In 1194 Rovigo became a formal possession of Azzo VI d'Este, duke of Ferrara, who took the title of "conte" (count) of Rovigo. The Este authority ended in 1482, when the Venetians took the place by siege and retained possession of it by the peace of 1484. Although the Este recovered the city during the War of the League of Cambrai, the Venetians, returning in 1514, retained possession until the French Revolution. In 1806 Napoleon I Bonaparte created it a duché grand-fief for general Anne Jean Marie René Savary. The Austrians in 1815 made it a royal city.