[598] Karl Robert Count Nesselrode (1780-1862), the famous Russian statesman, was Minister of Foreign Affairs almost continuously from 1813 to 1856.—T.
[599] Blacas d'Aulps the troubadour died in 1229; Blacas d'Aulps the "Great Warrior," one of the most gallant knights at the Court of Provence, in 1235.—T.
[600] Cf. Vol. II., p. 202, n. 5. Blacas d'Aulps and d'Épernon were both natives of the South of France.—T.
[601] The Obelisk of Luxor was brought from Egypt in 1831 and set up in Paris, on the Place de la Concorde, in 1836. It weighs 240 tons.—T.
[602] Luc de Clapier, Marquis de Vauvenargues ( 1715-1747), the French moralist, author of the Introduction à la connaissance de l'esprit humain, took part in the retreat from Prague (December 1742) as a captain of foot. His health suffered, and he was obliged to resign his commission soon after.—T.
[603] Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), the celebrated Danish astronomer, entered the service of the Emperor Rudolph II. and settled in Prague in 1599. The constellation which Tycho discovered in 1572 was Cassiopeia, in which appeared a temporary star brighter than Venus at its brightest.—T.
[604] Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, Act III. sc. iii. 1-2, 45, 48, 53-54.—T.
[605] Wenceslaus VI. King of Bohemia and Emperor of Germany (1361-1419), surnamed the Drunkard, was the son of the Emperor Charles IV. He was elected King of the Romans in 1376 and succeeded to the German and Bohemian Thrones in 1378. His cruelties made him so odious that his Bohemian nobles imprisoned him in 1394 and, in 1400, he was solemnly deposed from the Throne of Germany. He renounced his right to the Imperial Crown in 1410, but continued to reign as King of Bohemia.—T.
[606] John Wyclif (circa 1324-1384) became Master of Balliol in 1360. Huss began spreading his doctrines in Prague in 1398.—T.
[607] Vaclav Hanka (1791-1861), an eminent Bohemian philologist and poet.—T.