He attended a course of studies at the Academy of Sedan, but at the age of sixteen served as cornet (standard-bearer) to the Protestant Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, sovereign prince of Sedan, whom he followed at the siege of Vercelli in Piedmont (1614), and then at the battle of Prague, 8 November 1620. In 1621 he proclaimed himself a Roman Catholic though still serving under Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. With the formal outbreak of hostilities in the Thirty Years' War, he participated at the sieges of Saint-Jean d'Angely and Montauban, then commanded troops repelling the siege of Coblenz; he fought under the maréchal de La Force, commanded troops in Berry and in Artois, was made a field marshal (1639), a lieutenant-general (1650), and then, called from Coblenz to be governor of Arras, made a name for himself at the defense of Arras (1654), facing down and counterattacking the prince de Condé, at the head of Spanish troops; the Great Condé was forced to retire, 25 August. In consequence of this success he was made marquis de Montejeu and a Marshal of France, 16 June 1658. He was made a Chevalier du Saint-Esprit, 31 December 1661. He died in 1671 at his château of Montejeu, Attigny.