Early Career
Lauriston obtained his first commission about 1786, served with the artillery and on the general staff during the early campaigns of the Revolution, and became brigadier of artillery in 1795. Resigning in 1796, he was brought back into the service in 1800 as aide-de-camp to Napoleon, with whom, as a cadet, Lauriston had been on friendly terms. In the years immediately preceding the first empire, Lauriston was, successively, director of the La Fère artillery school and special envoy to Denmark before being selected to convey to England the ratification of the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
In 1805, having risen to the rank of general of division, he took part in the war against Austria. He occupied Venice and the Republic of Ragusa in 1806, was made governor-general of Venice in 1807, took part in the Erfurt negotiations of 1808, was ennobled as a count, and served with the emperor during the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–1809), where he commanded the division that besieged and won Pamplona. He fought under Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais at the Battle of Raab in the Italian campaign and the subsequent advance to Vienna.
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