Chateaubriand perhaps ? He wrote a travel memoir type thing about Spain and a novel entitled Le dernier des Abencerrages about a family who had a good position in the kingdom of Granada . When one of the family fell in love with one of the royals the king shut the lot of them up in the Alhambra and ordered them all to be killed .
Chateaubriand is also a sort of filet steak which is named after him .