 Léon marquis de Sorel, became a captain of the Navarre Infantry.On 3 January 1693 he was appointed inspector of naval troops at Brest, with the rank of ship-of-the-line captain ("capitaine de vaisseau"), one of three such inspectors in the navy.On 1 September 1718 Sorel was named governor general of Saint-Domingue, succeeding Charles Joubert de La Bastide, marquis de Chateaumorand.