[1] D'Argenson's father was a councillor in the Parlement de Paris, and a Maîtres des Requêtes, a class of lawyers who acted as professional bureaucrats, government officials and diplomats.

Rank derived from holding judicial or administrative posts, and its members were hard-working professionals, unlike the aristocratic Noblesse d'épée or Nobles of the Sword.

[3] As was customary for eldest sons, D'Argenson followed the same career path; in 1642, he became councillor in the Parlement de Normandie, or Rouen, and later Maîtres des Requêtes.

His son Marc-René became Lieutenant General of Police and Controller-General of Finances, two of the most important positions in the Ancien Régime.

He was a friend of Jean Louis Guez de Balzac, (1597-1654), also from Charente and a founding member of the Académie française, now remembered for the style, rather than content, of his writing.