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Vita: Lafayette. Brief life of an American champion: 1757-1834. by Laura Auricchio. March-April 2015. Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, was the wealthy French nobleman who volunteered at 19 to fight in George Washington’s army, was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, and became a living symbol of the Franco ...
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 ...
- He Was Raised in The Lap of Luxury
- He Was A Rebel with A Cause
- He Made General While Still A Teenager
- He Hoped to End Slavery in America
- He Fought For Revolution at Home
- He Faced The Guillotine
- He Was Courted by Napoleon
- He Returned to America
- His Legacy Has Been Largely Forgotten
Lafayette began life as an unlikely revolutionary. A multi-millionaire at the age of 11, he grew up in the court at Versailles and learned to ride with three future kings: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. Lafayette even met King George IIIwhile visiting a relative who was French ambassador to Great Britain.
Married at 16, the dashing young officer cadet was captivated by the news of the growing rebellion in America. Unwilling to wait for his country to join the widening war in the New World, Lafayette travelled there himself to fight as a volunteer. Lafayette claimed he bought the vessel that was to carry him to the New World, La Victoire, but new fac...
Lafayette had never set foot on a battlefield before sailing to America. Weeks before his 20th birthday, he presented himself to George Washington and volunteered to serve the rebellion without pay. He was made a major general and within days was leading troops at the Battle of Brandywine. He later commanded Continental troops in Virginia and bottl...
Lafayette became like a son to Washington. Despite their close relationship, the young Frenchman was unable to persuade America’s future first president to allow slaves to earn their freedom. He did however end up creating a refuge for 120 blacks in torrid French Guiana.
Back in France, Lafayette became the founder of the Paris National Guard. He opposed absolutism and championed the concept of a constitutional monarchy. At 32, he wrote the 1789Declaration of the Rights of Man,which, for the first time, spelled out freedoms for French citizens. He also campaigned to include persecuted Protestants and Jews into civi...
Despite his egalitarian zeal, Lafayette was no radical. He was elected four times as a liberal member of the French National Assembly. Once in office, he railed against the militants that unleashed the Reign of Terror. Denounced as a traitor by Robespierre, the 35-year-old general was forced to flee the country in 1792. Arrested and imprisoned by t...
He was no friend of Napoleon. Although the young Bonaparte negotiated for Lafayette’s release from Austria in hopes of enlisting the noted statesman’s political support none was forthcoming. Lafayette soon became a political opponent of the French first-consul-turned-emperor. After escaping exile on Elbain 1814, Napoleon called on Lafayette to serv...
In 1824, President James Monroeinvited Lafayette to return to the United States as an honoured guest. As the last surviving general of the American Revolution, the aging hero visited all 24 states during his triumphal tour of the U.S. Lafayette was hailed everywhere.
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. Yet today, few people even know who L...
Mar 7, 2017 · 1759 August 1: Lafayette's father, Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Motier--a colonel in the Louis XV's army--is killed in action in Minden, Germany while fighting against the British during the Seven Years' War. 1759 November 2: Adrienne de Noailles, the future wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, is born in Paris.
Sep 6, 2016 · Remarkably, his path would intersect with the Marquis de Lafayette twenty-eight years later during the American Revolutionary War. Known today simply as Lafayette, the Marquis was born on September 6, 1757 to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, Colonel of the Grenadiers, and his wife, Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière, at Château de Chavaniac, in ...
Gilbert, pronounced “Zhil-Bare”). His early years were spent at Chateau Chavaniac, the family castle built in the 14th century in Auvergne, France. When he was only two years old his father was killed fighting in the 7 Years War with Britain at which time Gilbert inherited the title “Marquis de Lafayette”. While his
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The aging war hero (1757-1834), who had come to U.S. shores nearly 40 years earlier as a 19-year-old major general, to lead American troops in the battle for the nation's independence from Great Britain; who had been a key figure in the early days of the abortive French Revolution, and spent seven years in an Austrian prison; lived on in American lore and legend.
