The Beauharnais provided the kingdom with soldiers and magistrates, and contracted alliances in several spheres, including that of the university of law in Orléans.

The most eminent of these magistrates was Francis IV de Beauharnais, sieur of la Grillère (at Vouzon, Loir-et-Cher), born in Orléans in 1630, and dying there in 1681.

At the end of the 17th century, the office of lieutenant général du bailliage d'Orléans was ceded to an allied branch, the Curaults.

On 20 April 1752, Francis V, marquis de Beauharnais (1714–1800), governor of Martinique, maternal great-grandfather of the future Napoleon III of France, bought the seigneurie of La Ferté-Avrain, in Sologne.

He was raised to a marquis by letters patent dated July 1764 with the title of La Ferté-Beauharnais, a name the commune still bears (département of Loir-et-Cher).