Ordered in 1825 as Brianée and soon renamed Dauphin Royal, Fleurus was laid down in 1825 but not completed before 1855. She took her definitive name after the July Revolution, on 9 August 1830.
From January 1855, she conducted her engine trials. She proceeded to the Black Sea to take part in the Crimean War. In 1862, she served as a troopship for the French intervention in Mexico.
She finished her career as a hulk in Saigon, headquarters to the French naval division of Indochina.