Born at Calais during the Nine Years' War (1688–1697) to a wealthy bourgeois family, Levasseur became a naval officer after receiving an excellent education. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), he procured a letter of marque from King Louis XIV and became a privateer for the French crown. When the war ended he was ordered to return home with his ship, but he instead joined the Benjamin Hornigold pirate company in 1716. Though he already had a scar across one eye limiting his sight, Levasseur proved himself a good leader and shipmate.