He was the son of Artus Gouffier, tutor to the count of Angoulême who eventually rose to the throne as Francis I.

[2] He served at the Battle of Pavia, where he was one of the knights taken prisoner along with Francis I after the disastrous defeat of the French army.

Gouffier's official title was Grand Écuyer de France, or Master of the King's Stables, to Henri II, although his life's main vocation seems to have been the collection of books and unusual objects.

[4] Like many other wealthy aristocrats of the Renaissance, Gouffier maintained a Wunderkammer or "Cabinet of Curiosities", which included an assortment of scientific and zoological artifacts.

The original Wunderkammer collection is preserved to this day at the Château d'Oiron – and now includes a lifelike wax figure of Gouffier himself.