A Count of Soissons, he was the father of Imperial field marshal Prince Eugene of Savoy.

He was son of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano and Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons.

[1] He was grandson of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Catherine Micaela of Austria.

He took part in the campaigns at Flanders (1667), Franche-Comté (1668) and Holland (1672); and was present as ambassador extraordinary of France at the coronation of Charles II of England.

[2] He died at Unna in Westphalia in 1673, out of a deadly fever, although there were voices that he had been poisoned.