The first two ships—"Gaulois" and —were briefly assigned to the Northern Squadron before being moved to the Mediterranean Squadron in 1899, where they were joined by the next year. The last member of the class became the squadron flagship. The ships were involved in a number of accidents: "Gaulois" collided with the destroyer in 1900 and "Bouvet" in 1903, "Saint Louis" was struck by the destroyer and rammed the submarine in 1911 and 1912, respectively. The new battleship replaced "Saint Louis" as the flagship in 1904, and the three "Charlemagne"s were moved to the North Sea in 1909 and returned to the Mediterranean in 1912. They escorted convoys at the start of World War I and later took part in the Dardanelles campaign, where "Gaulois" was badly damaged by Ottoman artillery fire. "Gaulois" was later torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in 1916 and the other two vessels saw little activity thereafter, being withdrawn from service in mid-1917. "Charlemagne" was sold for scrap in 1923, while "Saint Louis" remained in the navy's inventory as a barracks ship until 1931, when she was struck from the naval register and sold two years later.