He served in Italy and Flanders and became ambassador to Genoa and Turin. From 1749 to 1753 he was Lieutenant général du roi de France in Genoa. He was commander in chief of French troops on Corsica from May 1768 to July 1769 during the Conquest of Corsica. He passed his final days in the French royal court as an intimate of Louis XV, dying of an apoplexy at the king's gaming table.