Géraud-Christophe-Michel Duroc, duke de Frioul

Géraud-Christophe-Michel Duroc, duke de Frioul (born Oct. 25, 1772, Pont-à-Mousson, Fr.—died May 23, 1813, Markersdorf, near Görlitz, Silesia) was a French general and diplomat, one of Napoleon’s closest advisers.

The son of Claude de Michel, chevalier du Roc, who was a cavalry officer, Duroc went to the Châlons artillery school, emigrated in 1792, but changed his mind, returned to France, entered the Metz school (1793), and was drafted to the artillery of the army of Italy. In 1796 Napoleon took Duroc as his aide and made him a major in Egypt, a colonel in Syria, and, after the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), senior aide-de-camp. All contemporaries praised this reserved, unambitious man who, as his best friend, so often checked Napoleon’s angry impulses.

From 1804 he was grand marshal (lord high steward of the empire) and kept good order in the palaces. Furthermore, he was often on diplomatic missions, and it was he who signed the treaties of Fontainebleau and Bayonne (1807–08) determining the French intervention in Spain. He was also general of division (1803), led a division at the Battle of Austerlitz, and was in all the campaigns. He was usually consulted by Napoleon on questions of promotion and became the best channel by which Napoleon’s lieutenants could approach him.

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On his journey back from Russia in 1812, the emperor chose Armand de Caulaincourt as his immediate companion; Duroc followed in another sledge. Back in France, Duroc was made a senator in 1813. He had heavy work in the organization of the new French army and was with it at the battles of Lützen and Bautzen (1813). In the outposts in Silesia he came, by chance, under artillery fire and was mortally wounded. Napoleon deeply regretted his death.