Chapter XXI: Part VI: After the Reformation (15)

Chateaubriand ranks rather as a great rhetorician than as a great poet. Something of affectation or unreality commonly interferes with the enjoyment of his finest works. The _Genie du christianisme_ is a brilliant piece of special pleading; _Atala_ is marred by its unfaithfulness to the truth of uncivilized human nature, _Rene_ by the perversion of sentiment which solicits sympathy for a contemptible character. Chateaubriand is chiefly significant as marking the transition from the old classical to the modern romantic school. The fertility of ideas, vehemence of expression and luxury of natural description, which he shares with the romanticists, are controlled by a discipline learnt in the school of their predecessors. His palette, always brilliant, is never gaudy; he is not merely a painter but an artist. He is also a master of epigrammatic and incisive sayings. Perhaps, however, the most truly characteristic feature of his genius is the peculiar magical touch which Matthew Arnold indicated as a note of Celtic extraction, which reveals some occult quality in a familiar object, or tinges it, one knows not how, with "the light that never was on sea or land." This incommunicable gift supplies an element of sincerity to Chateaubriand's writings which goes far to redeem the artificial effect of his calculated sophistry and set declamation. It is also fortunate for his fame that so large a part of his writings should directly or indirectly refer to himself, for on this theme he always writes well. Egotism was his master-passion, and beyond his intrepidity and the loftiness of his intellectual carriage his character presents little to admire. He is a signal instance of the compatibility of genuine poetic emotion, of sympathy with the grander aspects both of man and nature, and of munificence in pecuniary matters, with absorption in self and general sterility of heart.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The _OEuvres completes_ of Chateaubriand were printed
in 28 vols., 1826-1831; in 20 vols., 1829-1831; and in many later
editions, notably in 1858-1861, in 20 volumes, with an introductory
study by Sainte-Beuve. The principal authority for Chateaubriand's
biography is the _Memoires d'outre-tombe_ (1849-1850), of which there
is an English translation, _The Memoirs of ... Chateaubriand_ (6
vols., 1902), by A. Teixeira de Mattos, based on the admirable edition
(4 vols., 1899-1901) of Edmond Bire. This work should be supplemented
by the _Souvenirs et correspondances tires des papiers de Mme
Recamier_ (2 vols., 1859, ed. Mme Ch. Lenormant). See also Comte de
Marcellus, _Chateaubriand et son temps_ (1859); the same editor's
_Souvenirs diplomatiques; correspondance intime de Chateaubriand_
(1858); C.A. Sainte-Beuve, _Chateaubriand et son groupe litteraire
sous l'empire_ (2 vols., 1861, new and revised ed., 3 vols., 1872);
other articles by Sainte-Beuve, who was in this case a somewhat
prejudiced critic, in the _Portraits contemporains_, vols. i. and ii.;
_Causeries du lundi_, vols. i., ii. and x.; _Nouveaux Lundis_, vol.
iii.; _Premiers Lundis_, vol. iii.; A. Vinet, _Etudes sur la litt.
francaise au XIXe siecle_ (1849); M. de Lescure, _Chateaubriand_
(1892) in the _Grands ecrivains francais_; Emile Faguet, _Etudes
litteraires sur le XIXe siecle_ (1887); and _Essai d'une
bio-bibliographie de Chateaubriand et de sa famille_ (Vannes, 1896),
by Rene Kerviler. Joseph Bedier, in _Etudes critiques_ (1903), deals
with the American writings. Some correspondence with Sainte-Beuve was
edited by Louis Thomas in 1904, and some letters to Mme de Stael
appeared in the _Revue des deux mondes_ (Oct. 1903).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For full details of the Chateaubriand family see R. Kerviler,
_Essai d'une bio-bibliographie de Chateaubriand et de sa famille_
(Vannes, 1895).

[2] Her _OEuvres_ were edited in 1879, with a memoir, by Anatole
France.

CHATEAUBRIANT, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Loire-Inferieure, on the left bank of the Chere, 40 m. N.N.E. of Nantes by rail. Pop. (1906) 5969. Chateaubriant takes its name from a castle founded in the 11th century by Brient, count of Penthievre, remains of which, consisting of a square donjon and four towers, still exist. Adjoining it is another castle, built in the first half of the 16th century by Jean de Laval, and famous in history as the residence of Francoise de Foix, mistress of Francis I. Of this the most beautiful feature is the colonnade running at right angles to the main building, and connecting it with a graceful pavilion. It is occupied by a small museum and some of the public offices. There is also an interesting Romanesque church dedicated to St Jean de Bere. Chateaubriant is the seat of a subprefect and has a tribunal of first instance. It is an important centre on the Ouest-Etat railway, and has trade in agricultural products. The manufacture of leather, agricultural implements and preserved angelica are carried on. In 1551 Henry II. signed an edict against the reformed religion at Chateaubriant.

CHATEAUDUN, a town of north central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure-et-Loir, 28 m. S.S.W. of Chartres by rail. Pop. (1906) 5805. It stands on an eminence near the left bank of the Loire. The streets, which are straight and regular, radiate from a central square, a uniformity due to the reconstruction of the town after fires in 1723 and 1870. The chateau, the most remarkable building in the town, was built in great part by Jean, count of Dunois, and his descendants. Founded in the 10th century, and rebuilt in the 12th and 15th centuries, it consists of a principal wing with a fine staircase of the 16th century, and, at right angles, a smaller wing adjoined by a chapel. To the left of the courtyard thus formed rises a lofty keep of the 12th century. The fine apartments and huge kitchens of the chateau are in keeping with its imposing exterior. The church of La Madeleine dates from the 12th century; the buildings of the abbey to which it belonged are occupied by the subprefecture, the law court and the hospital. The medieval churches of St Valerien and St Jean and the ruined chapel of Notre-Dame du Champde, of which the facade in the Renaissance style now forms the entrance to the cemetery, are other notable buildings. The public institutions include a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Flour-milling, tanning and leather-dressing, and the manufacture of blankets, silver jewelry, nails and machinery are the prominent industries. Trade is in cattle, grain, wool and hemp. Chateaudun (_Castrodunum_), which dates from the Gallo-Roman period, was in the middle ages the capital of the countship of Dunois.

CHATEAU-GONTIER, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Mayenne, on the Mayenne, 18 m. S. by E. of Laval by road. Pop. (1906) 6871. Of its churches, that of St Jean, a relic of the castle, dates from the 11th century. Chateau-Gontier is the seat of a subprefect and has a tribunal of first instance, a communal college for boys and a small museum. It carries on wool- and cotton-spinning, the manufacture of serge, flannel and oil, and is an agricultural market. There are chalybeate springs close to the town. Chateau-Gontier owes its origin and its name to a castle erected in the first half of the 11th century by Gunther, the steward of Fulk Nerra of Anjou, on the site of a farm belonging to the monks of St Aubin d'Angers. On the extinction of the family, the lordship was assigned by Louis XI. to Philippe de Comines. The town suffered severely during the wars of the League. In 1793 it was occupied by the Vendeans.

CHATEAUNEUF, LA BELLE, the name popularly given to RENEE DE RIEUX, daughter of Jean de Rieux, seigneur de Chateauneuf, who was descended from one of the greatest families of Brittany. The dates both of her birth and death are not known. She was maid of honour to the queen-mother Catherine de' Medici, and inspired an ardent passion in the duke of Anjou, brother of Charles IX. This intrigue deterred the duke from the marriage which it was desired to arrange for him with Elizabeth of England; but he soon abandoned La Belle Chateauneuf for Marie of Cleves (1571). The court then wished to find a husband for Renee de Rieux, whose singular beauty gave her an influence which the queen-mother feared, and matches were in turn suggested with the voivode of Transylvania, the earl of Leicester, with Du Prat, provost of Paris, and with the count of Brienne, all of which came to nothing. Ultimately, on the ground that she had been lacking in respect towards the queen, Louise of Lorraine-Vaudemont, Renee was banished from the court. She married a Florentine named Antinotti, whom she stabbed in a fit of jealousy (1577); then she remarried, her husband being Philip Altoviti, who in 1586 was killed in a duel by the Grand Prior Henry of Angouleme, who was himself mortally wounded.

CHATEAU-RENAULT, FRANCOIS LOUIS DE ROUSSELET, MARQUIS DE (1637-1716), French admiral, was the fourth son of the third marquis of Chateau-Renault. The family was of Breton origin, but had been long settled near Blois. He entered the army in 1658, but in 1661 was transferred to the navy, which Louis XIV. was eager to raise to a high level of strength. After a short apprenticeship he was made captain in 1666. His early services were mostly performed in cruises against the Barbary pirates (1672). In 1673 he was named _chef d'escadre_, and he was promoted _lieutenant general des armees navales_ in 1687. During the wars up to this date he had few chances of distinction, but he had been wounded in action with the pirates, and had been on a cruise to the West Indies. When war broke out between England and France after the revolution of 1688, he was in command at Brest, and was chosen to carry the troops and stores sent by the French king to the aid of James II. in Ireland. Although he was watched by Admiral Herbert (Lord Torrington, q.v.), with whom he fought an indecisive action in Bantry Bay, he executed his mission with success. Chateau-Renault commanded a squadron under Tourville at the battle of Beachy Head in 1690. He was with Tourville in the attack of the Smyrna convoy in 1693, and was named grand cross of the order of Saint Louis in the same year. Though in constant service, the reduced state of the French navy (owing to the financial embarrassments of the treasury) gave him few openings for fighting at sea during the rest of the war.

On the death of Tourville in 1701 he was named to the vacant post of vice-admiral of France. On the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession he was named for the difficult task of protecting the Spanish ships which were to bring the treasure from America. It was a duty of extreme delicacy, for the Spaniards were unwilling to obey a foreigner, and the French king was anxious that the bullion should be brought to one of his own ports, a scheme which the Spanish officials were sure to resent if they were allowed to discover what was meant. With the utmost difficulty Chateau-Renault was able to bring the galleons as far as Vigo, to which port he steered when he learnt that a powerful English and Dutch armament was on the Spanish coast, and had to recognize that the Spanish officers would not consent to make for a French harbour or for Passages, which they thought too near France. His fleet of fifteen French and three Spanish war-ships, having under their care twelve galleons, had anchored on the 22nd of September in Vigo Bay. Obstacles, some of an official character, and others due to the poverty of the Spanish government in resources, arose to delay the landing of the treasure. There was no adequate garrison in the town, and the local militia was untrustworthy. Knowing that he would probably be attacked, Chateau-Renault strove to protect his fleet by means of a boom. The order to land the treasure was delayed, and until it came from Madrid nothing could be done, since according to law it should have been landed at Cadiz, which had a monopoly of the trade with America. At last the order came, and the bullion was landed under the care of the Gallician militia which was ordered to escort it to Lugo. A very large part, if not the whole, was plundered by the militiamen and the farmers whose carts had been commandeered for the service. But the bulk of the merchandise was on board of the galleons when the allied fleet appeared outside of the bay on the 22nd of October 1702. Sir George Rooke and his colleagues resolved to attack. The fleet was carrying a body of troops which had been sent out to make a landing at Cadiz, and had been beaten off. The fortifications of Vigo were weak on the sea side, and on the land side there were none. There was therefore nothing to offer a serious resistance to the allies when they landed soldiers. The fleet of twenty-four sail was steered at the boom and broke through it, while the troops turned the forts and had no difficulty in scattering the Gallician militia. In the bay the action was utterly disastrous to the French and Spaniards. Their ships were all taken or destroyed. The booty gained was far less than the allies hoped, but the damage done to the French and Spanish governments was great.

Chateau-Renault suffered no loss of his master's favour by his failure to save the treasure. The king considered him free from blame, and must indeed have known that the admiral had been trusted with too many secrets to make it safe to inflict a public rebuke. The Spanish government declined to give him the rank of grandee which was to have been the reward for bringing home the bullion safe. But in 1703 he was made a marshal of France, and shortly afterwards lieutenant-general of Brittany. The fight in Vigo Bay was the last piece of active service performed by Chateau-Renault. In 1708 on the death of his nephew he inherited the marquisate, and on the 15th of November 1716 he died in Paris. He married in 1684 Marie-Anne-Renee de la Porte, daughter and heiress of the count of Crozon. His eldest son was killed at the battle of Malaga 1704, and another, also a naval officer, was killed by accident in 1708. A third son, who too was a naval officer, succeeded him in the title.

A life of Chateau-Renault was published in 1903 by M. Calmon-Maison.
There is a French as well as an English account of the part played by
him at Bantry Bay and Beachy Head, and the controversy still
continues. For the French history of the navy under Louis XIV. see
Leon Guerin, _Histoire maritime de la France_ (1863), vols. iii., iv.;
and his _Les Marins illustres_ (1861). Also the naval history by
Charles Bouzel de la Ronciere. (D. H.)

CHATEAUROUX, MARIE ANNE DE MAILLY-NESLE, DUCHESSE DE (1717-1744), mistress of Louis XV. of France, was the fourth daughter of Louis, marquis de Nesle, a descendant of a niece of Mazarin. In 1740, upon the death of her husband, the marquis de la Tournelle, she attracted the attention of Louis XV.; and by the aid of the duc de Richelieu, who, dominated by Madame de Tencin, hoped to rule both the king and the state, she supplanted her sister, Madame de Mailly, as titular mistress in 1742. Directed by Richelieu, she tried to arouse the king, dragging him off to the armies, and negotiated the alliance with Frederick II. of Prussia, in 1744. Her political role, however, has been exaggerated. Her triumph after the passing disgrace provoked by the king's illness at Metz did not last long, for she died on the 8th of December 1744.

See Ed. and J. de Goncourt, _La Duchesse de Chateauroux et ses soeurs_
(Paris, 1879).

CHATEAUROUX, a town of central France, capital of the department of Indre, situated in a plain on the left bank of the Indre, 88 m. S. of Orleans on the main line of the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) 21,048. The old town, close to the river, forms a nucleus round which a newer and more extensive quarter, bordered by boulevards, has grown up; the suburbs of St Christophe and Deols (q.v.) lie on the right bank of the Indre. The principal buildings of Chateauroux are the handsome modern church of St Andre, in the Gothic style, and the Chateau Raoul, of the 14th and 15th centuries; the latter now forms part of the prefecture. The hotel de ville contains a library and a museum which possesses a collection of paintings of the Flemish school and some interesting souvenirs of Napoleon I. A statue of General Henri Bertrand (1773-1844) stands in one of the principal squares. Chateauroux is the seat of a prefect and of a court of assizes. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a branch of the Bank of France, a chamber of commerce, a lycee, a college for girls and training colleges. The manufacture of coarse woollens for military clothing and other purposes, and a state tobacco-factory, occupy large numbers of the inhabitants. Wool-spinning, iron-founding, brewing, tanning, and the manufacture of agricultural implements are also carried on. Trade is in wool, iron, grain, sheep, lithographic stone and leather. The castle from which Chateauroux takes its name was founded about the middle of the 10th century by Raoul, prince of Deols, and during the middle ages was the seat of a seigniory, which was raised to the rank of countship in 1497, and in 1616, when it was held by Henry II., prince of Conde, to that of duchy. In 1736 it returned to the crown, and was given by Louis XV. in 1744 to his mistress, Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, duchess of Chateauroux.

CHATEAU-THIERRY, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Aisne, 59 m. E.N.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway to Nancy. Pop. (1906) 6872. Chateau-Thierry is built on rising ground on the right bank of the Marne, over which a fine stone bridge leads to the suburb of Marne. On the quay stands a marble statue erected to the memory of La Fontaine, who was born in the town in 1621; his house is still preserved in the street that bears his name. On the top of a hill are the ruins of a castle, which is said to have been built by Charles Martel for the Frankish king, Thierry IV., and is plainly the origin of the name of the town. The chief relic is a gateway flanked by massive round towers, known as the Porte Saint-Pierre. A belfry of the 15th century and the church of St Crepin of the same period are of some interest. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. The distinctive industry is the manufacture of mathematical and musical instruments. There is trade in the white wine of the neighbourhood, and in sheep, cattle and agricultural products. Gypsum, millstone and paving-stone are quarried in the vicinity. Chateau-Thierry was formerly the capital of the district of Brie Pouilleuse, and received the title of duchy from Charles IX. in 1566. It was captured by the English in 1421, by Charles V. in 1544, and sacked by the Spanish in 1591. During the wars of the Fronde it was pillaged in 1652; and in the campaign of 1814 it suffered severely. On the 12th of February of the latter year the Russo-Prussian forces were beaten by Napoleon in the neighbourhood.

CHATELAIN (Med. Lat. _castellanus_, from _castellum_, a castle), in France originally merely the equivalent of the English castellan, i.e. the commander of a castle. With the growth of the feudal system, however, the title gained in France a special significance which it never acquired in England, as implying the jurisdiction of which the castle became the centre. The _chatelain_ was originally, in Carolingian times, an official of the count; with the development of feudalism the office became a fief, and so ultimately hereditary. In this as in other respects the chatelain was the equivalent of the viscount (q.v.) sometimes the two titles were combined, but more usually in those provinces where there were chatelains there were no viscounts, and vice versa. The title chatelain continued also to be applied to the inferior officer, or _concierge chatelain_, who was merely a castellan in the English sense. The power and status of chatelains necessarily varied greatly at different periods and places. Usually their rank in the feudal hierarchy was equivalent to that of the simple _sire_ (_dominus_), between the baron and the _chevalier_; but occasionally they were great nobles with an extensive jurisdiction, as in the Low Countries (see BURGRAVE). This variation was most marked in the cities, where in the struggle for power that of the chatelain depended on the success with which he could assert himself against his feudal superior, lay or ecclesiastical, or, from the 12th century onwards, against the rising power of the communes. The _chatellenie_ (_castellania_), or jurisdiction of the chatelain, as a territorial division for certain judicial and administrative purposes, survived the disappearance of the title and office of the chatelain in France, and continued till the Revolution.

See Achille Luchaire, _Manuel des institutions francaises_ (Paris,
1892); Du Cange, _Glossarium, s._ "Castellanus."

CHATELAINE (Fr. _chatelaine_, the feminine form of _chatelain_, a keeper of a castle), the mistress of a castle. From the custom of a chatelaine to carry the keys of the castle suspended from her girdle, the word is now applied to the collection of short chains, often worn by ladies, to which are attached various small articles of domestic and toilet use, as keys, penknife, needlecase, scissors, &c.