SAVARY, ANNE JEAN MARIE RENE, DUKE OF ROVIGO (1774-1833), French general and diplomatist, was born at Marcq in the Ardennes on April 26, 1774. He was educated at the college of St. Louis at Metz and entered the royal army in 179o. He served under Custine on the eastern frontier in 1792, then under Pichegru and Moreau, and in 1798 under Desaix in Egypt, and in Italy. After Marengo Bonaparte gave him com mand of the gendarmes charged with the duty of guarding the First Consul. In the discovery of the various ramifications of the Cadoudal-Pichegru conspiracy Savary showed great skill and activity. He was in command of the troops at Vincennes when the duc d'Enghien (q.v.) was executed. In Feb. i8o5 he became general of division. Shortly before the battle of Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 18o5) he was sent by Napoleon with a message to the emperor Alexander I. with a request for an armistice, a device which pre cipitated the attack 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 18°6 Savary showed signal daring in the pursuit of the Prussians after the battle of Jena. Early in the next year he received command of a corps, and gained a success at Ostrolenka (Feb. 16, 1807).
After the treaty of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) Savary proceeded to St. Petersburg as the French ambassador, but was soon replaced by General Caulaincourt (q.v.), another accessory to the execu tion of the duc d'Enghien. But Napoleon needed him in Madrid. With the title of duke of Rovigo, Savary set out for Spain. With Murat Savary made skilful use of the schisms in the Spanish royal family (March–April 1808), and persuaded Charles IV., who had recently abdicated under duresse, 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 18o8 Savary accompanied the emperor to the famous interview at Erfurt with the emperor Alexander. On the disgrace of Fouche (q.v.) in the spring of 181o, Savary re ceived his appointment, the ministry of police. This office now became a veritable inquisition. Savary was among the last to desert the emperor at the time of his abdication (April 11, and among the first to welcome his return in 1815, when he became inspector-general of gendarmerie and a peer of France. After Waterloo he accompanied the emperor to Rochefort and sailed with him to Plymouth on H.M.S. "Bellerophon." He was not allowed to accompany him to St. Helena, but underwent several months' "internment" at Malta. Finally he was allowed to return to France and regained civic rights ; later he settled at Rome. The July revolution (183o) brought him into favour and in 1831 he received the command of the French army in Algeria. III health compelled him to return to France, and he died at Paris in June 1833.
See Memoires du duc de Rovigo (4 vols., London, 1828; English edition also in 4 vols., London, 1828) ; a new French edition anno tated by D. Lacroix (5 vols., Paris, 19oo) ; Extrait des memoires de M. le duc de Rovigo concernant le catastrophe de M. le duc d'Enghien (London, 1823) ; Le Duc de Rovigo juge par lui-meme et par ses con temporains, by L. F. E. . . . (Paris, 1823) ; and A. F. N. Macquart, Refutation de l'ecrit de M. le duc de Rovigo (1823).