He joined the Knights Templar and was appointed Preceptor of Saint-Jean-d'Acre in 1240 and Master of France from 1242 to 1249. He was a supporter and comrade-in-arms of Louis IX of France, who helped him be elected Grand Master in place of Guillaume de Sonnac, killed in Egypt at the Battle of Mansura, February 11, 1250. He shortly quarrelled with Louis, though, over a diplomatic mission of Hugues de Jouy, the Templar Marshal, to Damascus. In 1252 Hugues was banished from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.