April 26, 1774 (Marcq) - June 2, 1833 (Paris)
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- Savary, Anne-Jean-Marie-René, Duke of Rovigo
Anne-Jean-Marie-René Savary, Duke of Rovigo born in Marcq near Vouziers (Ardennes) on April 26, 1774, died in Paris in June 1833.
Third son of an old soldier, former major of the castle of Sedan, he early embraced the career of arms:entered the army in 1790, he simultaneously became aide-de-camp to Generals Ferino and Desaix, on the Rhine. and in Egypt. He participated as a captain in the Rhine campaigns under the orders of Generals Custine, Pichegru and Moreau. Promoted to major, he accompanied Desaix to Egypt.
Napoleon Bonaparte's aide-de-camp on the death of Desaix After his return to France, he fought at Marengo. In 1802, at the head of the secret police, he hastened the execution of the Duke of Enghien, thus preventing Bonaparte from being presented with an appeal for pardon after the decision of the Council of War. Savary devotes several pages of his memoirs to the account of the events that led to this execution and gives himself a very secondary role.
On 30 Ventôse, Year XII, the Duke of Enghien had just been brought to Vincennes. Savary received the command of the detachments provided by the regiments of the Paris garrison for the guard of the fortress, not on a special basis, but because of all the commanders present, he was the only one who was not part of the council of war. General of division in 1805, commander of the elite gendarmes of the Imperial Guard, employed as a negotiator in the German campaigns. He took part in the battles of Austerlitz and Jena as a general of division.
In 1807 he commanded the fifth army corps in Warsaw in place of Lannes, covered Warsaw after the Battle of Eylau against the Russians and won the victory at Ostrolenka on February 16, 1807.
After the battles of Heilsberg and Friedland, he was appointed by Napoleon Duke of Rovigo and soon after Governor of East Prussia. After the peace of Tilsit, he was plenipotentiary in Saint Petersburg. In 1808 he took part in the Spanish Civil War. In 1810 he received the post of Minister of Police, which he held until 1814.
He accompanied Marie-Louise of Austria to Blois and remained unemployed during the first Restoration. During the Hundred Days, in 1815, he became Peer of France and Supreme Chief of the Gendarmerie.
At the second Restoration he followed Napoleon; but the English prevented him from going to Saint Helena, arrested him on the Bellerophon and imprisoned him in Malta. Placed on the proscription list of July 24, he escaped from Malta, took refuge in Austria and Turkey; having engaged in commercial speculations in Smyrna, he lost part of his fortune.
In 1817, he traveled to Austria to defend himself against his death sentence pronounced on December 25, 1816 for the role he had played in the execution of the Duc d'Enghien. In Graz he was put under police surveillance. He was then allowed, in June 1818, to return to Smyrna. In 1819 he surrendered voluntarily to justice in Paris, was acquitted and restored to his dignities, but not to his employments, so that in 1823 he left for Rome.
In 1830, he pledged allegiance to the July Monarchy. The Prince de Joinville reports in his Old Memories that, on August 1, at the Palais-Royal, he saw "Savary, Duke of Rovigo, the Duke of Enghien's man, come out in uniform and in boots from my father's office where he had come to offer his services”.
On December 1, 1831, Louis-Philippe entrusted him with the high command in Algeria, where he succeeded well in seizing Bône and where he actively implemented colonization, but the violence of his methods shocked to the point that he was recalled in 1833. He died on June 2 of the same year.
Savary was one of the Emperor's most loyal and devoted servants. His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe, east side.