Jacques Piou was born on 6 August 1838 in Angers, France.

[3] His mother, Thérèse Angèle Palmyre Ledall de Kéréon, was an aristocrat.

[1] Politically Piou initially supported Royalism and later General Georges Ernest Boulanger, before supporting the Third Republic following Pope Leo XIII's policy of ralliement following his encyclical Au milieu des sollicitudes.

[1] He co-founded Popular Liberal Action, a conservative political party, with Count Albert de Mun in 1901.

[1] He authored a biography of Count Albert de Mun that was published in 1925.