Anne Jean Marie René Savary Anne Jean Marie René Savary , 1st Duc de Rovigo ( 26 April 1774 – 2 June 1833 ) , French general and diplomat , was born at Marcq in the Ardennes . Biography . He was educated at the college of St Louis at Metz and entered the royal army in 1790 . His first campaign was that waged by General Custine against the retreating forces of the duke of Brunswick in 1792 . He next served in succession under Pichegru and Moreau , and distinguished himself during the skilful retreat of the latter from an untenable position in the heart of Swabia . He became " chef d ' escadron " in 1797 , and in 1798 served under General Louis Desaix , in the Egypt ian campaign , of which he left an interesting and valuable account . He also distinguished himself under Desaix at Marengo ( 14 June 1800 ) . His fidelity and address while serving under Desaix , who was killed at Marengo , secured him the confidence of Napoleon Bonaparte , who appointed him to command the special body of gendarmes charged with the duty of guarding the First Consul . In the discovery of the various ramifications of the Georges Cadoudal - Pichegru conspiracy Savary showed great skill and activity . He proceeded to the cliff of Biville in Normandy , where the plotters were in the habit of landing , and sought , by imitating the signals of the royalist plotters , to tempt the comte d ' Artois ( afterwards Charles X ) to land . In this he was unsuccessful . He was in command of the troops at Vincennes when the duc d ' Enghien was summarily executed . Hullin , who presided at the court - martial , afterwards accused Savary , though not by name , of having intervened to prevent the despatch to Bonaparte of an appeal for mercy which he ( Hullin ) was in the act of drawing up . Savary afterwards denied this , but his denial has not generally been accepted . In February 1805 he was raised to the rank of general of division . Shortly before the battle of Austerlitz ( 2 December 1805 ) he was sent by Napoleon with a message to the emperor Alexander I with a request for an armistice , a device which caused that monarch all the more eagerly to strike the blow which brought disaster to the Russians . After the battle Savary again took a message to Alexander , which induced him to treat for an armistice . In the campaign of 1806 Savary showed signal daring in the pursuit of the Prussia ns after the battle of Jena . He was negotiating during the " Siege of Hameln " . Early in the next year he received command of a corps , and with it gained an important success at Ostrolenka ( 16 February 1807 ) . After the treaty of Tilsit ( 7 July 1807 ) Savary proceeded to St Petersburg as the French ambassador , but was soon replaced by General Caulaincourt , another accessory to the execution of the duc d ' Enghien . The repugnance of the empress dowager to Savary is said to have been one of the reasons of his recall , but it is more probable that Napoleon felt the need of his gifts for intrigue in the Spanish affairs which he undertook at the close of 1807 . With the title of duke of Rovigo ( a small town in Venetia ) , Savary set out for Madrid when Napoleon ' s plans for gaining the mastery of Spain were nearing completion . With Murat Savary made skilful use of the schisms in the Spanish royal family ( March – April 1808 ) , and persuaded Charles IV of Spain , who had recently abdicated under duress , and his son Ferdinand VII , the " de facto " king of Spain , to refer their claims to Napoleon . Savary induced Ferdinand to cross the Pyrenees and proceed to Bayonne — a step which cost him his crown and his liberty until 1814 . In September 1808 Savary accompanied the emperor to the famous interview at Erfurt with the emperor Alexander . In 1809 he took part , albeit without distinction , in the campaign against Austria . On the disgrace of Fouché in the spring of 1810 , Savary received his ministry of police . There he showed his wonted skill and devotion to Napoleon ; and this office , which the Jacobin Fouche had shorn of its terrors , now became a veritable inquisition . Among the incidents of / his time may be cited the cynical brutality with which Savary carried out the order of Napoleon for the exile of Mme de Staël and the destruction of her work " De l ' Allemagne " . Savary ' s wariness was , however , at fault at the time of the strange conspiracy of General Malet , two of whose confederates seized him in his bed and imprisoned him for a few hours ( 23 October 1812 ) . Savary ' s reputation never quite recovered from the ridicule caused by this event . Napoleon awarded him the duché grand - fief ( a rare , nominal but hereditary honor ; extinguished in 1872 ) of Rovigo , in his own Kingdom of Italy . He was among the last to desert the emperor at the time of his abdication ( 11 April 1814 ) and among the first to welcome his abortive return ( ' Cent Jours ' ) from Elba in 1815 , when he became inspector - general of gendarmerie and a Peer of France . After the battle of Waterloo he accompanied the emperor to Rochefort and sailed with him to Plymouth on HMS " Bellerophon " . He was not allowed to accompany him to Saint Helena , but underwent several months ' " internment " at Malta . Escaping thence , he proceeded to Smyrna , where he settled for a time . Afterwards he travelled about in more or less distress , but finally was allowed to return to France and regained civic rights ; later he settled at Rome . The July Revolution ( 1830 ) brought him back into favour and in 1831 he received the command of the French army in Algeria . While in command at Algiers , he alienated French civil authorities with his high - handed treatment of Arab leaders . He was responsible for the extermination of the local Al ' Ouffia tribe and the death of several Arab leaders whom he lured into negotiations . Ill - health compelled him to return to France , and he died in Paris in June 1833 .