In 1634, his father replaced his uncle as Duke; shortly afterwards, France occupied the Duchy of Lorraine and Nicholas went into exile, resigning in favour of his elder brother.

His cousin Charles Henri, Prince of Vaudémont (1649-1723) was also a talented military commander; he was excluded from the succession as his father's second marriage was not recognised by the Catholic Church.

Charles was engaged to Marie Jeanne of Savoy but after his uncle was restored as Duke of Lorraine in 1661, he abandoned this marriage and returned to the Imperial court at Vienna.

[4] In recognition of this, he was promoted Generalfeldmarschall in 1676 but was unable to build on these gains, largely due to poor logistics; in the last stages of the war, he was out manoeuvred by de Créquy and suffered minor defeats at Rheinfeld and Ortenbach.

His forces focused on raiding Ottoman camps and protecting resupply convoys to the city, while Pope Innocent XI assembled an alliance to support the Habsburgs.

Known as the Holy League and led by John III Sobieski, this force combined with Charles's troops to defeat the besieging army at the Battle of Vienna on 11 September 1683.