[2] A fondness for military exercises displayed itself in his earliest years, and at the age of ten, Robert was sent to the court of Louis XII, and placed in charge of the count of Angoulême, afterwards King Francis I.

In 1510 he married a niece of the cardinal d'Amboise, Guillemette de Sarrebruck, but after three months he quit his home to join the French army in the Milanese.

With a handful of troops Robert threw himself into Verona, then besieged by the Venetians; but the siege was protracted, and being impatient for more active service, he rejoined the army.

[3] Returning to Italy with Francis in 1515, Robert distinguished himself in various affairs, and especially at Marignano, where he had a horse shot under him, and contributed so powerfully to the victory of the French that the king knighted him with his own hand.

In the following year he heard of his father's death, and set out from Amboise for his estate of La Marck; but he was seized with illness at Longjumeau, and died there in December 1537.