Florescu came from a "boyar" family; his father Manolache was a "vornic", while his mother was Tinca Faca. He was the younger brother of Ion Emanuel Florescu. Born in Brașov, in the Transylvania region of the Austrian Empire, he left for the Wallachian capital Bucharest, where he attended Saint Sava College. He graduated in 1840, and Florescu then became a copyist at the state secretariat, later rising to secretary. In 1846 he went to Paris, studying law for two years. After the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, he returned home and was named to a number of terms as county prefect and prefect of the Bucharest police.