(1810). To the emperor's right, Duroc indicates to the Spanish authorities the time at which Madrid must surrender, after the
Battle of Somosierra As
Grand Marshal of the Palace, Duroc was responsible for the measures taken to secure Napoleon's personal safety, whether in France or on his campaigns, and he directed the minutest details of the imperial household. After the
Battle of Austerlitz, where he commanded the
grenadiers in the absence of
General Oudinot, he was employed in a series of important negotiations with
Frederick William III of Prussia, with the elector of
Saxony (December 1806), in the incorporation of certain states in the
Confederation of the Rhine, and in the conclusion of the armistice of
Znaim (July 1809). In 1808, he was created Duke of
Frioul (
Duc de Frioul): his duchy was made
duché grand-fief for his widow in 1813, a rare - but nominal - hereditary honour (extinguished in 1829), created in Napoleon's own
Kingdom of Italy. In 1813, after the Russian campaign he was appointed to the
Sénat conservateur as a senator. . After the
Battle of Bautzen (20–21 May 1813), the
Grande Armée made a slow pursuit of Allied forces. At the
Battle of Reichenbach on 22 May 1813, a cannonball ricocheted off a tree-trunk, hit Duroc in the stomach, tore open his belly and spilled out his intestines in a gory mess over uniform, saddle and horse, which Napoleon witnessed. Whilst Duroc lay dying inside a farmhouse, he requested Napoleon's presence where he apologised to the Emperor for not being able to serve him further, asked him to be a father to his daughter, and then requested him to withdraw so that he was not present at the moment of death. Alternatively, Napoleon claimed in later life that "when his bowels were falling out before my eyes, he repeatedly cried to me to have him put out of his misery. I told him: 'I feel pity for you, my friend, but there is no remedy but to suffer till the end.'" Napoleon bought the farm and erected a monument to his memory. ==Legacy==