  His family wanted Descartes to be a lawyer, like his father and many other relatives. To this end, he went to Poitiers to study law,  obtaining a degree in 1616. But he never practiced law or entered into the governmental service such practice would make  possible (Rodis-Lewis 1998, 18–22). Instead, he became a gentleman soldier, moving in 1618 to Breda, to support the Protestant Prince Maurice against the Catholic parts of the Netherlands (which parts later formed Belgium), which were controlled  by Spain—a Catholic land, like France, but at this point an enemy.