Chateaubriand’s.

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

BkIX:Chap16:Sec1 His farewell to his troops.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec2 See Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène XI, 8th November 1816.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec3 The master of Europe.

BkXI:Chap5:Sec1 Anticipation of his crowning.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 His absurd court action against Peltier.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap4:Sec1 BkXV:Chap7:Sec1 He officially became First Consul in February 1800 after the popular vote ratified the new Constitution.

BkXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Popular songs about him in May 1800.

BkXIII:Chap5:Sec1 The transformation from Republic to Empire.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec1 The police activity under Napoleon.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand introduced to his sister Élisa and brother Lucien. Napoleon was officially First Consul from February 1800.

BkXIII:Chap10:Sec1 His re-institution of religion,

BkXIII:Chap11:Sec1 His control and censorship of the arts.

BkXIII:Chap11:Sec2 His patronage of scientists.

BkXIV:Chap3:Sec1 Alluded too as the representative of the Revolution.

BkXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand went to see him on the 18th or 19th March 1804, on the eve of leaving for Valais.

BkXVI:Chap1:Sec1 The impact on his career of the execution of the Duc d’Enghien.

BkXVI:Chap5:Sec1 His involvement in the execution of the Duc d’Enghien.

BkXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Moral errors the cause of his downfall. The reference to the Corsican monster is to the island where Bonaparte was born, not far from Sicily where the monster Polyphemus devoured Odysseus’ men in Homer’s Odyssey.

BkXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 After Friedland and the Treaty of Tilsit, by August 1807 Napoleon was at the height of his powers.

BkXVIII:Chap5:Sec2 His comment on Chateaubriand’s portrait.

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec2 The episode of the Florentine lion refers to the one which escaped from the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s menagerie, which desisted from tearing apart a child on seeing its mother’s tears. Nicolas Monsiau (1754-1837) entered a painting depicting the scene in the Salon of 1801.

BkXVIII:Chap8:Sec2 He inaugurated the Decennial Prize in 1804 to mark the coup of the 18th Brumaire (9th November 1799), every ten years. Chateaubriand (Le Génie) was recommended for it in 1810 (the year fixed for the first award), but the work was rejected as inadequately structured though showing good style, interesting detail and beauties of the first order.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 His various titles and domains, and his bargaining for the hand of Marie-Louise of Austria.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 An allusion to Alexander and Caesar as peers.

BkXIX:Chap4:Sec1 Birth and childhood.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 A reference to Las Cases’ Mémorial. Napoleon’s early love affair. His poor spelling.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Saint Florent harbour at the foot of Cap Corse, Corsica, is where the Genoese built a citadel in 1440. The defensive tower at Martella, Corsica, became the prototype for the hundred or so circular Martello towers built by the British, between 1805 and1812, for coastal defence of the southern English shoreline.

BkXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Napoleon witnessed the march to the Tuileries of 20th June 1792.

BkXIX:Chap8:Sec1 The siege of Toulon and Napoleon’s swift rise to the rank of brigadier-general.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 The physical change in his appearance over time.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap11:Sec1 Bonaparte defended the Convention, that is the Revolution, on the 13th Vendémiaire Year IV (5th October 1795), using cannon brought by Murat, from Sablons, 200 or so being killed on each side, particularly around the Saint-Roch church, on Rue Neuve Saint-Roch.

BkXX:Chap2:Sec2 The plot to kill Napoleon of 10th October 1800 was discovered. On 19 Nivôse (January 9) the four conspirateurs des poignards – the Jacobins Ceracchi (the sculptor), Aréna (a Corsican), Topino-Lebrun (the painter) and Demerville (Barère’s former secretary) – were found guilty of plotting to murder the First Consul and condemned to death. The plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, also known as the Machine infernale, was an assassination attempt on the life of Napoleon, in Paris on 24 December 1800. The machine infernale attempt on Napoleon’s life was planned by seven royalist Breton Chouans: Pierre Robinault de Saint-Régeant (1768-1801) a supporter of Louis XVIII, Saint-Régeant had tried to stir a revolt in western France the previous year, and had publicly torn up Napoleon’s offer of amnesty to the vendéens; Pierre Picot de Limoëlan (1768-1826) was the gentleman son of a guillotined royalist nobleman; Georges Cadoudal (1771-1804) was the great chouannerie leader; Jean-Baptiste Coster (1771-1804): one of Cadoudal’s ablest lieutenants, was known as Saint-Victor. The other three plotters were the noblemen Joyaux d’Assas, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, and La Haye-Saint-Hilaire.

BkXX:Chap12:Sec1 His decree reorganising the Comédie-Francaise was signed on the 15th of October 1812 not long after the fire which ravaged the city. The parallel with Nero ‘fiddling while Rome burned’ is suggested.

BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 He had berated the Directors in 1799 regarding their betrayal of the 1797 Constitution (18th Fructidor).

BkXXII:Chap6:Sec1 The four regiments of Napoleon’s Gardes d’honneur, were raised in 1813 during the frantic rebuilding of the French cavalry after the huge losses in Russia. Recruited from the leading social classes, uniformed and equipped at their own expense, and accompanied by servants to take care of such unpleasant chores as stable duty, these men were promised commissions as officers after a year’s service in the ranks. Though spectacularly unready for combat upon their arrival with the army, the Guards of Honour served alongside the élite cavalry of the Imperial Guard in the campaigns of Saxony and France, 1813-14, and distinguished themselves in battle at Hanau and Rheims.

BkXXII:Chap16:Sec1 The order of the day mentioned (5th April 1814) was published by Baron Fain (Manuscrit de 1814).

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap20:Sec3 Napoleon created the Legion of Honour in 1802, the medal being given for outstanding service to France regardless of the nationality or status of the recipient. A school for the daughters of members of the Legion of Honour was founded at the Abbey buildings of Saint-Denis in 1809.

BkXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap12:Sec1 The news of Napoleon’s death on the 5th of May 1821 at St Helena was not widely known in Europe until the beginning of July.

BkXXVI:Chap9:Sec1 Chateaubriand compares him to the Exterminating Angel who executes vengeance in the name of the Deity.

BkXXVIII:Chap17:Sec1 His early patronage of Chateaubriand.

BkXXVIII:Chap18:Sec1 His irritation at Madame Récamier’s successful salon.

BkXXVIII:Chap20:Sec1 Madame de Staël writes to him in 1810.

BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 His death marking the end of an era.

BkXXX:Chap6:Sec2 His inability to re-invigorate Italy.

BkXXX:Chap8:Sec1 The banishment of the Imperial family.

BkXXXI:Chap8:Sec1 His military successes in Europe.

BkXXXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s respect for his greatness.

BkXXXIII:Chap9:Sec1 His effect on the revolutionary trend.

BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 His nephew Napoleon III.

BkXXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Napoleon convened a representative assembly of eleven delegates of the Jewish communities in Paris in August 1806. The Grand Sanhedrin proper occurred February-April 1897. The Venetian delegates were Foa Ventura, Jacob Cracovia and the banker Aaron Latis.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 His remains returned to France in 1840, were placed in St Jerome’s chapel in the Invalides, and in 1861 re-sited beneath the dome.

BkXLII:Chap11:Sec1 Chateaubriand here adopts a date for Napoleon’s birth of 15th August 1768, compared with the official date of 15th August 1769 and the alternative date of the 5th February 1768 which he suggests in Book XIX.

 

Napoleon II, Emperor of the French, King of Rome, Prince of Parma, Duke of Reichstadt

1811-1832. The son of Napoleon I and Marie Louise, he was known as the King of Rome (1811–14), as the prince of Parma (1814–18), and after that as the Duke of Reichstadt. Napoleon’s abdication in 1815 was in favour of his son, so that he was known to the Bonapartists as Napoleon II, although he never ruled. After 1815 he was a virtual prisoner in Austria, where he died of tuberculosis. In 1940 his remains were transferred from Vienna to the dome of the Invalides in Paris, where he now rests beside his father. The pitiful life of the ‘Eaglet’ is the subject of Edmond Rostand’s drama L’Aiglon.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec3 BkXX:Chap10:Sec1 His birth celebrated. He was born on March 20th 1811.

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 His portrait sent to Napoleon in Russia in 1812.

BkXXII:Chap11:Sec1 Left Paris with his mother in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap14:Sec1 Passed through Blois on his way to Vienna in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec1 Talleyrand favoured his succession in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap 26:Sec1 He and his mother were expected to visit Napoleon, on Elba but he was taken with her to Vienna.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec1 Discussions regarding him at the Congress of Vienna.

BkXXIII:Chap13:Sec1 He remained with his mother in Vienna despite Napoleon’s return from Elba.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 Napoleon wished to abdicate in his favour and declare him Emperor after Waterloo.

BkXXIV:Chap11:Sec2 Napoleon ordered on his death-bed that he should sent his post-mortem report.

BkXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 The King of Rome’s cradle was created by Pierre-Paul Prudhon (1758-1813) the painter, Henri-Victor Roguier (1758-after 1830), Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763-1850) and Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) in Paris in 1811. The golden cradle was a gift from the city of Paris to the Empress. The decorative motifs glorify Napoleon. More than 280 kilograms of precious materials were used in the design. The piece is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

BkXXX:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand suggested he should be made Captain of the King’s Guards.

BkXXXV:Chap12:Sec1 He had died in Vienna on the 22nd of July 1832. The news had reached Paris on the 25th just before Chateaubriand’s departure for Switzerland. 

BkXXXVII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXL:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Napoleon III, Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte

1808-1873. Known as Louis-Napoléon, he was President of France from 1849 to 1852, and then Emperor of the French under the name Napoléon III from 1852 to 1870. A nephew of Napoleon I, he led the Bonapartist opposition to Louis Philippe and became president of the Second Republic (1848). After proclaiming himself emperor (1852), he instituted reforms and rebuilt Paris. His successful imperialist ventures were overshadowed by a failed campaign in Mexico (1861–1867) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), which resulted in his deposition.

BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 In Constance with his mother in September 1832.

BkXXXV:Chap23:Sec1 Chateaubriand writes to him in October 1832.

 

Narbonne, France

A market town in the Aude in south-east France, it was an important Roman settlement. Its port silted up in the 14th century.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec4 Visited by Chateaubriand in 1802. The Canal des Deux Mers is the combination of the Canal du Midi and the Canal Latéral à la Garonne. Begun in 1666 it was created by Pierre-Paul Riquet, the Languedoc salt-tax farmer, to connect the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

 

Narbonne-Lara, Louis-Marie-Jacques Amalric, Comte  de

1755-1813. A French soldier and diplomat, he was the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Elizabeth, duchess of Parma, and his father was either a Spanish nobleman or as has been alleged Louis XV himself. He was brought up at Versailles with the Princesses of France, and was made a colonel at the age of twenty-five. He became maréchal de camp in 1791, and, through the influence of Madame de Staël, was appointed minister of war. But he showed incapacity in this post, gave in his resignation, and joined the Army of the North, Incurring suspicion as a Feuillant and also by his policy at the war office, he emigrated after the 10th of August 1792, visited England, Switzerland and Germany, and returned to France in 1801. In 1809 he re-entered the army as general of division, and was subsequently minister plenipotentiary at Munich and aide de camp to Napoleon. In 1813 he was appointed French ambassador at Vienna, where he was engaged in an unequal diplomatic duel with Metternich during the fateful months that witnessed the defection of Austria from the cause of Napoleon to that of the Allies. He died at Torgau, in Saxony.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 An associate of Lauzun.

BkXX:Chap13:Sec1 Sent to Alexander’s headquarters in 1811.

 

Narbonne-Pelet, Raymond-Jacques-Marie, Duc de

1771-1855. A Peer, and Ambassador to Naples 1816-1821.

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 At Bustehrad, Prague, 27th of September 1833.

 

Narbonne-Pelet, Anne-Angélique-Marie-Émilie de Sérent, Duchesse de

1770-1856. She married Raymond in 1788.

BkXLI:Chap6:Sec1 At Bustehrad, Prague, 27th of September 1833.

 

Narischkin, Madame

She was a Russian society lady, known to Alexander I.

BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nariskin, Count

A young Russian officer.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec1 Brought before Napoleon at Borowsk.

 

Narni, Italy

An ancient hilltown and comune of Umbria in central Italy, at altitude 787 ft it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 Chateaubriand there in 1828.

 

Natchez, Les

Work by Chateaubriand. An American novel which started life entitled René et Céluta, and was offered to a Paris publisher in 1798. It was revised with Fontanes help.  The Natchez Indians were among the last native-American groups to inhabit the area now known as south-western Mississippi.  Their culture began around A.D. 700 and lasted until the 1730s when the tribe was dispersed in a war with the French. Their language, related to the Muskogean language family, indicates that the Natchez Indians probably developed from earlier cultures in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.

BkVI:Chap1:Sec2 BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 BkXI:Chap5:Sec1 Written in London.

BkVI:Chap4:Sec1 An incident from it set on Corvo. (Les Natchez, Book VII)

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 BkXXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 The Natchez Indians.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec3 Fontanes approved of the work.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 Atala and René separated out of the manuscript in 1800.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned as an early work. Its four thousand pages fastened together with string.

 

National, Le

A French opposition newspaper issued from 3rd January 1830.

BkXXXI:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXII:Chap1:Sec1 The editors of the Press met at its offices on the 26th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap2:Sec1 Its type-presses were under threat on the 27th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap16:Sec1 A meeting at its offices on the 31st of July 1830.

BkXXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Produced by Carrel, Thiers and Mignet.

BkXXXVII:Chap12:Sec1 Available in Prague in May 1833.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec1 An article in the National on 4th May 1834 giving sections of the Memoirs entitled the Future of the World, reproduced in the Revue des Deux-Mondes on 15th April.

 

Navarino

The naval Battle of Navarino was fought on 20 October 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–29) in Navarino Bay, western Greece. A combined Ottoman and Egyptian armada was destroyed by a combined British, French and Russian naval force, at the port of Navarino. It is notable for being the final large-scale fleet action in history between sailing ships.

BkXXVIII:Chap16:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap12:Sec1 BkXXXI:Chap6:Sec1

BkXXXVII:Chap14:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Navarre, Marie-Louise-Charlotte Poullot, Madame de

She was Mother Superior of the Augustines de la Congrégation Notre-Dame in 1808.

BkXVII:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand confuses Lucile’s residences at the end of her life, in his text. The translation corrects the errors. Madame de Navarre was an instructress at the convent in 1804.

 

Nay

He was secretary and later son-in-law to Gisquet, the Prefect of Police.

BkXXXV:Chap5:Sec1 He visits Chateaubriand in his cell in June 1832.

 

Nazareth, Israel

Nazareth is a Lower Galilee city and a centre of Christian pilgrimage. A row of churches has been erected over the Grotto of the Annunciation since the 4th century AD. The latest basilica incorporates remains of a church built by Crusaders.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 Junot took Nazareth on the 8th April 1799.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 Jesus worked as a carpenter in Nazareth according to Matthew XIII:55.

 

Neale, Mary

A young Irish beauty, in London, in 1798.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nebuchadnezzar II

630?-562. The King of Babylonia (605–562) who captured (597) and destroyed (586) Jerusalem and carried the Israelites into captivity in Babylonia.

BkXIX:Chap16:Sec2 He supposedly died of madness due to a gnat entering his brain via the nostril. The same death is attributed to Nimrod and Titus.

 

Necker, Jacques

1732-1804. A banker, he was Finance Minister under Louis XVI. Father of Madame de Staël. He advocated the formation of the States-General to effect financial reform. His brief dismissal by Louis XVI (1789) precipitated the storming of the Bastille.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec2 Ginguené was appointed to a minor position in his office.

BkV:Chap1:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkV:Chap8:Sec1 His dismissal 11th July 1789.

BkV:Chap8:Sec2 Popular support for him in the streets of Paris in July 1789.

BkV:Chap9:Sec1 Returned to Paris in July 1789 after the fall of the Bastille.

BkV:Chap10:Sec1 Re-appointed, as Comptroller General, 25th July 1789.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 His house a fashionable meeting place. Involved in saving the life of Besenval.

BkV:Chap15:Sec1 Resigned and left Paris in September 1790.

BkXV:Chap6:Sec1 His letter regarding Madame de Beaumont’s death.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 The young Napoleon wrote to him.

BkXXXV:Chap21:Sec1 His and his wife’s crypt at Coppet.

BkXLII:Chap10:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Necker, Suzanne Curchod, Madame

1739-1794. The wife of Jacques Necker (1764). A French writer, mother of Mme de Staël, her salon was frequented by celebrated Frenchmen and foreign visitors. A hospital that she founded c.1776 is still in existence. Her writings on literary and moral subjects include Des inhumations précipitées (1790), Réflexions sur le divorce (1794), and miscellaneous collections published as Mélanges in 1798 and 1801.

 

Necker de Saussure, Albertine-Adrienne

1766-1841. Daughter of a naturalist, her husband was a cousin of Madame de Staël. He was a botanist and the nephew and namesake of Jacques Necker. A Swiss woman of letters, she wrote an influential work on the Education of Women (1828).

BkXXXIV:Chap6:Sec1 The dinner mentioned was on the 6th of June 1831, and included Bonstetten and Sismondi.

 

Neipperg, Adam Adalbert Adrian, Count von

1775-1829. He married Marie-Louise of Austria in 1821.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 He died in 1829.

 

Nelson, Horatio, Viscount

1758-1805. The British Admiral, who in 1798 destroyed French naval power in the Mediterranean at the Battle of the Nile. After Copenhagen in 1801 he was created a Viscount. He was mortally wounded at Trafalgar in 1805, when most of the French fleet was destroyed or captured.

Preface:Sect1 Chateaubriand mentions meeting him.

BkXII:Chap5:Sec1 Nelson defeated the French at the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay on the 1st of August 1798. In June 1799 a counterrevolution re-established Bourbon rule in Naples, and in his capacity of commander in chief of the Neapolitan navy, Nelson was responsible for the execution of several Neapolitan officers for serving the French.

 

Nemeade

A courtesan. Possibly she may be identified with Nemea (Goddess of Nemea) whom Aristophon painted holding Alcibiades in her arms.

BkXLII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Neptune

Roman god of the sea, he was the brother of Pluto and Jupiter. The trident was his emblem.

BkVI:Chap2:Sec1 BkVI:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 Synonymous with the sea.

BkIX:Chap9:Sec1 The Greek equivalent Poseidon was also god of horses.

BkXIX:Chap1:Sec1 Prayers to the god.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 The Pillars of Hercules mark the junction of two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

BkXXXIX:Chap18:Sec1 Aphrodite-Cybele born from the sea.

BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 His trident.

 

Nereus, Nereids

A sea-god in Greek Mythology, he was the husband of Doris, and, by her, the father of the fifty Nereids, the mermaids attendant on Thetis.

BkI:Chap6:Sec2 The Nereids as nymphs of the sea.

BkXXXIX:Chap10:Sec1 The gondoliers as sons of Nereus.

 

Nero, Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Roman Emperor

37-68AD. Emperor 54-68. Noted for his cruel conduct, he murdered his mother Agrippina the Younger, and his wife Octavia. In 68 the mutiny of his palace guard and revolts in Gaul, Spain and Africa forced him to flee Rome and led to his suicide.

BkXVI:Chap2:Sec1 He sent a letter to the Senate, following his murder of his mother Agrippina, the drift of which was that Agerinus, one of Agrippina’s confidential freedmen, had been detected with an assassin’s dagger, and that in the consciousness of having planned the crime she had paid its penalty. Tacitus claims the letter was drafted by Seneca, see Tacitus Annales XIV.11.3

BkXVI:Chap10:Sec1 An example of abuse of power.

BkXIX:Chap9:Sec3 Napoleon compared to him.

BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 On the night of July 18, AD64 the Great Fire of Rome erupted. The fire started in densely populated areas and burned for a week. It was said that Nero viewed the fire from the tower of Maecenas, and exulting, as Nero said, ‘at the beauty of the flames,’ he sang the whole time the ‘Sack of Ilium’ in his regular stage costume. Rumours circulated that Nero had played his lyre and sang, on top of Quirinal Hill, while the city burned. (Tacitus, Ann. xv; Suetonius, Nero xxxvii; Dio Cassius, R.H. lxii.)

BkXXII:Chap16:Sec1 Declared a public enemy (persona non grata) by the Senate in June 68. He then committed suicide, Galba having been recognised as Emperor and welcomed to the city.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec3 BkXXIX:Chap16:Sec1 The tomb of Publius Viribus Marianus mistakenly called Nero’s Tomb is on the right bank of the Tiber, not far from the Via Flaminia, about seven kilometres north of the Piazza del Popolo.

BkXXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXIV:Chap12:Sec1 Poppaea was his mistress and second wife.

 

Nesle, Drogon de

c1030-1096. A French crusader who died in Palestine during the First Crusade.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nesle, Jean II de, Comte de Soissons

c1224-1300. Called Le Bon et Le Bègue. Regent of France during Saint Louis’ last crusade.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nesle, Louis-Joseph Augustin de Mailly-Rubempré, Prince d’Orange et de Neufchâtel, Marquis de

1744-1810. Colonel of Grenadiers 1767. Master of Horse to Madame La Dauphine. Field Marshal 1781. Emigrated 1792. Returned to France 1801.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nesle, Raoul III de, Comte de Soissons

1150-1235. Constable of France, he was knighted by Louis IX.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1

 

Nesselrode, Karl Robert, Count

1780-1862. A Russian diplomat he was a leading European conservative statesman of the Holy Alliance. His autobiography was published posthumously in 1866.

BkXXXVII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nessus

A centaur, the son of Ixion, he attempted to steal Hercules’ bride Deianira, and was killed by Hercules. Dying he soaked his shirt in blood mixed with the Hydra’s poison, from Hercules’s arrow that had killed him, and gave it to Deianira, telling her it would revive a dying love. Hercules subsequently donned it, and died in agony.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Neuburg an der Donau

Neuburg on the Danube is the capital of the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in the state of Bavaria in Germany.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1833.

 

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

The German Neuenberg, in western Switzerland, is a city on Lake Neuchâtel. Traditional industries include watch-making and chocolate production.

BkXII:Chap6:Sec1 Hometown of the fictitious Lassagne.

BkXXVIII:Chap3:Sec1 Chateaubriand considers retiring there in 1824.

BkXXVIII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 The Chateaubriands there in 1824. Chateaubriand arrived on the 8th of October and was back in Paris by the 23rd for the King’s funeral.

BkXXXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned, see Berthier.

 

Neuchâtel, Prince de, see Berthier

 

Neuhof, Theodore Stephen von, Baron

c1694-1756. A German adventurer and for a short time nominal king of Corsica, he served first in the French army and then in that of Sweden. He then went to Spain, where he was made colonel and married one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. Deserting his wife soon afterwards he repaired to France and became mixed up in Law’s financial affairs; then he wandered about Portugal, the Netherlands and Italy, and at Genoa made the acquaintance of some Corsican prisoners and exiles, whom he persuaded that he could free their country from Genoese tyranny if they made him king of the island. With their help and that of the bey of Tunis he landed in Corsica in March 1736, where the islanders, believing his statement that he had the support of several of the great powers, proclaimed him king. He assumed the title of Theodore I, issued edicts, instituted an order of knighthood, and waged war on the Genoese, at first with some success. But he was eventually defeated, and civil broils soon broke out in the island; the Genoese having put a price on his head and published an account of his antecedents, he left Corsica in November 1736, ostensibly to seek foreign assistance. After trying in vain to induce the grand duke of Tuscany to recognize him, he started off on his wanderings once more until he was arrested for debt in Amsterdam. On regaining his freedom he sent his nephew to Corsica with a supply of arms; he himself returned to the island in 1738, 1739 and 1743, but the combined Genoese and French forces drove him to wandering about Europe. Arrested for debt in London he regained his freedom by mortgaging his kingdom of Corsica, and subsisted on the charity of Horace Walpole and some other friends until his death.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

A commune in the western suburbs of Paris, it is located 4.2 miles from the centre of Paris. Louis Philippe purchased the Château of Neuilly in 1818, which was destroyed in the 1848 Revolution.

BkXXXII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap11:Sec1 BkXXXII:Chap12:Sec1

Mentioned.

BkXXXII:Chap13:Sec1 Louis-Phillippe’s residence a centre for malcontents.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec1 Carrel signs himself from Puteaux near there in October 1834.

 

Neuwied, Germany

The Battle of Neuwied (in the Rhineland-Palatinate) was fought on April 18, 1797. It resulted in the victory of the French under General Hoche against the Austrians under General Wermecek.

BkXXII:Chap15:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Neveu, François-Marie

1756-1808. Painter. Commissaire du gouvernement pour les sciences et les arts in 1800. Professor of drawing at the new École Polytechnique in 1803.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec1 Admirer of Madame de Clermont-Tonnerre. Introduced Chateaubriand to Saint-Martin.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 Gave a dinner for Chateaubriand and Saint-Martin on 27th January 1803.

 

Neville, George

c1432-1476. Archbishop of York and chancellor of England, George was the youngest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and brother of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as the ‘Kingmaker.’

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 In 1465, he was translated to the See of York. His installation-feast, on the 15th of January 1566 at Cawood Castle presented one of the most marvellous culinary displays on record (the ‘Great Feast of Cawood’). The list of provisions included wild bulls, swans and cranes.

 

Newfoundland

A province of Canada (since 1949) including the coast of Labrador and the triangular Island of Newfoundland lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St Lawrence. The island was discovered by John Cabot in 1497, and became an English fishing-station.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec1 BkVI:Chap5:Sec2 Chateaubriand reached Saint-Pierre off the coast of Newfoundland on the 23rd May 1791.

BkVI:Chap5:Sec3 The island’s coast is about forty kilometres north-east of Saint-Pierre.

 

Newton, Sir Isaac

1642-1727. The British mathematician and scientist, who was professor at Cambridge (1669-1701), MP for the university (1689-1690) and Master of the Mint (1699-1727). His work was crucial in gravitational theory, mechanics, calculus, and optics. His main publications were the Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687-1687) and his Optics (1704).

BkV:Chap6:Sec1 His genius.

BkX:Chap5:Sec2 Buried in Westminster Abbey.

BkX:Chap9:Sec1 Subject of interest to a mathematician.

BkXXXVII:Chap10:Sec1 Tycho Brahe as the Danish Newton.

 

New Orleans

The city and major port in Louisiana, located on a bend of the Mississippi, hence called the Crescent City. Founded in 1718, it became the capital of the French Colonial region of Louisiana before passing to Spain in 1763. It returned briefly to France in 1803 but passed to the USA in the same year.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

New York

The city in New York State, on New York Bay, at the mouth of the Hudson River. Henry Hudson sailed into the bay in 1620 and his glowing reports led to Dutch colonisation in 1625. In 1664 the city, New Amsterdam, was captured by the English for the Duke of York and so re-named. From 1789-1790 it was the first capital of the USA, prior to the creation of Washington D.C in 1791.

BkVI:Chap7:Sec1 BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 BkVIII:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkVII:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrived there from Baltimore. The stagecoach route covered the 150 kilometre journey in a day. It was a town of about 30,000 people, about half the size of Nantes at that time.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand took the packet there for Albany.

 

Ney, Michel, Marshal, Duke of Elchingen, Prince of the Moskva

1769-1815. A Marshal of France, he was called ‘the bravest of the brave’ by Napoleon. A cooper’s son from Saarlouis, he rapidly rose to glory in the Revolution. He distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1794 and 1795, commanded the army of the Rhine briefly in 1799, seized Elchingen (1805), and conquered the Tyrol. His assistance was decisive in Napoleon’s victory at Friedland. Ney’s greatest feat was his rearguard action during the retreat from Moscow in 1812. Later, he was one of the generals who urged Napoleon to abdicate after Leipzig. He was raised (1814) to the peerage by Louis XVIII. On Napoleon’s return from exile in Elba, he re-joined the Emperor, and commanded in the Waterloo campaign. He was condemned for treason by the house of peers and shot.

BkXX:Chap1:Sec1 Jomini was attached to his staff. (Chief of staff after Tilsit.)

BkXXI:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXI:Chap3:Sec1 At Borodino.

BkXXI:Chap5:Sec3 On the retreat from Moscow Ney commanded the rear-guard.

BkXXI:Chap6:Sec1 At Smolensk in November 1812.

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 Temporarily cut off during the retreat from Smolensk. At the Berezina.

BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 His conspicuously fine general-ship during the retreat.

BkXXII:Chap4:Sec1 Bernadotte defeated Ney at Dennewitz near Berlin on 6th September 1813.

BkXXII:Chap 21:Sec1 Rallied to Louis XVIII at Compiègne in 1814.

BkXXIII:Chap2:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap3:Sec1 His defection back to Napoleon in 1815.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 In Paris after the Hundred Days.

BkXXV:Chap5:Sec1 Decazes involved in his arrest on 5th August 1815 at a château on the borders of Lot and Cantal.

 

Niagara Falls

Two major waterfalls on the US-Canadian border, they are on the Niagara River, between Lakes Erie and Ontario.

BkVII:Chap2:Sec1 BkVIII:Chap5:Sec1 BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2

BkVIII:Chap6:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkVII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand arrived there in time for the full moon of the 11th August 1791.

BkVII:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXXVI:Chap5:Sec1 The setting for the tales of Atala and René.

 

Nice, France

The city in south-east France, capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department on the Baie des Anges, it was ceded by Sardinia to France in 1860.

BkXIX:Chap12:Sec1 Headquarters of the Army of Italy in 1796. Napoleon arrived on the 16th March 1796, and lodged in the Maison Sauvaigo.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec3 Pius VII there in 1809.

BkXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Pius VII passed through on his way back to Italy in 1814.

BkXXII:Chap 24:Sec1 BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 The Duchesse de Duras died there 16th January 1828.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 Chateaubriand on his way there in 1829.

 

Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia

1769-1855. Son of Paul I and younger brother of Alexander, he was Emperor of Russia and King of Poland from 1825-1855. He was an autocratic ruler whose accession was followed by the unsuccessful Decembrist Revolt, which served only to further harden his conservatism. His Balkan ambitions precipitated the Crimean War.

BkIV:Chap1:Sec2 His marriage to Alexandra Feodorovna took place in July 1817.  

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand met him in 1821 in Berlin.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned in 1827.

BkXXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 A sarcasm regarding Nicholas, since Russia was a source of cholera which had enabled the Tsar to wipe out the Polish insurgents, the Warsaw executioner also being considered a personification of cholera.

BkXXXVI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nicholas, Grand Duchess, see Alexandra

 

Nicholas, Grand Duke, see Nicholas I

 

Nicholas of Pisa, see Pisano

 

Nicholas II, Gérard de Bourgogne, Pope

d. 1061. Pope 1059-1061. Formerly, he was Bishop of Florence.

BkXXX:Chap2:Sec1 At the Easter Lateran mass of 1059, the Pope brought 113 bishops to Rome to consider the process of Papal successon. There was considerable controversy as late as the 18th century over the authenticity of thie resulting decree which stated that the Cardinal Bishops must confer to pick a candidate for the next election. It additionally stated that the other clergy and laity had a right to name their candidate also. The Pope was required to be a Roman unless there were no good Catholic Roman candidates. Thirdly the conclave must meet in Rome unless exceptional circumstances precluded it. Fourthly if a war or other circumstances intervened, a cardinal could be excused fom the traditional ceremonies of celebration for the new pope. Finally, under the rules set up by Henry III of Germany, the choosing of the new pope constituted an official election. The third Lateran Council, held in 1179, brought in the two thirds majority.

 

Nicholas, Saint

4th century. Saint Nicholas ‘of Bari’, is said to have been born at Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. Myra, the capital, not far from the sea, was an Episcopal See, and this church falling vacant, the holy Nicholas was chosen bishop, and in that station became famous by his extraordinary piety and zeal and many astonishing miracles. The Greek histories of his life agree that he suffered imprisonment for the faith and made a glorious confession in the latter part of the persecution raised by Diocletian, that he was present at the Council of Nicaea and there condemned Arianism. The silence of other authors makes many justly suspect these circumstances. He died at Myra, and was buried in his cathedral.

BkV:Chap4:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nicodemus, Saint

According to the Bible he was a member of the Sanhedrin in Israel during the life of Jesus. A secret disciple of Christ, he met him by night to avoid the wrath of the other members of the Sanhedrin, and eventually spoke out to that body to remind them that Jesus had a right to a hearing. With Saint Joseph of Arimathea he prepared Jesus' body and placed him in the tomb. There was an apocryphal "gospel" that was purported to have been written by him, sometimes entitled the Acts of Pilate. Tradition says he was a martyr, though no details have survived. The story of Nicodemus is told in Saint John's Gospel (John 3: 1-21). Note that near Pontivy in central Brittany is the town of Saint-Nicolas-des-Eaux, where there is a sacred fountain dedicated to Saint Nicodemus.

BkI:Chap1:Sec7 Mentioned.

 

Nicolaï, Monsignor Nicola Maria

Italian author.

BkXXIX:Chap9:Sec1 In 1803 he published a work Memorie, leggi ed osservazioni sulle campagne e sull’annona di Roma, which became an authority.

 

Niebelungenlied

The Nibelungenlied is an epic poem in Middle High German. It tells the story of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, and of his wife’s revenge, which leads to the death of all the protagonists. It is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs (the ‘Nibelungensaga’), which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and persons from the 5th and 6th centuries. Old Norse parallels of the legend survive in the Völsunga saga and the Atlakviða.

BkXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Niebuhr, Barthold George

1776-1831. He was a German historian, born in Copenhagen. He served in the Danish and, after 1806, in the Prussian civil service, took part in the foundation of the University of Berlin, and was (1816–23) Prussian Ambassador to the Holy See. From 1823 to his death he taught at the University of Bonn. Niebuhr’s History of Rome (1811–32) may be said to have inaugurated modern scientific historical method.

BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 A friend of Bunsen.

 

Niemen (Neman), River

Approximately 580 miles long, the river rising in central Belarus, south-west of Minsk, flows generally west to Grodno, then north and west through southern Lithuania to form part of the Lithuania–Kaliningrad Region border before entering the Kursky Zaliv of the Baltic Sea through a small delta. Kaunas and Sovetsk are large cities along its course. The Neman is navigable c.60 miles above Grodno. The meeting of Napoleon I and Tzar Alexander I, which resulted in the Treaty of Tilsit (1807), took place on a raft in the middle of the river.

BkXX:Chap6:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXXI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap1:Sec1 Napoleon’s Army crossed the Niemen on June 23-24 1812 and invaded Russia.

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 The retreating army under Ney crossed and destroyed the Niemen bridge on the 14th December 1812.

 

Nile, River

The great river of Egypt, the longest river in the world: its sources in Burundi and Ethiopia form the White and Blue Nile which meet at Khartoum, and flow northwards to the Mediterranean.

BkIII:Chap10:Sec1 BkVI:Chap6:Sec2 BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXIV:Chap7:Sec1 Alexander conquered Egypt in 332-331BC.

BkXXIX:Chap7:Sec1 The sculptures of the Nile and the Tiber, now in the Vatican, are Imperial Roman copies of Greek originals.

 

Nîmes, France

The city in southern France, capital of the Gard department it was an important Roman settlement and a Protestant stronghold in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Roman aqueduct the Pont du Gard lies to the north-east.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec4 The amphitheatre is one of the best preserved of the Roman world. It was built in the 1st century AD, around the same time as that at Arles, and was designed by the same architect. The Maison Carrée is a civic Roman temple built by Agrippa, who died in 12 BC. It was dedicated to his two sons, Caius and Lucius, heirs of Augustus who both died very young.

BkXIX:Chap7:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXII:Chap8:Sec1 Pius VII passed through on his way back to Italy in 1814.

 

Nineveh

An ancient city of Assyria on the Tigris River, it stood opposite the site of present-day Mosul, Iraq. As capital of the Assyrian Empire, it enjoyed great influence and prosperity, especially under Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal (seventh century BC). The city was captured and destroyed by Babylonia and its allies in 612BC.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 The reference is to Jonah III.4

BkXXIV:Chap5:Sec1 A reference to Jonah’s prophecies of imminent disaster.

 

Ninon de Lenclos, Anne de Lenclos

1620-1705. A French authoress, and patron of the arts, she encouraged Molière and left money for books for the nine-year old Voltaire, the son of her accountant. Ninon also took a succession of notable lovers, including the king’s cousin the Great Condé, Gaspard de Coligny, and François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld. She was noted for her wit and her friendships, and in France is synonymous with the concept of intelligent beauty.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Niort, France

A town in Poitou-Charente. Niort was once a medieval port that developed around the Sèvre-Niortaise River. Niort boasts an immense 12th-Century donjon built by Henry II and Richard the Lion-heart and which played an important part in the town's defence in the Hundred Years War.

BkXI:Chap3:Sec1 Birthplace of the Marquis de Fontanes.

 

Nisus

Euryalus and Nisus were proverbial friends, characters who die together fighting in Virgil’s Aeneid (see Book IX).

BkXXV:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nittenau

A town in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany, it is situated on the river Regen, 18 km southeast of Schwandorf, and 24 km northeast of Regensburg.

BkXXXVI:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand there in 1833.

 

Nivelle, France

The Nivelle River, in the Basque country, flows to the Atlantic near Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Nivernais, Louis-Jules, Duc de

1716-1798. French diplomat and writer, son of Philippe-Jules-François, duc de Nevers, and Maria Anne Spinola, and great-nephew of Cardinal Mazarin, he served in the campaigns in Italy (1733) and Bohemia (1740), but had to give up soldiering on account of his weak health. He was subsequently ambassador at Rome (1748-1752), Berlin (1755-1756) and London, where he negotiated the treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763). From 1787 to 1789 he was a member of the Council of State. He did not emigrate during the Revolution, but lost all his money and was imprisoned in 1793. He recovered his liberty after the fall of Robespierre, and died in Paris.

BkV:Chap8:Sec1 Dismissed by Louis XVI in 1789.

 

Noailles, Anne-Louise-Marie de Beauvau, Duchesse de Mouchy, Princesse de Poix, Comtesse de

1750-1834. Wife of Louis-Philippe.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 Her fashionable soirees.

 

Noailles, Léontine, Vicomtesse de

1791-1851. Granddaughter of Louis Philippe, she married her cousin Vicomte Alfred de Noailles (1766-1812) in April 1809.

BkXXVII:Chap5:Sec1 She arrived in England in June 1822 with her father the Duc de Mouchy.

 

Noailles, Louis-Adolphe-Alexis, Comte de

1783-1835. Eldest son of Louis Marie, he was signatory to the Act of the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

BkXXII:Chap 23:Sec1 An avowed Royalist.

 

Noailles, Louis Marie, Vicomte de

1756-1804 The second son of Philippe, Duc de Mouchy. He served brilliantly under Lafayette in America, and was the officer who concluded the capitulation of Yorktown in 1781. He was elected to the Estates-General in 1789. On 4 August 1789 he began the famous "orgy", as Mirabeau called it, when all privileges were abolished, and with the Duc d’Aiguillon proposed the abolition of titles and liveries in June 1790. He later emigrated to the United States and became a partner in Bingham's bank in Philadelphia. He took command against the English in San Domingo, under Rochambeau. He made a brilliant defence of the Môle St Nicholas and escaped with the garrison to Cuba, but en route there his ship was attacked by the English frigate Hazard, and after a long engagement he was severely wounded, dying of his wounds in Havana on 9 January 1804. Brother-in-law of Lafayette.

BkV:Chap10:Sec1 Launched the attack on aristocratic privileges in the National Assembly on 4th August 1789.

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 An associate of Lauzun.

 

Noailles, Louis-Philippe-Marc-Antoine, Duc de Mouchy, Prince de Poix, Comte de

1752-1819. Husband of the Princesse de Poix. In 1789 he was elected to the Estates-General but was compelled to resign in consequence of a duel with the commander of the National Guard of Versailles. He left the country for some time, but returned to France and took part in the riots of August, 1792. He was, however, forced to quit the country once more to evade the fate of his father and mother, guillotined in 1794. On his father’s death, he acceded à brevêt to the titles of comte de Noailles and duc de Poix, as well as to the Spanish title duc de Mouchy. Returning to France in 1800, he lived quietly at his residence in Mouchy-le-Châtel (Oise) during the Empire. After the Bourbon Restoration, he again came into favor and in 1817 was created duc de Mouchy as a French title, thus becoming a Peer of France.

BkXXII:Chap 22:Sec1 In Paris at the Restoration in 1814.

 

Noailles, Nathalie de

1174-1835. Daughter of the financier and farmer-general Jean-Joseph de Laborde, she married Charles Arthur Tristan de Noailles future Duc de Mouchy in 1800.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to her. He met her in 1805.

BkXXXVII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand refers to her without naming her.

 

Nodier, Charles

1780-1844. A French author, he wrote Trilby (1822).

BkXXXIX:Chap20:Sec1 Quoted.

 

Nogaret, Guillaume de

1265?-1313. A French statesman and jurist, he was a member of the royal council of King Philip IV. During Philip’s conflict with Pope concerning papal authority, Nogaret was prominent in denouncing the pope. In 1303 he led the French troops sent to kidnap Boniface at Anagni. Although Nogaret made the pope his prisoner, he was forced to release him when the populace rose in Boniface's defence. Boniface died (Oct., 1303) within a month, and his successor issued a papal bull (1304) against Nogaret. He finally obtained absolution in 1311. Philip made him keeper of the seal and he was instrumental in the attack on the Templars.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXXX:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Noirot, Lieutenant

d.1830 A Lieutenant in the Gendarmerie, he was killed in 1830. He had been decorated in 1813 for his bravery at Caldiera.

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

BkXXXII:Chap3:Sec1 Killed during the July Revolution.

 

Nola, Italy

Nola is a city of Campania, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines. Called Nuvlana on the most ancient coins, it was one of the oldest cities of Campania. Sulla, in 80 BC, subjected it with the rest of Samnium. Seven years later it was stormed by Spartacus, for which reason Augustus and Vespasian placed colonies there. Though losing much of its importance, it remained a municipium with its own institutions and the use of the Oscan language. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, who died there in 14 AD.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec3 It was famous for the manufacture of Greek style vases of yellow clay, with black glaze backgrounds, and red-figures.

 

Nördlingen, Second Battle of

Fought on August 3, 1645 between forces of the Holy Roman Empire and France. An Imperial army, led by Field Marshal Franz, Freiherr von Mercy, were encamped around the village of Alerheim near Nördlingen in Bavaria. It was attacked by a French army under the command of Louis de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien and Marshal Henri, Vicomte de Turenne. The French won the battle, Von Mercy was killed and the Bavarians driven from the field, but the heavy casualties had so weakened the French that they were unable to press home their advantage. In the wake of the battle, the Bavarians began peace negotiations that led to the Truce of Ulm two years later.

BkXVI:Chap11:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Northumberland

The fourth HMS Northumberland was completed in April 1798. Built at Deptford on the Thames, she was a 74-gun ship and weighed over 1,900 tons. She served with distinction throughout the French wars. In 1801 she supported the successful Army expedition to Egypt. In June 1805, she was blockading the north coast of Spain when the French Fleet began the long cruise which was to end at Trafalgar; she joined Nelson in the West Indies but was left in the area to mop up the French ships supporting the enemy’s colonies. In February 1806, the British squadron tracked down the largest remaining French formation and in the Battle of San Domingo took or destroyed all of the five Third Rates, only two frigates escaping. Returning to European waters, Northumberland had to wait until May 1812 before she again engaged the French Navy, this time at Groix Island. Her final wartime service (under Admiral Cockburn’s command) was to convey Napoleon from Plymouth to St. Helena, where the former Emperor was disembarked in October 1815. After a period in reserve, she was re-employed for 22 years as a ‘Lazaretto’ in Standgate Creek, Sheerness, before decommission in 1850.

BkXXIV:Chap4:Sec1 Napoleon transferred to her from the Bellerephon.

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Off St Helena on the 15th of October 1815.

 

Notitia Imperii

Notable Details of the Roman Empire, possibly written by Ammianus Marcellinus (born c325-330 probably at Antioch, died after 391), a Roman scholar and historian. His surviving work, part of his Res Gestae covers the period 353-378. The so-called Notitia dignitatum is a compilation of 78 lists, interspersed with 89 pictures, which was ultimately copied from an original compilation that was created, or last edited from its sources, between A.D. 395 and 425. Students of the administrative and military organisation of the Roman state in the late 4th century consider this document immensely valuable as an indispensable supplementary source for understanding many, often less detailed, references that are contained in other documents and inscriptions. The title Notitia Imperii was undoubtedly derived from the Froben copy printed in Basel in 1552.

BkI:Chap4:Sec3 Mentioned.

 

Notre-Dame-d’Alloue

A village near Valognes, in Normandy on the Cotentin peninsula. Notre-Dame d’Alleaume?

BkXVIII:Chap7:Sec1 The beach there.

 

Nouail, Abbé Pierre-Henri

Vicar-General at Saint Malo.

BkI:Chap2:Sec1 Baptised Chateaubriand.

 

Noury de Mauny

Lawyer.

BkIV:Chap5:Sec1 Signatory to Chateaubriand’s father’s death certificate.

 

Nouvelle Héloise, La

Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse is an epistolary romantic novel by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1761 by Rey (Amsterdam). The original edition was entitled Lettres de deux amans habitans d'une petite ville au pied des Alpes.The novel’s subtitle points to the the history of Héloïse and Pierre Abélard, a medieval incident of passion and renunciation. The novel was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

BkXIII:Chap6:Sec2 Its effects mentioned.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 The letters within it mentioned.

 

Novi, Battle of

The Battle of Novi in Liguria in the French Revolutionary Wars was fought on August 15, 1799. It resulted in a victory for the Austrians and Russians under Field-marshal Alexander Suvorov over the French under General Barthelemy Catherine Joubert.

BkXX:Chap1:Sec1 Joubert was killed early in the battle.

 

Noya, Jean de, for Juan da Nova Castella (João da Nova)

c1460-1509. A Galician navigator who, in the service of Portugal, discovered the islands of Ascension (1501), and St. Helena (traditionally 21st May 1502), both off the south-west coast of Africa. Commanding a fleet of four ships, Nova left Portugal on a voyage to India in 1501. His crews included Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America was later named. He died in Cochin, China.

BkXXIV:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Nugent, Charles, Vicomte de

He was editor in chief of Le Revenant, a Legitimist paper (1832-1833).

BkXLI:Chap4:Sec1 In Prague in September 1833.

 

Numantia

A town in Hispania (modern-day Spain), which for a long time resisted conquest by Romans. The city was finally taken and destroyed by the Consul Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus in 133 BC after a long and brutal siege, which signalled the final subjugation of Iberia by the Romans. It was the first notable military endeavour by Gaius Marius. Many of the citizens committed suicide rather than accept slavery.

BkXXI:Chap4:Sec1 The burning of Moscow compared to Numantia.

 

Nuremberg, Germany

A city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the (Rhine-) Main-Danube Canal. It is located about 105 miles north of Munich.

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec1 In 1806 with the Holy Roman Empire formally being dissolved, Nuremberg lost its charter as a free Imperial city (granted 1219) and passed to Bavaria 18th September 1806.