He was born in Mons in the province of Hainaut in the Low Countries which is mostly what is today the south part of the Netherlands and Belgium. We know very little about his childhood. There is a story that, when he was a choirboy, he was abducted three times by another church who wanted him to sing in their choir because he had a beautiful voice. There is no proof that this story is true. At the age of twelve he left his country and went to Mantua, Sicily, and later to Milan in Italy and then to Naples where he worked until the early 1550s. Next he moved to Rome, where he worked for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had a large household there. In 1553, he became "maestro di cappella" of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome. This was an excellent job for a man who was only 21 years old. However, he only stayed there a year. Later, in 1555, Palestrina took that job. Lassus left Rome to go home to the Low Countries to see his parents who were ill, but by the time he got home they were both dead.