 He was in the service of the French King Louis XVI, as an officer in the Swiss Guards of his Maison Militaire du Roi (Royal Military Household).De Roll held the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was adjutant to the future Charles X of France (then the Count of Artois), the younger brother of the king who served as colonel of the Swiss Guards.Following the start of the French Revolution de Roll left France with Charles to join the Army of Condé, he thus avoided the massacre of his regiment in the Defence of the Tuileries by Republican forces on 10 August 1792.