Battle of Roncesvalles
A battle which took place in 778 at a mountain pass in the Pyrenees, near the village of Roncesvalles in northern Spain. The rearguard of Charlemagne's army was attacked by the Basques and massacred; ...
chanson de geste
A medieval French historical verse romance, typically one connected with Charlemagne. The phrase is French, and means literally ‘song of heroic deeds’, from chanson ‘song’ and geste from Latin gesta ...
Girart de Vienne
Eponymous protagonist of OFr chanson de geste (c.1180), adapted (possibly by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube) from an earlier poem. Girart quarrels with Charles Martel in a burlesque tussle over a woman. ...
Girondins
A member of a French political party whose main exponents came from the Gironde region. The Girondins were closely associated with the Jacobins in the early days of the French Revolution. They held ...
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712–78),French philosopher: stays in London (Chiswick) 1765–6, Wootton (Staffordshire) 1766; visits Ellastone 1766; said to have stayed in Nuneham Courtenay 1767. La Nouvelle Héloïse 1761, ...
Oliver
The companion of Roland in the Chanson de Roland and one of the paladins, who at Roncesvalles finally persuades his friend to summon Charlemagne to their aid by blowing the ivory horn Olivant.See ...
Reign of Terror
A period of the French Revolution that began in March 1793 when the Revolutionary government, known as the Convention, having executed the king, set about attacking opponents and anyone else ...
Sainte-Pélagie
This former convent near the Jardin des Plantes served as a prison from the Revolution to the end of the 19th c. Madame Roland wrote her memoirs here, and in ...
Stendhal
(1783–1842),French novelist and critic: stays in London (Covent Garden) 1817; reads in London park (Richmond); visits brothel in London (Lambeth) 1821. La Chartreuse de Parme 1839, Souvenirs ...
