His half-brother, Antoine, a brilliant officer and graduate of Saint-Cyr, was killed by a cannonball at the Battle of Ligny (French: Fleurus) on 16 June 1815, while fighting for Emperor Napoleon I.

On 19 November 1826, aged 17, Canrobert entered the École Royale spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr where he was designated as a caporal (corporal) on 18 May 1828.

At his graduation, he was posted to the 47th Line Infantry Regiment (French: 47e Régiment d’Infanterie de Ligne) (RIL), with the rank of Sous-lieutenant starting 1 October.

Designated as chef de bataillon (commandant – major) on 22 May 1842, he joined the 13th Light Infantry Regiment (French: 13e Régiment d'Infanterie Légère).

On 16 October he transferred to the 5th Chasseurs Battalion à Pied (French: 5e Bataillon de Chasseurs à Pied), where he gained the Officer Order of the Legion d'honneur while demonstrating combat capability at Gontas, Baal, Tadjena, Battle of Sidi Brahim (French: Sidi-Brahim), then near Oued Lemig, during the combat Isly and at Riou.

Promoted lieutenant-colonel on 26 October 1845, he was assigned to the 16th Line Infantry Regiment (French: 16e RIL) on 4 September[clarification needed].

On 8 June 1847 he was assigned to the 2nd Line Infantry Regiment (French: 2e RIL) and commanded the subdivision of Batna.

In the afternoon of 4 December 1851, on the Boulevards Montmarte and Poissonnière, the soldiers of the Division commanded by Canrobert came into contact with a crowd formed of the curious and protestors.

[5] While two-thirds of the protestors comprised workers, amongst them also featured the innocent and curious, victims of the division of Canrobert on the grand boulevards.

Almost 21,000 people were condemned by mixed commissions (composed in each department by prefects, a general, and a magistrate) out of which 9,530 ended in transportation to Algeria and 239 were sent to Cayenne in Guiana.

On the other hand and quite quickly, all pronounced repression measures declared by the 82 mixed commissions worried President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte,[6] who delegated in extraordinary mission, generals Canrobert, Espinasse, and State Council Quentin Bauchart, in order to revise the arrest decisions taken and to prepare acts of grâce (forgiving the condemned by mercy).

Espinasse and Canrobert, placed in charge of the South-West and Languedoc, showed little indulgence towards the condemned, they both accorded a little more than a thousand acts of forgiveness, while State Counselor Quentin-Bauchart, charged with the South-East, accorded alone 3,400 forgiveness sentences, while Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in his own right forgave numerous condemnations.

As Général de division, he participated to the Crimean War of 1853–1856 and became commander in chief after Marshal Saint-Arnaud, who died in September 1854.

In February 1858 he commanded the division of the East at Nancy, then the Camp de Châlons, starting from 1 June 1858.

Following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War on 19 July 1870, on 12 August 1870, Canrobert declined to take command of the Army of the Rhine, petrified by the responsibilities which would ensue.

His senate colleague Victor Hugo would not be tender for him: J'ai vu Canrobert au Sénat.

Amiral Henri Rieunier, Ministère de la Marine, was designated to hold one of the five cordons of the funeral chariot.