At the age of fourteen, he entered the military service of the King of Sardinia. He participated in the Battle of Parma on 29 June and the Battle of Guastalla on 19 September, both in 1734, in the War of Polish Succession. After peace was concluded in 1735, he took leave and in 1737, when the Austro-Turkish War broke out against the Turks, he served as a lieutenant in the Infantry Regiment Königsegg and as an adjutant of his countryman, Robert Scipio von Lentulus.