Pierre-François, Marquis de Rougé

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierre-François, Marquis de Rougé (1702 - 1761) was a French nobleman and General. The son of Pierre III, Marquis de Rougé and of Jeanne Prézeau de la Guilletière, he held the hereditary titles Marquis de Rougé, Baron de Coetmen, Lord of Le Tremblay and La Belliere. Later in life he became Governor of Givet and Charlemont. He is represented in the Castle of Versailles "Museum of the French Glories".

The Marquis de Rougé and his wife Jeanne Julie de Coetmen had two sons (Bonabes, Marquis de Rougé and Francois Pierre Olivier, Count de Rougé et du Plessis Belliere) and three daughters. All these where adopted at the death of their parents in 1761 by the Princess Innocente Catherine de Rougé du Plessis-Bellière, princess of Lorraine and Duchess of Elbeuf.

[edit] Military Career

The Marquis fought in the War of the Polish Succession at the Battle of Kehl (1733) and the Battle of Philippsburg (1734), and became a colonel in the War of the Austrian Succession. During the Seven Years' War he was taken prisoner and exchanged at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, and fought against Prussia in Corbach and Kassel.

On September 7, 1759, the Marquis signed a military treaty known later as the "Convention of Brandebourg". This agreement, concluded with the representative of the Prussian armies, General Major Baron Buddenbrock, stipulated that the hospitals, wounded soldiers and lazarets as well as the medical personnel would not be considered as fighting units. A century later Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, described this as the first "Red Cross treaty" when he requested funds from the Emperor Napoleon III.

The Marquis was struck down in 1761 at the Battle of Villinghausen, where he was fatally wounded. The Marquess of Granby, in a letter, reported that the Marquis de Rougé was talking with his cousin, the Duc de Croy d’Havrée (of the House Croy), his brother-in-law Lieutenant General the Marquis de Verac, and his cousin Lieutenant General Count de Rougé (the Duke de Croy d'Havré's son-in-law) when a cannon ball struck the group, killing three of them and taking off the leg of the Marquis de Rougé.