When Christina abdicated her throne on 5 June 1654 in favour of her cousin Karl Gustavus in order to practice openly her Catholicism, she went to live in France, in a beautiful estate at Vanves, possession of Pierre Bidal.

The title Baron of Harsefeld was transformed to Asfeld in French and passed over from Pierre to Claude François.

After the war, he was made Marquis d'Asfeld en Castille by King Philip V of Spain and knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece.

He was director-general of the French fortifications in 1715, member of the War council, military commander first in the Guyenne province (1719), later in Italy (1733).

When Berwick was killed in the War of the Polish Succession by a cannonball at the siege of Philippsburg in 1734, Asfeld became commander-in-chief of the army of the Rhine.