Jean-Baptiste Antoine Marcelin Marbot was born into a family of military nobility in Altillac, in the ancient province of Quercy in southwestern France.

He fought with the Army of Italy and took part in the Battle of Marengo and the Siege of Genoa, during which his father, General Jean-Antoine Marbot died.

[5] Having returned to France, he joined the 25th Chasseur Regiment on 11 June 1801 and was detached to the School of Cavalry at Versailles.

During the war against the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire between 1806 and 1807, he fought in the VII corps of the Grande Armée.

After this he served in the Peninsular War under Marshals Jean Lannes and André Masséna, and showed himself to be a dashing leader of light cavalry in the Russian campaign of 1812.

During the morning of the first day of the Battle of Leipzig, Marbot nearly changed the course of the entire war when his regiment came close to capturing the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I and the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, as they had strayed from their escort.

[3] On 5 November 1811, he married Angélique Marie Caroline Personne-Desbrières (1790–1873), and by this alliance became the owner of the Château du Rancy in Bonneuil-sur-Marne.

I recommend him to continue to write in defense of the glory of the French armies, and to confound their calumniators and apostates.

[19] Marbot's Memoirs were widely acclaimed, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of them: The first of all soldier books in the world.