Rohan was born at the
Palace of Versailles on 16 July 1715, the son of
Jules, Prince of Soubise, lieutenant captain of the
Gendarmes of the Royal Guard, and of
Anne Julie Adélaïde de Melun. The eldest of five children, he was styled the Prince of Epinoy till his father's death in 1724. His parents died in Paris of
smallpox in 1724, leaving him and his remaining siblings, including
Marie Louise, orphans. His sister lost
her husband to smallpox in 1743. He was entrusted to his grandfather
Hercule Mériadec, Duke of Rohan-Rohan, who raised Soubise to the court, where he became the companion of Louis XV, who was the same age as he. One of his great grandmothers was
Madame de Ventadour, via his paternal grandmother
Anne Geneviève de Lévis; Madame de Ventadour, who died in 1744, was close to her great grandson. He accompanied
Louis XV in the campaign of 1744–48 and attained high military rank, which owed more to his
courtiership than to his generalship. Soon after the beginning of the
Seven Years' War, through the influence of
Madame de Pompadour, he was put in command of a corps of 24,000 men, and in November 1757 his army was defeated by Prussian forces at the
Battle of Rossbach. ==Legacy==