PIERRE FRANCOIS, Marquis de Rougé, Baron de Coëtmen, seigneur de La Bellière, du Tremblay, etc. (1702-1761)
French general, son of Pierre III, Marquis de Rougé and of Jeanne Prézeau de La Guilletière. Pierre-François de Rougé took part in the Battle of Kehl in 1733 and in the Battle of Philipsburg in 1734. He was made a colonel in the War of Succession in Austria. During the 7 Years War, he was captured at Rossbach (1757), then released. He also fought in the Battles of Corbach and Kassel against Prussian Armies. He later became governor of Givet and of Charlemont. On 7 September 1759, the Marquis de Rougé signed a treaty which later became famous under the name of ‘Convention de Brandenburg’. This agreement, signed with the representative of the Prussian armies, General Major Baron Buddenbrock, stipulated that the military hospitals and lazarets, aswell as medical personnel, would not be considered as fighting units. This act was considered a century later by Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, as being the first treaty ‘de Croix Rouge’, as he demanded funds from Napoleon III. The Marquis de Rougé was fatally wounded, as was his cousin, the Duke de Croy d'Havré (by the same bullet), during the Battle of Vellinghausen in Westphalia in 1761.

INNOCENTE CATHERINE de Rougé du Plessis-Bellière, DUCHESS d'ELBEUF, Princess of Lorraine and of the Holy Roman Empire, Marquise de Faÿ, Marquise de Coëtanfao, etc. (1707-1794)
Daughter of Jean Gilles de Rougé, Marquis du Plessis-Bellière and of Florimonde de Lantivy de Crosco. In 1761 she adopted her nephews, Bonabes Marquis de Rougé and Francois Pierre Olivier, Comte de Rougé and Plessis-Bellière, after the death of their parents. Several years before, she had become the widow of the Marquis de Coetanfao, and in 1747 had married the Prince of the Holy Roman Empire Emmanuel Maurice de Lorraine, Duke of Elbeuf. She survived the turbulent times of the Revolution and wrote particularly interesting letters, in which she analysed the events of the times with insight and intelligence. She complained, for example, of the passivity of the King Louis XVI in the face of the rebels, and described the frequent encounters with the Archdukes of Austria, to encourage them to intervene against the Revolution and the bloody Terror which followed it. She was imprisoned, then released several times, and finally died in total destitution. She was remembered in her seigneuries, the majority of which were at Moreuil, near Amiens, and was known as ‘la mere des pauvres’ – the ‘mother of the poor’.

GABRIEL FRANCOIS, Comte de Rougé, MARQUIS de CHOLET, Comte de Chemillé, Baron de Montfaucon, du May, de Vienne-le-Châtel, etc. (1729-1786)
French general, son of the Comte Gabriel César and of Marie du Bois de La Ferté. At the age of 11, he went into the army; at 19, he was made a colonel following his exceptional bravery at the Battle of Mahon, against the English troops in Minorca in the Mediterranean. Two years later, he married the Princess Marie Anne Christiane Joséphine de Croÿ d'Havré, daughter of the Duke Louis Ferdinand Joseph de Croÿ d'Havré, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and Field-Marshall, and of the Princess Marie Louise de Montmorency-Luxembourg. He directed many battles with his ‘regiment de Rougé’. In 1763, he bought the Marquisat de Cholet, to which he later devoted all his spare time and his entire fortune in improving the infrastructure of the city, and to developing business, due in part to the installation of regular markets. Cholet became a relatively modern town, with a thriving economic centre. A large part of the town was transformed, a square has since been named after its benefactor. Nowadays, a shopping area and economical complex called "Les Arcades Rougé" is built, named after him.

BONABES, Marquis de Rougé, Baron de Coëtmen (1751-1783)
Son of the Marquis Pierre François de Rougé and of Marie Claude Jeanne Julie de Coëtmen. Colonel of the French armies, Bonabes Jean Catherine Alexis de Rougé fought voluntarily in the War of Independence in America. He died on the Zélé ship, on his return to France, in 1783.

FRANCOIS PIERRE OLIVIER, Comte de Rougé et du Plessis-Bellière, Marquis de Faÿ-les-Nemours (1756-1816)
French general, brother of the previous one, chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis, colonel of the Infantry in 1780, deputy of the Nobility to the General States in 1789, Marechal of the camp in 1791, lieutenant-general in 1816. On 13 April 1779 married Marie Josèphe Vincente de Robert de Lignerac de Caylus, daughter of the Marquis de Lignerac, Duke of Caylus, and of Marie de Lévis de Châteaumorand.

BONABES, Marquis de Rougé, Peer of France, Baron of Coëtmen and of Montfaucon, etc. (1778-1839)
Son of the Marquis Bonabes Jean Catherine Alexis and of the Victurnienne Delphine Nathalie de Rochechouart de Mortemart. The Marquis de Rougé was initially an aide de camp to Prince Christian of Waldeck in 1794 in the Austrian Army. He then served in the Army of the Princes in the regiment of the Duke of Montemart, his uncle. In 1804, he married Alexandrine Célestine Zoé Emmanuelle Thimarette de Crussol d'Uzès, daughter of the Duke of Uzès, first Peer of France and of Amable Emilie, Duchess of Châtillon. In 1815, he was made Peer of France and lieutenant-colonel of the Cent-Suisses of the Garde du Roi, then chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis, then officer of the Legion d’Honneur. He was president of the electoral college of the Somme region in 1823 and 1827. At the time of the accession to power of the King Louis-Philippe of Orleans, in 1830, the Marquis de Rougé gave up his military and political activities, as did his brother Adrien.

ADRIEN, Comte de Rougé et Pair de France (1782-1838)
Brother of the latter, he was first of all enlisted in the regiment of Mortemart, in March 1800. After the Restoration, he was made sub-lieutenant to the mousquetaires gris in July 1814. Lieutenant-colonel of the state of the 1st military division in 1816. Deputy of the Somme in 1815 and 1823. He was made Peer of France on 5 November 1827. He commanded one of four of the military divisions of Paris, and became the leader of the Chevaliers de la Foi, an ultra-royalist group under the reign of Charles X, after the departure of the Duke of Montmorency. In 1830 he ceased his military and political activities.

EMMANUEL, Viscount de Rougé (1811-1872)
Egyptologist, philologist, member of the Institute, of the Académie des Sciences, of the Adelaide de la Porte de Riantz, curator of the Egyptian museum at the Louvre (1894), councillor of the State (1854), professor of Egyptian Archeology at the Collège of France (1864). He is, among others, the author of the following : Mémoire sur l'inscription du tombeau d'Ahmès, chef des nautoniers (1851), Le Poème de Pentaour (1861), Rituel funéraire des anciens égyptiens (1861-1863); Recherches sur les monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux six premières dynastie de Manéthon (1865); Chrestomathie egyptienne (1867-1876). The Vicomte de Rougé was the last senator to be created by Emperor Napoleon III before the failure of Sedan, which prevented the announcement from being made public. Busts of Vicomte Emmanuel are held in the Louvre and in the Cairo Museum in Egypt.

ARTHUR, Comte de Rougé et du Plessis-Bellière, DUKE of CAYLUS, Grandee of Spain, etc. (1844-1913)
Bailli-Grand-Cross of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and president of the French Assoication of the Knights of Malta. Son of Adophe de Rougé and Marie de Saint-Georges de Vérac, in 1888 he marred Marie Agnes de Rohan-Chabot, daughter of Charles Louis Josselin, Duke of Rohan and of Etiennette Catherine Rouillé de Boissy.

OLIVIER, Viscount de Rougé (1862-1932)
Founder of the Maine-Anjou herd in 1908, senator between 1920 and 1932, member of the Académie d'Agriculture. President of the Association des agriculteurs. Son of the Vicomte Camille de Rougé and of Marthe de Charnières, Vicomte Olivier was also a talented poet and writer. He sometimes used the pseudonyme Pierre Cherré. He also left interesting memoirs.

CHARLES, Vicomte de Rougé
Invented the Elytroplan airplane.

CHARLES ARMAND, Vicomte de Rougé (1918-1940)
Although he was just a junior cavalry officer, he volunteered to organise the defence of a strategic military point, the bridge of Château-Thierry on the Marne. Having been successful, he was killed by a lone sniper. At the end of the war, the bridge which he defended was named in his memory: ‘Pont aspirant de Rougé’.