The ship was ordered during the tenure of Admiral Théophile Aube as the French Minister of Marine, who favored a fleet centered on large numbers of cruisers of various types.

Davout and the similar vessel Suchet were ordered to fill the role of a medium cruiser in Aube's plans.

Davout was armed with a main battery of six 164 mm (6.5 in) guns in single mounts, and she had a top speed of 20.7 knots (38.3 km/h; 23.8 mph).

Aube, who replaced Galiber in January 1886, was an ardent supporter of the Jeune École doctrine, which envisioned using a combination of cruisers and torpedo boats to defend France and attack enemy merchant shipping.

[1][2] By the time Aube had come to office, the French Navy had laid down three large protected cruisers that were intended to serve as commerce raiders: Sfax, Tage, and Amiral Cécille.

[4] By this time, a total of eleven designs were submitted to be evaluated by the Conseil des Travaux (Council of Works), and that prepared by Marie de Bussy was selected.

The required speed had by that time been increased to 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph); the naval historian Stephen Roberts states that Aube was probably responsible for the change.

[2] On reviewing Aube's plans and the French naval budget, Barbey decided that the proposed cruiser program would have to be reduced.

During work on Suchet the supervisor at Toulon decided alterations needed to be made, so only Davout was completed to the original design.

Her superstructure was minimal, consisting primarily of a small bridge forward and a pair of heavy military masts with fighting tops that housed some of her light guns.

[2] The propulsion system for Davout consisted of two inverted, 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines that drove a pair of screw propellers.

Steam was provided by eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers that were ducted into two widely spaced funnels located amidships.

The ship had a cruising radius of 7,130 nautical miles (13,200 km; 8,210 mi) at the economical speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Neither the boilers or their uptakes could be cleaned while the ship was steaming, so speed could not be kept up after a few days of operation, rendering her unreliable on long-distance cruises.

[2] Davout was ordered on 1 March 1887, and she was built in Toulon, France; her keel laying took place on 12 September 1887 and she was launched on 31 October 1889.

She was commissioned on 20 October 1890 to begin sea trials,[2] but these were delayed after problems with her propulsion system required multiple repairs and alterations, including the brazing of her boiler tubes, which had to be redone.

The squadron steamed to Brest in late September that year to be dispersed and deactivated for the winter; Davout was sent to the naval base at Rochefort to be laid up on 1 October.

She remained there for a short time before being struck from the naval register on 9 March 1910, though she was not sold to ship breakers until 23 October 1913.