The son of the Admiral of France and Françoise de Longwy Charny was elevated rapidly, being inducted into the royal chivalric order of Saint-Michel in 1555.

Charny had a key role to play in the crisis that followed the deposition of the ligueur aligned governor of Auxonne in November 1585, acting as the protector of Henri's interests in the governate.

Four years later he entered the royal household as a gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi (ordinary gentleman of the kings chamber).

[13] From 1564 to 1546 the court undertook a grand tour of the kingdom at the instigation of the queen mother Catherine who desired to re-establish royal authority throughout the realm, which had been shaken by the recent civil war, and to ensure the Peace of Amboise which had brought the conflict to a close was being properly enforced.

[14] While the court was passing through Bourgogne, Charny ensured they crossed the Saône by boat so they could spend some time at his château de Pagny at the end of May, before they continued on their way down to Provence.

Jeannin argued in favour of the 'law of Emperor Theodosius' by which to avoid executing the rash decision of an authority the provincial commander should wait thirty days and then approach the king to find out if it was truly his will.

'), Henri told him the promise of the office of grand écuyer had only been presented to him to get him married, and that he should be content in the many other marks of royal favour that he enjoyed.

He oversaw the founding of a Catholic Ligue (League) in September, which vowed to oppose the succession of Navarre and combat various other disagreeable royal policies.

[31] In March 1585 the ligue entered war with the crown, and after a few months of conflict, succeeded in securing a favourable peace by which Henri capitulated to most of their demands in July.

With nominal peace between the crown and the ligue the Protestants were re-arming in preparation for a new campaign against them, and therefore there were concerns that German reiters might try to invade the kingdom in their pay, accentuating Auxonne's importance.

[34] After the overthrow of their governor, Jean de Saulx, by the people of Auxonne there was much concern in the city about the powerful interests they could upset by holding him captive.

Among those who they feared to alienate was Charny, who as the father-in-law of Jean's elder brother was thought to be likely to be eternally resentful, and keen to subjugate the people of Auxonne in response.

[6] Despite this, the fortress of Saulx-le-Duc which had been seized by the rebels from the governor was handed over to Charny by the commander of the château d'Auxonne, the sieur de Pluvault.

[35] Indeed, Charny's son-in-law actively campaigned for his brother's release, despite being of fundamentally royalist inclinations in contrast with the vicomtes ligueur disposition.

[37] Unlike Jean's brothers, Charny would not be an effective advocate, and instead of writing to the king to add to the petitions for the ligueur governors release, he wrote to the inhabitants of Auxonne to congratulate them.

[33] Around the same time as the Auxonne affair, similar developments contrary to the interest of the Guise and ligue were unfolding in Angers (where the comte de Brissac was deposed) and Mâcon.

[38] Ultimately the king resolved on 7 November that Charny would take temporary command of Auxonne, until such time as Mayenne and Guise could propose a good man to replace the vicomte, who Henri felt needed to be tried by the parlement of Dijon.

Henri wrote to the inhabitants of Auxonne, praising them as 'good and loyal subjects', he urged them however to preserve the château d'Auxonne until such time it could be received by Charny.

Charny was not particularly fooled by the letter he received, and in his response, while maintaining his politeness implied he saw through their missive which he characterised as being designed to deny him entry without offending his personal honour.

[40] Henri wrote back to Auxonne, reassuring them that Charny was as loyal as a servant of his could be, and he would not let any familial ties he had with the ousted vicomte override his duty to obey the kings will.

In a letter to the crown, the people of Auxonne protested that they wished to serve the king and not the ligue, and therefore was distraught to be condemned to a ligueur governor like Sennecey.

He left behind the baron de Lux who at first delivered a stern lecture, warning them that if they did not admit Charny, the king would declare them all rebels guilty of lèse majesté.

[51] Guise lacked resources, and sent Sennecey to court to beg for royal support in the siege while he attempted to acquire supplies from the duc de Lorraine.

Henri had not provided him pay for the landsknechts which complicated their use in any operations, as an entirely foreign mercenary force both he and the vicomte de Tavannes also had concerns about their reliability.

Mayenne had tasked Jeannin with ensuring the city was brought into obedience without an assault that could damage the value of the province and put his brother Guise in the driver seat for the post-conquest settlement.

[60] In 1586, with relations between the ligue and crown increasingly fraught, Henri looked to his lieutenant-generals Dinteville (in Champagne) and Charny in Bourgogne to both combat the disorders and to act as a counterweight in their respective governates to the influence of the Lorraine family.

[62] In January 1588, Henri explained to Charny that the development of new disorders in the kingdom had forced him to cut his expenses so he could better focus on ameliorating the issues.

[63] At the start of 1589, Charny was finally divested of his office of grand écuyer, selling it to the newly ascendant royal favourite the baron de Termes for a sum of 210,000 livres.

Termes also acquired the office of premier gentilhomme de la chambre du roi (first gentleman of the king's chamber) at this time from the duc d'Épernon.

Mayenne did not feel he could trust Charny and therefore selected one of his clients to replace him the sieur de Fervaques, hoping by this means to cement his control of the province of which he was governor.