On the completion of his studies in law at Padua and in divinity at Leuven,[2] Antoine held a canonry at Besançon, nowadays in eastern France, then was promoted to the bishopric of Arras with a dispensation due to his age of barely twenty-three (1540).

[citation needed] In his episcopal capacity he attended several diets of the empire, as well as the opening meetings of the Council of Trent, which he addressed on behalf of Charles V. The influence of his father, now chancellor, led to Granvelle being entrusted with many difficult and delicate pieces of public business.

[citation needed] In 1550, he succeeded his father in the office of secretary of state; in this capacity he attended Charles in the war with Maurice of Saxony, accompanied him in the flight from Innsbruck, and afterwards drew up the Peace of Passau (August 1552).

[4] The policy of repression which in this capacity he pursued during the next five years secured for him many tangible rewards: in 1560 he was elevated to the archepiscopal see of Mechelen, and in 1561 he became a cardinal; but the growing hostility of a people whose religious convictions he had set himself to oppose ultimately made it impossible for him to continue in the Netherlands.

At his death the collection was inherited by his nephew, who was pressured by Rudolf II, the very acquisitive Austrian Habsburg Emperor, to sell the finest pieces to him, which in 1597 he very reluctantly did, protesting that the price offered for thirty-three works was not enough even for six, and less than he had recently refused from Cardinal Farnese for Dürer's Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand alone.

Most of these pieces are now in Vienna or Madrid, including Titian's Venus with an Organ-player, Giambologna's copy of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, tapestries after cartoons by Hieronymus Bosch and a bust of Charles V by Leoni.