He was brought up at Chanteloup, under the care of his relative, Etienne François, duc de Choiseul, who was childless.

When the French Revolution erupted, he was a colonel of Dragoons, and throughout the following period, he remained a Legitimist.

[1] Napoleon Bonaparte allowed him to return to France in 1801, but he remained in private life until the fall of the First French Empire in 1815.

After the Bourbon Restoration he was called to the new Chambre des Pairs (House of Peers) by King Louis XVIII.

He afterwards received from Louis-Philippe the post of aide-de-camp to the king and governor of the Louvre Palace.