Search results
1 day ago · Early Life Lafayette was born on September 6, 1757, to Michel du Motier and Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière on the family’s estate in Auvergne in central France. Lafayette’s ancestors had fought for France since the Crusades, and he was especially proud of his father, who was killed in the Seven Years’ War when the boy was just two years old. Read more about: Marquis de Lafayette (1757 ...
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette [a] (French: [ʒilbɛʁ dy mɔtje maʁki d(ə) la fajɛt]; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette [a] (/ ˌ l ɑː f i ˈ ɛ t, ˌ l æ f-/ LA(H)F-ee-ET), was a French nobleman and military officer who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General George Washington ...
- Overview
- Early life and the American Revolution
Marquis de Lafayette (born September 6, 1757, Chavaniac, France—died May 20, 1834, Paris) French aristocrat who fought in the Continental Army with the American colonists against the British in the American Revolution. Later, as a leading advocate for constitutional monarchy, he became one of the most powerful men in France during the first few yea...
Lafayette was born into an ancient noble family in the Auvergne region of central France. Orphaned in his early teens, he had already inherited an immense fortune by the time he married Adrienne de Noailles, the daughter of the influential duc d’Ayen in 1774. He joined the circle of young courtiers at the court of King Louis XVI but soon aspired to win glory as a soldier. Hence, he traveled at his own expense to the American colonies, arriving in Philadelphia in July 1777, 27 months after the outbreak of the American Revolution. With no combat experience and not yet 20 years old, Lafayette was nonetheless appointed a major general in the Continental Army, and he quickly struck up a lasting friendship with the American commander in chief, George Washington. The childless general and the orphaned aristocrat seemed an unlikely pair, but they soon developed a surrogate father-son relationship. It was as thus that Lafayette distinguished himself among a large colourful group of European soldiers of fortune and idealists—among them Frederick William, Freiherr von Steuben, of Prussia and Tadeusz Kościuszko and Kazimierz Pułaski of Poland—who had joined the Continental Army to fight for American independence. The more Washington saw of the young Frenchman, the more impressed he was and the closer the two became.
Lafayette served on Washington’s staff for six weeks, and, after fighting with distinction at the Battle of the Brandywine, near Philadelphia, on September 11, 1777, he was given command of his own division. He conducted a masterly retreat from Barren Hill on May 28, 1778. Returning to France in February 1779, he worked with American emissaries Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to help persuade the government of Louis XVI to send additional troops and supplies to aid the colonists. Lafayette arrived back in America in April 1780 with the news that 6,000 infantry under the command of the comte de Rochambeau, as well as six ships of the line, would soon arrive from France. He was given command of an army in Virginia, and in 1781 he conducted hit-and-run operations against forces under the command of Benedict Arnold. Reinforced by Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne and milita troops under Steuben, Lafayette harried British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis across Virginia, trapping him at Yorktown in late July. A French fleet and several additional American armies joined the siege, and on October 19 Cornwallis surrendered. The British cause was lost. Lafayette was hailed as the “Hero of Two Worlds,” and on returning to France in 1782 he was promoted to maréchal de camp (brigadier general). He became an honorary citizen of several states on a visit to the United States in 1784.
- Marc Leepson
Join us on November 17, 2024 for a special celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette visiting Thomas Jefferson at Monticello in November of 1824. At the same time that he was proposing an invasion of Great Britain and a conquest of Canada, he organized a French army for expeditionary service in America.
Oct 8, 2024 · Lafayette, city, seat (1824) of Lafayette parish, south-central Louisiana, U.S., on the Vermilion River 55 miles (88 km) southwest of Baton Rouge. The area was first settled by exiledAcadiansfrom Nova Scotiain 1763. The earliest village, Vermilionville, was established in 1824 but was renamed for the French general the marquis de Lafayettein 1884.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The eventual “hero of two worlds,” Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, was born of nobility in France in 1757. Lafayette’s father was killed by the British in the battle of Minden in 1759, and the young Lafayette inherited a castle, a fortune, and the title of Marquis. As he reached his adolescence, Lafayette was one of the richest men in ...
Aug 27, 2017 · Lafayette was the first foreigner to address both houses of Congress in 1825. His portrait has hung in the House of Representatives ever since. He was made an honorary American citizen, and some 600 places across the U.S. reference his name or that of La Grange , his turreted chateau 30 miles southeast of Paris.
People also ask
When did Lafayette Louisiana get its name?
Who was Lafayette & what did he do?
What did Marquis de Lafayette do in 1824?
What did Lafayette do in 1780?
Where is Lafayette Louisiana located?
Why did the Marquis de Lafayette return to France in 1779?
