He served under the command of the duke of Montmorency during the early wars of religion, during which he was awarded the highest chivalric honour, that of l'Ordre de Saint-Michel.

Keeping his governorships out of involvement in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, he was with the brother of the king the duke of Anjou for the prosecution of the siege of La Rochelle.

The new king was confronted with a civil war, which La Guiche served in, first as commander of an ordinance company, and then as maître de camp for the light horse, an appointment designed to erode the influence over the cavalry of the duke of Guise.

Through the 1580s he bonded himself closely to one of the king's paramount favourites the duke of Épernon, and became among his closest companions, assisting him in his return to court in 1586.

La Guiche remained loyal to the king after the December 1588 assassination of the duke of Guise and was therefore entrusted in Henri's carefully chosen royal council in 1589.

After the Assassination of Henri III in turn, he supported the royalist cause, for which he was rewarded with the governorship of the Lyonnais in September 1595, at first intended on a temporary basis.

[4] La Guiche inherited his father's responsibilities as bailli and governor of the important Bourguignon city of Mâcon in 1555.

[2] During the large expansion of the Ordre de Saint-Michel that took place in 1568, La Guiche was among those to receive this most senior honour of the crown.

[5] Of a moderate disposition, when the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew spread into the provinces in the weeks that followed the initial slaughter, La Guiche helped prevent any killings from happening at Mâcon.

[6] During the sixth civil war, he fought around the Protestant held town of Brouage on the Atlantic seaboard, alongside Caylus, another favourite of the king.

In return for yielding this charge to another favourite of the kings, La Guiche was granted the role of Grand Maître de l'artillerie.

Alongside him were the duke of Elbeuf of the powerful Lorraine family, Saint-Luc the disgraced royal favourite and the Protestant Turenne.

In February 1586 when planning his return to court, it was to La Guiche he wrote to ensure that the road would be safely filled with his allies.

[23] He was rewarded on 21 September 1595 with the office of governor of the Lyonnais, which he was intended to hold until the duke of Vendôme, illegitimate son of the king, reached adulthood.

However Vendôme would instead be granted the governate of Bretagne, meaning that La Guiche would hold the office of governor of Lyonnais until his death.