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Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette

 
Military History Companion: Marie-Joseph du Motier Lafayette

Lafayette, Marie-Joseph du Motier, Marquis de (1757-1834), key figure in both the American independence war and the French Revolutionary wars. He travelled to America in 1777 and joined the staff of Washington, with whom he developed a father-son relationship. In 1779 he returned to Paris in representation of the hard-pressed rebels and was instrumental in obtaining French land and naval support, which won the culminating battle at Yorktown in 1780.

In the pre-revolutionary 1789 French Estates General he led the liberal aristocrats and advocates of constitutional monarchy. As commander of the National Guard he saved Louis XVI from the mob at Versailles, but was compelled to resign in July 1791 after firing on a crowd calling for abdication. Ambivalently in command at Metz when France went to war with Austria in 1792, he defected when the French monarchy was overthrown and to escape trial for treason. The Austrians nonetheless imprisoned him for five years.

He kept a low profile during the Empire and as a deputy under Louis XVIII, but his return to the USA in 1824-5 was a revitalizing apotheosis. Again commanding the National Guard, in 1830 he helped to overthrow Charles X and replace him with the constitutional monarch Louis-Philippe.

— Hugh Bicheno

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US Military History Companion: Marquis de Lafayette
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(1757–1834), French statesman and Revolutionary War general

The marquis de Lafayette was the most influential Frenchman in the early American republic. The prospect of military advancement and an affinity for republican principles drew the young cavalry captain to join the Continental army during the Revolutionary War. Americans appreciated his powerful court connections, unwavering enthusiasm for their cause, and offer to serve without pay. Despite Congress's growing irritation with troublesome foreign adventurers, the nineteen‐year‐old nobleman acquired, on 31 July 1777, a major general's commission in the army, albeit without pay or a command.

Lafayette's notable services, first at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, eventually won him his own troops. In 1778, Congress designated him to head the proposed invasion of Canada, a plan eventually canceled; then George Washington gave him a division to strike the British near Monmounth, an assignment that Charles Lee ultimately claimed on the basis of higher rank. Lafayette finally led six light infantry battalions in 1780 and a Light Corps in 1781, moving to the Southern Department, where his troops help confine Charles Cornwallis's army to the Virginia coast and set up the decisive siege of Yorktown.

Lafayette remained a supporter of the United States during the French Revolution, despite considerable risk to himself and his family. In 1824–25, he returned to the United States for a triumphal tour that symbolized the passing of the revolutionary generation.

[See also Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Yorktown, Battle of.]

Bibliography

  • Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette Joins the American Army, 1937.
  • Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution, 1942.
  • Stanley J. Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, 1977–
US Military Dictionary: Marquis de Lafayette
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Lafayette, Marquis de (1757-1834) soldier and statesman, born in Chavaniac, France. Lafayette was a major general in the Continental army and fought at Brandywine (1777); led an abortive expedition to invade Canada; and served in actions at Monmouth and in Rhode Island (1778). He led the Continental forces that bottled Gen. Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown (1781), causing his eventual defeat. He twice returned to America (1784, 1824-25), where he was received as a hero. Lafayette also worked on behalf of American commerce with the French ministries (1785-89). After the Revolutionary War Lafayette was active in the cause of liberty in France, citing American political principles and the American experience as a model.

Scores of counties, cities, and public places in the United States were named for Lafayette or for La Grange, his estate in France.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: Marquis de Lafayette
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Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), French general, statesman, and hero of the American Revolution, served France by endeavoring to smooth the transition from the Old Regime to the new order created by the French Revolution.

The Marquis de Lafayette was born on Sept. 6, 1757, to the Motier family - better known by their noble title of La Fayette (the spelling "Lafayette" is an Americanism which only pedants would now attempt to correct) - at their château of Chavagniac in the province of Auvergne. After 3 years of study in the Collège du Plessis, a distinguished secondary school in Paris, he joined the French army in 1771. Stringent military reforms 5 years later forced his retirement from active service when he was only 18 years old.

In 1773 Lafayette married Adrienne de Noailles (1759-1807), daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, and entered the court life at Versailles. He had not yet shown any serious interest in the turbulent political events and debates of the early reign of Louis XVI, but he was not willing to settle down to the life of pampered luxury permitted by his great wealth. After the outbreak of the American Revolution, he decided to put his arms and his training at the service of the infant country in rebellion against France's historic enemy, England. It was as yet more a soldier's splendid gesture, however, than an act of political commitment.

American Revolution

Refused the King's permission to go to America, Lafayette sailed anyway, after buying and equipping a ship with his own money. On June 13, 1777, he landed in North Carolina. The Continental Congress had given the distinguished volunteer an honorary commission as a major general, but his actual duties were as aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, to whom he brought personal and political devotion, eagerness and ability in the performance of military duties, and the assurance that the American rebels were not alone in their cause. After performing well in battles against the British in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he was given command of a division of American troops. The next year he tried to persuade Washington to carry the war into Canada, but his plan was not adopted. Instead he was sent back to France with the mission of obtaining greater French support for the Americans.

Upon landing in his homeland early in 1779, Lafayette was arrested for having disobeyed the royal command in going to America. But political necessities soon overrode considerations of military discipline, and he was called to Versailles by the King, who wanted a firsthand report on how things stood in the new United States of America. Although not all his proposals for aid to the Americans were accepted, Lafayette did return to America in April 1780 in command of French auxiliary forces. In 1781 he was given command of the defense of Virginia with the rank of major general. His maneuverings eventually drew Charles Cornwallis, the English commander, into the trap at Yorktown, where he was blockaded by the American forces and by French troops brought by a French fleet under Adm. de Grasse. Cornwallis's surrender on October 19 brought the American war of independence to its military conclusion and was the culmination of Lafayette's career as a soldier.

Return to France

When Lafayette returned to France in 1782, it was as a hero, "Washington's friend," and he was made a brigadier general in the French army.

In America Lafayette had developed a commitment to the principles of the Enlightenment. During the years of the final crisis of the Old Regime, the soldier became a political leader of the movement against absolutism. In 1787-1788 he served as a member of the Assembly of Notables and then, in 1789, took a seat in the Estates General as deputy of the nobility of the district of Riom. Lafayette was influential in the first months of the Revolution, which followed the meeting of the Estates General. The world-famous Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was adopted at his initiative, and his military fame and political reputation combined to win for him, on the day after the Bastille fell (July 14), the command of the Parisian national guard, the force of citizen-soldiers created to defend the new regime.

Lafayette's political acumen was now tested to the utmost, for, like so many of the Enlightenment thinkers, he favored a parliamentary monarchy like England's but one based on a formal written constitution like that just adopted in America. However, he had to cope with radical mob violence that was directed even at the King's person. His efforts to hold the Revolution to a moderate course proved more and more unavailing; his popularity was dissipated; and his command to his troops to fire on a mob in July 1791 led to his retirement in September from command of the national guard.

However, the onset of war against Austria and Prussia in 1792 brought Lafayette's return to military life as the commander of the Army of the Ardennes. He invaded the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) and then withdrew for lack of support. By August, fearful of the revenge of the Jacobins because he had come to Paris to complain to the Legislative Assembly of the attack upon the royal family in the Tuileries (July 20), and finding no support among his troops, he crossed over into Austria with a few fellow officers. He was treated as a prisoner of war until 1797, when the victorious Napoleon obtained his release from jail but did not permit him to return to France. He had become so politically innocuous, however, that when he did go back to France in 1799 without permission, he was given a military pension as a retired general and allowed to live quietly on his country estate at Lagrange.

Last Years

Although he withheld his support from the imperial regime, Lafayette abstained from overt political activity until after the first abdication of Napoleon, in 1814; he was elected to the Legislative Chamber and was the first to demand the Emperor's final and permanent abdication. The definitive restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815 after the Hundred Days brought his return to a position as a leader in the liberal opposition to Louis XVIII and Charles X. From 1818 to 1824 he sat in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of opposition.

In 1824 Lafayette was invited by the government of the United States to visit America as its guest, and his triumphal tour of the country lasted 15 months. Congress gave him a gift of $200,000 and a sizable tract of land, and Lafayette returned to France in 1825 to great acclaim as the "hero of two worlds."

Lafayette did not regain political prominence until the outbreak of revolution in 1830, when he became the symbol of moderate republicanism. Named to command the reestablished national guard, he was half persuaded and half tricked into endorsing Louis Philippe as a constitutional king. It was his last important political act, for he was dismissed in 1831, and he then returned to opposition.

When Lafayette died in Paris on May 20, 1834, he had few followers left. Although Lafayette had played a part in the creation of new regimes in two countries, his generosity of purpose was not matched by political astuteness, and he was more carried along by events than he was their maker. He was perhaps most influential as a living symbol - of friendship between France and America, and of the men of goodwill who wanted a new and better world but could not accept terror and dictatorship as the ways to bring it into being.

Further Reading

Sound modern studies of Lafayette are Brand Whitlock, La Fayette (2 vols., 1929); W. E. Woodward, Lafayette (1938); and David G. Loth, The People's General: The Personal Story of Lafayette (1951). The definitive studies are by the most distinguished modern historian of Lafayette, Louis R. Gottschalk: Lafayette Comes to America (1935); Lafayette Joins the American Army (1937); Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution (1942); Lafayette between the American and French Revolutions (1950); and, with Margaret Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution through the October Days (1969).

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier marquis de Lafayette
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(born Sept. 6, 1757, Chavaniac, France — died May 20, 1834, Paris) French military leader. Born to an ancient noble family of great wealth, he was a courtier at the court of Louis XVI but sought glory as a soldier. In 1777 he went to America, was appointed a major general, became a close friend of George Washington, and fought with distinction at the Battle of the Brandywine. He returned to France in 1779, persuaded Louis to send a 6,000-man force to aid the colonists, and returned to America in 1780 to command an army in Virginia and help win the Siege of Yorktown. Hailed as "the Hero of Two Worlds," he returned to France in 1782, became a leader of liberal aristocrats, and was elected to the Estates General in 1789. He presented the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the National Assembly. Elected commander of the national guard of Paris, he sought to protect the king, favouring a constitutional monarchy. When his guards fired on a crowd of petitioners in the Champ de Mars (1791), he lost popularity and resigned his position. He commanded the army against Austria (1792), then defected to the Austrians, who held him captive until 1797. Returning to France, Lafayette became a gentleman farmer. In the Bourbon Restoration, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1814 – 24) and commanded the national guard in the July Revolution (1830).

For more information on Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier marquis de Lafayette, visit Britannica.com.

French Literature Companion: Marie-Joseph Lafayette
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Lafayette, Marie-Joseph, marquis de (1757-1834). Soldier and politician. An aristocrat who believed in liberty and the rights of man, he fought in the American War of Independence and was a major figure in the first years of the French Revolution. He was the commander of the Garde Nationale, but his loyalty to the royal family caused him to become a refugee. In 1830 he was one of those most responsible for bringing Louis-Philippe to the throne, saying that this was the best of republics [see July Monarchy]. Sainte-Beuve considered him ‘le plus précoce, le plus intrépide et le plus honnête’ of those who attacked the ancien régime, and he has remained the ‘chevalier’ of revolution.

[Douglas Johnson]

Spotlight: Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, September 6, 2005

Marie-Joseph Lafayette, the French general who aided the colonists in the American Revolution, was born on this date in 1757. Born into an aristocratic family, Lafayette was an enthusiastic proponent of the ideals of the colonists, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1777, ready to fight alongside the general who would become his close friend, George Washington. After the war between the colonies and the British was over, Lafayette returned to France, where he participated in the 1789 and 1830 revolutions.
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier marquis de Lafayette
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Lafayette, or La Fayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de (märē' zhôzĕf' pôl ēv rôk zhēlbĕr' dü môtyā' märkē' də läfāĕt'), 1757-1834, French general and political leader. He was born of a distinguished family and early entered the army. Enthusiastic over the news of the American Revolution, he evaded all obstacles set in his way by the officially neutral French government and left France to join George Washington's army. He arrived (1777) in Philadelphia, where Congress appointed him a major general. He quickly won the close friendship of Washington, was wounded at Brandywine, shared the hardships of Valley Forge, and obtained a divisional command. After a trip to France (1779-80), where he negotiated for French aid, he distinguished himself in the Yorktown campaign. Returning to France in 1782, Lafayette was a member of the Assembly of Notables (1787) and the States-General (1789). Elected vice president of the National Assembly, he was made commander of the militia (later named the National Guard) the day after the fall of the Bastille (July, 1789). In this key position he sought to exploit his immense popularity and to maintain order by acting as moderator between the contending factions. However, he did not have the confidence of the court, and he lost all influence and popularity when he gave the order to fire into a crowd that had gathered (July 17, 1791) on the Champs de Mars to draft a petition for dethronement of the king. He took command (1792) of the army of the center, formed in preparation for war against Austria. After a brief visit to Paris (June, 1792), when he attempted to defend the monarchy, he returned to the front. He was, however, relieved of his command and ordered to return to Paris. Lafayette left his army, fled (Aug., 1792) across the border, and was captured and imprisoned in Austria. Finally liberated (1797) by Napoleon, he returned (1799) to France, where he lived in retirement during the First Empire. As member of the chamber of deputies in the Restoration, he joined the liberal party. In 1824-25 he visited the United States, where he was given an unparalleled welcome. Lafayette took part in the July Revolution (1830) as a leader of the moderates. His prestige was largely responsible for the installation of Louis Philippe as king of the French. Lafayette's unswerving courage, integrity, and idealism made him a popular symbol of the bond between France and the United States. His direct descendants, the Chambrun family, are honorary U.S. citizens. The modern French flag was created by Lafayette in July, 1789, by combining the royal white with the blue and red of Paris. For selected writings, see Stanley J. Izderda et al., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution (4 vol., 1977-81).

Bibliography

See biography by L. Gottschalk (5 vol., 1935-69); bibliography by S. W. Jackson (1930).

History Dictionary: Lafayette, Marquis de
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(lah-fee-et, laf-ee-et)

A French nobleman, political leader, and general of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Enthusiastic for the ideals of the American Revolutionary War, Lafayette served as a general in the American army during the Revolutionary War, fighting alongside his friend George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown and elsewhere. On returning to France, he was active in the early stages of the French Revolution.

  • A United States Army officer, speaking at the tomb of Lafayette after United States forces had arrived in support of France in World War I, said, “Lafayette, we are here.” He meant that the United States, in aiding France in the war, was returning the favor that Lafayette and the French had done for the United States in the Revolutionary War. The officer is sometimes identified as General John Pershing.

  • Wikipedia: Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
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    Marquis de La Fayette
    6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834 (aged 76)
    Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette.jpg
    Place of birth Chavaniac, France
    Place of death Paris, France
    Resting place Picpus Cemetery
    Allegiance France France
     United States of America
    Rank Major-general insignia.svg Major General (US)
    Maréchal de camp (France)
    Battles/wars American Revolutionary War
    Relations Wife: Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles

    Uncle: Jacques-Roch
    Son: Georges Washington (1779-1849)
    Daughters: Anastasie (1777-1863)
    Virginie (1782-1849)

    Other work Politician
    Estates General (Auvergne)
    Member of the National Assembly

    Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (or Lafayette) (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834) was a French aristocrat and military officer born in the province of Auvergne in south central France. Lafayette was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution.

    In the American Revolution, Lafayette served in the Continental Army under George Washington. Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, he still managed to organize a successful retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned to France to negotiate an increased French commitment. On his return, he blocked troops led by Cornwallis at Yorktown while the armies of Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, prepared for battle against the British.

    Back in France in 1788, Lafayette was called to the Assembly of Notables to respond to the fiscal crisis. Lafayette proposed a meeting of the French Estates-General, where representatives from the three traditional classes of French society — the clergy, the nobility and the commoners — met. He served as vice president of the resulting body and presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the French (Garde nationale) National Guard in response to violence leading up to the French Revolution. During the Revolution, Lafayette attempted to maintain order, for which he ultimately was persecuted by the Jacobins. In 1791, as the radical factions in the Revolution grew in power, Lafayette tried to flee to the United States through the Dutch Republic. He was captured by Austrians and served nearly five years in prison.

    Lafayette returned to France after Bonaparte freed him from an Austrian prison in 1797. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies under the Charter of 1815, during the Hundred Days. With the Bourbon Restoration, Lafayette became a liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1815, a position he held until his death. In 1824, President James Monroe invited Lafayette to the United States as the "nation's guest"; during the trip, he would visit all of the then twenty-four states. For his contributions to the American Revolution, many cities and monuments throughout the United States bear his name (Fayetteville, North Carolina was the only one of those he actually visited in person), and he was the first person granted honorary United States citizenship. During France's July Revolution of 1830 Lafayette declined an offer to become the French dictator; instead he supported Louis-Philippe's bid as a constitutional monarch. Lafayette died on 20 May 1834, and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Revolutionary War battlefield Bunker Hill.

    Contents

    Ancestry

    Young Marquis de Lafayette

    Lafayette was born on 6 September 1757 to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, colonel aux Grenadiers de France, and Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière, at the château de Chavaniac, in Chavaniac, near Le Puy-en-Velay, in the modern department of Haute-Loire.[1] His full name is rarely used; instead he is often referred to as the marquis de La Fayette or Lafayette. Biographer Louis Gottschalk asserted that Lafayette indifferently spelled his name both Lafayette and LaFayette.[2]

    Hi Lafayette's ancestor, Marshal of France Gilbert de La Fayette III, was a companion-at-arms who led Joan of Arc's army in Orléans. His great-grandfather was the comte de La Rivière, a former lieutenant general in the Royal Armées. According to legend, another ancestor acquired the Crown of Thorns during the 6th Crusade.[3] Lafayette's uncle Jacques-Roch died fighting the Austrians and left the marquis title to Lafayette's father.[4]

    Lafayette's father, struck by a cannonball at the Battle of Minden in Westphalia, died on 1 August 1759.[5] Lafayette became Lord of Chavaniac, but the estate went to his mother. Lafayette's mother and his maternal grandfather, marquis de La Rivière, died, on 3 April and 24 April 1770 respectively, leaving Lafayette an income of 25,000 livres. Upon the death of an uncle, the 13-year-old Lafayette inherited a handsome yearly sum of 120,000 livres.[5] Lafayette was raised by his paternal grandmother, Mme de Chavaniac, who had brought the château into the family with her dowry. Also in the household were Mme de Chavaniac's daughters Madeleine de Motier, and Charlotte Guérin, the baronne de Chavaniac.[4]

    Education and marriage

    Madame de Lafayette

    Lafayette's mother decided that the family's heir necessitated proper schooling in Paris rather than at home-tutoring by the Abbé , was commissioned as a sous-lieutenant (second Lieutenant) in the Mousquetaires.[6][7] Through an arranged marriage, he wed Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles, the daughter of the wealthy Jean-Paul-François, 5th duc de Noailles. On 14 March 1774, Louis XV signed the marriage contract, and the wedding took place on 11 April; Lafayette's father-in-law gave him a dowry of 400,000 livres, the rank of captain, and command of a company in the Noailles Dragoons Regiment.[8]

    Departure from France

    Joining the American War

    In 1775, Lafayette took part in his unit's annual training in Metz, where he met Charles-François, comte de Broglie, the Army of the East's commander and a superior. De Broglie invited the young Lafayette to join the Freemasons, for whom the American Revolutionary War had become an issue. When the Duke of Gloucester, King George III's brother and colonial policy critic, travelled through the region, he was invited to dinner with de Broglie and his men.[3] Lafayette wrote in his memoirs that at this dinner when he

    ...first learned of that quarrel, my heart was enlisted and I thought only of joining the colors.[9]

    Lafayette returned to Paris in the fall and participated in sociétés de pensée (thinking groups) that discussed French involvement in the American Revolution. At these meetings, a frequent speaker, Abbé Guillaume Raynal emphasised the "rights of man". He criticised the nobility, the clergy and the practice of slavery. The monarchy banned Raynal from speaking, and he expressed his views secretly in the Masonic Lodges of which Lafayette was a member.[10]

    On 7 December 1776, Lafayette arranged through Silas Deane, an American agent in Paris, to enter the American service as a major general.[11] Lafayette visited his uncle Marquis de Noailles, the Ambassador to Britain, as he promised.[12] During a ball at Lord George Germain's, he met Lord Rawdon,[13] met Sir Henry Clinton at the Opera, and met Lord Shelburne at breakfast.[14] However, Lafayette refused to toast King George, and left after three weeks.[15] In 1777, the French government granted the American military one million livres in supplies after Minister Charles Gravier pressed for French involvement. De Broglie intrigued with his old subordinate, German Johann de Kalb, (who had previously done a reconnaissance of America), to send French officers to fight along side the Americans, (and perhaps set up a French Generalissmo).[16] De Broglie approached Gravier, suggesting assistance to the American revolutionaries. De Broglie then presented Lafayette, who had been placed on the reserve list, to de Kalb.[17]

    Departure for America

    Returning to Paris, Lafayette found that the Continental Congress did not have the money for his voyage; hence he acquired the sailing ship La Victoire himself.[15] The king officially forbade him to leave after British spies discovered his plan, and issued an order for Lafayette to join his father-in-law's regiment in Marseille,[18] disobedience of which would be punishable by imprisonment. The British ambassador ordered the seizure of the ship Lafayette was fitting out at Bordeaux, and Lafayette was threatened with arrest.[18][19][20] He eluded capture disguised as a courier, and travelled to Spain. On 20 April 1777, he sailed for America with eleven companions,[21] leaving his pregnant wife in France.[6] The ship's captain intended to stop in the West Indies to sell cargo; however Lafayette, fearful of arrest, bought the cargo to avoid docking at the islands.[18] He landed on North Island near Georgetown, South Carolina, on 13 June 1777.[15][22]

    American Revolution

    Painting of two men on horses talking to a sentry
    Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge

    On arrival, Lafayette met Major Benjamin Huger, with whom he stayed for two weeks before departing on the thirty-two day journey to Philadelphia. In Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress delayed Lafayette's commission, as they had tired of "French glory seekers" and other men sent by Silas Deane. Congress, impressed by Lafayette's offer to serve without pay, commissioned the rank of major-general on 31 July 1777.[23] The commission, however, became effective on that date, not from his original agreement with Deane. In addition, he was not assigned a unit; he nearly returned home for this reason.[24][25]

    Benjamin Franklin, however, wrote George Washington recommending acceptance of Lafayette as his aide-de-camp, hoping it would influence France to commit more aid.[26] Washington accepted, and Lafayette met him at Moland Headquarters on 10 August 1777.[27] When Washington expressed embarrassment to show a French officer the state of their camp and troops, Lafayette responded, "I am here to learn, not to teach."[28] He became a member of Washington's staff, although confusion existed regarding his status. The Congress regarded his commission as honorary, while he considered himself a full-fledged commander who would be given control of a division, when Washington deemed him prepared. To address this, Washington told Lafayette that a division would not be possible as he was of foreign birth; however, Washington said that he would be happy to hold him in confidence as "friend and father".[29]

    Brandywine, Albany, and the Conway Cabal

    Lafayette wounded at the battle of Brandywine

    Lafayette's first battle was at Brandywine on 11 September 1777, which was lost.[30] After the British outflanked the Americans, Washington acquiesced to a request by Lafayette to join General John Sullivan. Upon his arrival, Lafayette went with the Third Pennsylvania Brigade, under Brigadier Thomas Conway and attempted to rally the unit to face the attack. In face of the British and Hessian numeric superiority, Lafayette was shot in the leg. During the American retreat, Lafayette created a control point allowing a more orderly retreat before being treated for his wound.[31] After the battle, Washington cited him for "bravery and military ardour" and, recommended him for the command of a division in a letter to Congress.[15]

    Lafayette returned to the field in December after two months of rest, and received command of Major General Adam Stephen's division.[32] He assisted General Nathanael Greene in reconnaissance of British positions in New Jersey; with 300 soldiers, he defeated a numerically superior Hessian force in Gloucester on 24 November 1777.[33]

    He returned to Valley Forge for the winter, where the Horatio Gates led War Board asked him to prepare an invasion of Canada from Albany, New York. Thomas Conway hoped to replace Washington with Gates, who had been successful in the Battle of Saratoga. He concocted a plot known as the Conway Cabal which separated Washington from Lafayette, one of Washington's firmest supporters.[25] Lafayette alerted Washington of his suspicions about the plot before leaving.[34] When Lafayette arrived in Albany, he found too few men to mount a Canadian invasion in the winter. He wrote to Washington of the situation, and made plans to return to Valley Forge. Before departing, he recruited the Oneida tribe, who referred to Lafayette as Kayewla (fearsome horseman), to the American side.[15] In Valley Forge, he vocally criticised the War Board's decision to attempt an invasion of Canada in the winter. The Continental Congress agreed and Gates was removed from the Board.[35] Meanwhile, treaties signed by America and France were made public in March 1778, and France formally recognised American independence.[3]

    Barren Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island

    Map of the battle of Barren Hill

    After France entered the war, the Americans tried to sense what the British forces' reaction would be. On 18 May 1778, Washington dispatched Lafayette with a 2,200 man force to reconnoitre near Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. The next day, the British heard that Lafayette had made camp nearby and sent 5,000 men to capture him for his symbolic value representing the Franco-American alliance. On 20 May, General Howe led a further 6,000 soldiers and ordered an attack on Lafayette's left flank. The flank scattered, and Lafayette organised a retreat while the British remained indecisive. To feign numerical superiority, he ordered men to appear from the woods on an outcropping known as Barren Hill (now Lafayette Hill) and to fire upon the British periodically.[36] Lafayette's troops simultaneously escaped via a sunken road.[37] Lafayette was then able to cross Matson's Ford with the remainder of his force.[38]

    Unable to trap Lafayette, the British resumed their march north from Philadelphia to New York; the Continental Army, including Lafayette, followed and finally attacked at the Monmouth Courthouse.[3] At Monmouth, Washington appointed General Lee to lead the attacking force. On 28 June, Lee moved against the British flank; however, soon after fighting began, he began acting strangely. Lafayette sent a message to Washington to urge him to the front; upon his arrival he found Lee's men in retreat. Washington was able to rally the American force and repel two British attacks. Due to the day's heat, fighting ended early and the British withdrew in the night.[39]

    The French fleet arrived in America on 8 July 1778 under Admiral d'Estaing, with whom General Washington planned to attack Newport, Rhode Island. Lafayette and General Greene were sent with a 3,000-man force to participate in the attack. Lafayette wanted to control a joint Franco-American force in the attack but was rebuffed. On 9 August, the American force attacked the British without consulting d'Estaing. When the Americans asked the admiral to leave his fleet in Narragansett Bay, d'Estaing refused and attacked the British under Lord Howe.[1] The attack dispersed the British fleet, but a storm damaged the French ships.[15]

    D'Estaing moved his ships north to Boston for repairs. When the fleet arrived, Bostonians rioted because they considered the French departure from Newport a desertion. John Hancock and Lafayette were dispatched to calm the situation, and then Lafayette returned to Newport to prepare for the retreat made necessary by d'Estaing's departure. For these actions, Lafayette was cited by the Continental Congress for "gallantry, skill and prudence". However he realised that the Boston riot might undermine the Franco-American alliance in France, so he requested and was given permission to return to France.[15]

    Lafayette (by Cyrus Edwin Dallin 1889)

    Return to France

    In February 1779, Lafayette returned to Paris. For disobeying the king by going to America, he was placed under house arrest for two weeks. Nevertheless, his return was triumphant.[15] Benjamin Franklin's grandson presented him with a 4,800 livre gold-encrusted sword commissioned by the Continental Congress, and the king asked to see him.[40] Louis XVI, pleased with the soldier after Lafayette proposed schemes for attacking the British, restored his position in the dragoons. Lafayette used his position to lobby for more French aid to America. Working with Franklin, Lafayette secured another 6,000 soldiers to be commanded by General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau.[15]

    Lafayette received news that Adrienne had borne him a son, Georges Washington Lafayette.[41] After his son's birth, he pushed for additional commitments of support from France for the American Revolutionary War. He ordered new uniforms and arranged for the fleet's departure. Before returning to America, Lafayette and the French force learned that they would be operating under American command, with Washington in control of military operations. In March 1780, Lafayette gave power of attorney to business manager Jacques-Philippe Grattepain-Morizot and Adrienne,[42] and left France, departing for the Americas aboard the Hermione,[43] from the harbour of Rochefort. He arrived in Boston on 28 April carrying the then secret news that he had secured French reinforcements (5,500 men and 5 frigates) for George Washington.

    Virginia and Yorktown

    A map of key sites in the Battle of Yorktown

    Lafayette returned to America in May 1781 and was sent to Virginia to defend against Benedict Arnold and to replace Baron von Steuben.[44][45] Lafayette evaded Cornwallis' attempts to capture him in Richmond.[45] In June, Cornwallis received orders from London to proceed to the Chesapeake Bay and to oversee construction of a port, in preparation of an attack on Philadelphia.[45] As the British column travelled, Lafayette followed in a bold show of force that encouraged new recruits. In June, Lafayette's men were joined by forces under General (Mad) Anthony Wayne. Soldiers deserted both leaders; Wayne executed six for desertion. Lafayette offered to release his men from service because of the great danger ahead; all of his men remained.[46]

    On 4 July, the British decamped at Williamsburg and prepared to cross the James River. Cornwallis sent only an advance guard across the river, with intentions to trap, should Lafayette attack. Lafayette ordered Wayne to strike on 6 July with roughly 800 soldiers. Wayne found himself vastly outnumbered against the full British force and, instead of retreating, led a bayonet charge. The charge bought time for the Americans, and Lafayette ordered the retreat. The British did not pursue. The result was a victory for Cornwallis, but the American army was bolstered from the display of courage by the men.[45][47]

    By August, Cornwallis had established the British at Yorktown, and Lafayette took up position on Malvern Hill. This manoeuvre trapped the British when the French fleet arrived.[3][48] On 14 September 1781, Washington's forces joined Lafayette's, which had succeeded in containing the British until supplies and reinforcements arrived. On 28 September, with the French fleet blockading the British, the combined forces attacked in what became known as the Siege of Yorktown. Lafayette's detail formed the right end of the American wing, the 400 men of which took redoubt 10, in hand-to-hand combat.[47] After a failed British counter-attack, Cornwallis surrendered on 19 October 1781.[49]

    Return to France and visit to America

    Lafayette returned to France on 18 December 1781 from Boston. He was welcomed as a hero, and on 22 January 1782, he was received at Versailles. He witnessed the birth of his daughter, whom he named Marie-Antoinette Virginie upon Thomas Jefferson's recommendation.[50][51] He was promoted to maréchal de camp, skipping numerous ranks.[52] Lafayette then helped prepare for a combined French and Spanish expedition, of which he was appointed chief-of-staff, against the British West India Islands. The Treaty of Paris signed between Great Britain and the U.S. on 20 January 1783 made the expedition unnecessary.[53]

    In France, Lafayette worked with Thomas Jefferson to organize trade agreements between the United States and France. These negotiations aimed to reduce debt owed to France by the U.S., and included commitments on tobacco and whale oil.[54] He joined the French abolitionist group Society of the Friends of the Blacks, which advocated for ending slave trade and equal rights for free blacks. In 1783, in correspondence with Washington, he urged the emancipation of slaves; and to establish them as farmer tenants.[55] Although Washington demurred, Lafayette purchased land in the French colony of Cayenne for his plantation La Belle Gabrielle, to "experiment" with education, and emancipation.[55][56][57]

    Lafayette and Washington at Mt. Vernon, 1784

    In 1782 Lafayette returned to America, and visited all of the states except Georgia.[58] The trip included a visit to Washington's farm at Mount Vernon on 17 August. In Virginia, Lafayette addressed the House of Delegates and prayed for "liberty of all mankind"; and urged emancipation.[59] Lafayette advocated to the Pennsylvania Legislature for a federal union, and visited the Mohawk Valley in New York for peace negotiations between the Iroquois, some of whom had met Lafayette in 1778.[60] Lafayette received an honorary degree from Harvard, a portrait of Washington from the city of Boston, and a bust from the state of Virginia. Maryland's legislature honored him by making Lafayette and his male heirs "natural born Citizens" of the state, which made him a natural born citizen of the United States after ratification of the new national Constitution.[61] Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia also granted him honorary citizenship.[62][63][64]

    Historian Louis Gottschalk concluded that Lafayette became involved in an affair with the comtesse Aglaé d'Hunolstein,[65] that he broke off on 27 March 1783 by letter, at the insistence of her family.[66] He became briefly linked amorously to Madame de Simiane; however, scholars are divided, whether Adrienne knew of these two extramarital affairs.[67][68] Enemies of Lafayette made much of the court gossip.

    Through the next years, Lafayette was active in the Hôtel de La Fayette, in the rue de Bourbon, the headquarters of Americans in Paris, Benjamin Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. John Jay, and Mr. and Mrs. John Adams, who met every Monday, and dined in company with family and the liberal nobility, such as Clermont-Tonnerre, and Madame de Staël.[69]

    French Revolution

    Assembly of Notables and Estates-General

    "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen", proposed to the Estates-General by Lafayette

    King Louis XVI convoked the Assembly of Notables on 29 December 1786, in response to France's fiscal crisis. The King appointed Lafayette to the body, in the comte d'Artois' division, which met on 22 February 1787. Lafayette argued against proposed higher taxation to solve the economic problems, and supported measures to curb spending.[70] He called for a "truly national assembly", which represented the three classes of French society: clergy, nobility, and commons.[71] On 8 August 1788, the King agreed to hold an Estates General the next year. Lafayette was elected to represent the nobility (Second Estate) from Riom in the Estates General.[72]

    The Estates General convened on 5 May 1789; debate began on whether the delegates should vote by head or by Estate. If voting was by Estate then the nobility and clergy would be able to overturn the commons; if by head, then the larger Third Estate could dominate. Before the meeting, he agitated for the voting by headcount, rather than estate, as a member of the "Committee of Thirty".[73] The issue did not resolve and, on 1 June, the Third Estate asked the others to join them. From 13 to 17 June many of the clergy and some of the nobility did so; on the 17th, the group declared itself the National Assembly.[74] Three days later the doors to their chambers were locked. This led to the Tennis Court Oath, where the members swore to not separate until a Constitution was established.[75] Lafayette, along with forty-six others, joined the National Assembly and, on 27 June, the remainder followed. On 11 July 1789, Lafayette presented a draft of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen".[76] The next day, after dismissal of Finance Minister Jacques Necker, Camille Desmoulins organised an armed mob. The King had the Royal Army under the 2nd duc de Broglie surround Paris.[77] On 13 July, the Assembly elected him their vice-president; the following day the Bastille was stormed.[78][79]

    National Guard, Versailles, and Day of Daggers

    The oath of La Fayette at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790. Talleyrand, then Bishop of Autun can be seen on the right. The standing child is the son of La Fayette, the young Georges Washington de La Fayette. French School, 18th century. Musée Carnavalet.

    On 15 July, Lafayette was acclaimed commander-in-chief of the National Guard of France, an armed force established to maintain order under the control of the Assembly.[80][81] Lafayette proposed the name and the symbol of the group: a blue, white and red cockade.[76][79] On 5 October 1789, a Parisian crowd, comprised mostly of women, marched to Versailles in response to the scarcity of bread. Lafayette and members of the National Guard followed the march. At Versailles, the king accepted the Assembly's votes but refused requests to return to Paris. That evening, Lafayette replaced most of the royal bodyguards with National Guardsmen. At dawn, the crowd broke into the palace. Before it succeeded in entering the queen's bedroom, Marie Antoinette fled to the king's apartments. Lafayette took the royal family onto the palace balcony and attempted to restore order.[82][83] The crowd insisted that the king and his family move to Paris where they were installed in the Tuileries Palace.[84][85]

    As leader of the National Guard, Lafayette attempted to maintain order. On 12 May 1790, he instituted, along with Jean Sylvain Bailly (mayor of Paris), a political club called the "Society of 1789" . The club's intention was to provide balance to the influence of the Jacobins.[86] On 14 July 1790, Lafayette took the civic oath on the Champ de Mars, vowing to "be ever faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; to support with our utmost power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by the king."[87]

    He continued to work for order through the coming months. On 20 February 1791, the Day of Daggers, Lafayette traveled to Vincennes in response to an attempt to liberate a local prison. Meanwhile, armed nobles converged around the Tuileries, afraid the unprotected king would be attacked. Lafayette returned to Paris to disarm the nobles.[88] On 18 April, the National Guard disobeyed Lafayette and stopped the King from leaving for Saint-Cloud over Easter.[79][89][90]

    Decline: Flight to Varennes, Champs de Mars, and the Parisian Mayoral election

    One depiction of the Champ de Mars massacre

    On 20 June 1791, an unsuccessful plot, called the Flight to Varennes, nearly allowed the king to escape from Paris. As leader of the National Guard, Lafayette had been responsible for the royal family's custody. He was thus blamed by Danton for the mishap and called a "traitor" to the people by Maximilien Robespierre.[91] These accusations portrayed Lafayette as a royalist, and damaged his reputation in the eyes of the public.[92] The episode garnered support throughout the country for the Republican movement, and "polarized" the king's supporters.[93]

    Through the latter half of 1791, Lafayette's stature continued to decline. On 17 July, the Cordeliers organized an event, at the Champ de Mars, to gather signatures on a petition which called for a referendum on Louis XVI.[94] The assembled crowd, estimated to be up to 20,000, hanged two men believed to be spies after they were found under a platform.[95] In response, the Assembly asked Bailly, the mayor of Paris, to "halt the disorder";[96] martial law was declared; and National Guard troops, under Lafayette, marched to the scene.[96] Lafayette, at the head of the column, carried a red flag to signify martial law. The sequence of the following events is controversial: the crowd threw stones at the troops, and a shot was allegedly fired; in response, the National Guard shot into the crowd. Exact deaths are unknown; estimates generally range from a dozen to fifty.[95][96] In combination with the Flight to Varennes, this event, known as the Champ de Mars Massacre (Fusillade du Champ de Mars), furthered the public's mistrust in Lafayette and Bailly; in the aftermath, Lafayette resigned his National Guard command and Bailly vacated his post as mayor.[93] In November, Lafayette ran and lost against Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve in the mayoral election to succeed Bailly. Criticisms plagued Lafayette's mayoral campaign: his roles in the flight to Varennes and the Champ de Mars massacre were denounced by the left and right, respectively.[97]

    Conflict and imprisonment

    Lafayette Memorial at Olomouc

    Lafayette returned to Auvergne following the loss of the mayoral election.[97] France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792, and preparations to invade the Austrian Netherlands were begun; Lafayette received command of one of the three armies, at Metz.[98] The war proceeded poorly: Lafayette, along with Rochambeau and Luckner, asked the Assembly to begin peace proceedings, as the generals feared the army would collapse if forced to attack.[99]

    In June 1792, Lafayette criticized the growing influence of the radical clubs through a letter to the Assembly from his field post,[100] and ended his letter by calling for radical parties to be "closed down by force".[99] Earlier, in May, he had secretly proposed to a Brussels diplomat that the war be stopped until he achieved peace in Paris, perhaps by force. Lafayette's prior actions, despite the proposal's secrecy, caused suspicions that he planned a coup d’état. Marie-Antoinette advised authorities of Lafayette's plan, since she did not favor the constitution.[99] Lafayette left his command and returned to Paris on 28 June, where he asked the Assembly for the radical parties to be outlawed, the National Guard to defend the monarchy, and for the Constitution to be upheld.[101][102] His return augmented suspicions that he planned a coup d’état. Again, Lafayette and the Feuillants proposed to save the constitutional monarchy and royal family by uniting his army with General Luckner's. Marie-Antoinette refused: Lafayette had lost the support of the monarchy and the radical parties of the Revolution.[103][104]

    On 8 August, a vote of impeachment was held against him for abandoning his post, in which more than two thirds voted against.[104] Two days later, on 10 August, a mob attacked the Tuileries. The king and his family were brought under guard to the Legislative Assembly who suspended Louis XVI and convoked the National Convention. Commissioners dispatched by the Paris Commune arrived at Sedan, where Lafayette now led his army, to inform him of the events and to secure allegiance to the new government. Lafayette refused their offer of an executive role in the new government, and ordered them arrested, as he found them to be "agents of a faction which had unlawfully seized power."[105] New commissioners came to Sedan and informed Lafayette that he had been relieved of his command. On 19 August, the Assembly declared Lafayette a traitor.[105]

    Lafayette and a group of supporters decided to flee for the Dutch Republic. Lafayette hoped to escape to the United States or to rally Constitutional supporters,[106] but did not make it; the Austrians under Field Marshall Moitelle, arrested him at Rochefort, Belgium. Among those arrested with him were Jean Baptiste Joseph, chevalier de Laumoy, Louis Saint Ange Morel, chevalier de la Colombe, Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth, Charles César de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg, Marie Victor de Fay, marquis de Latour-Maubourg, Juste-Charles de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg, Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy.[107][108][109] Several days later, the prisoners were handed over to Prussia and imprisoned at the citadel of Wesel, where La Fayette became ill. From 25 August to 3 September 1792, he was held at Nivelles; then at Coblentz from 16 to 29 September 1794; at Magdeburg from 15 March 1793 to 22 Jan 1794; at Neisse from 16 February 1794 to 16 May 1794, and finally moved to Olmutz around 25 July 1794, where he was incarcerated in a dungeon.[110]

    On 10 September 1792, soldiers placed Lafayette's wife, Adrienne, under house arrest. Adrienne sold her property and appealed to the Americans for assistance. For political reasons, the young nation could not officially assist the family, although they retroactively paid Lafayette $24,424 for his military service, and Washington personally sent financial aid. In May 1794, during the Reign of Terror, she was transferred to the La Force Prison in Paris; she went from prison to prison until her release on 22 January 1795.

    Adrienne organized the family's finances, including the sale of her property,[111] and appealed to the U.S. for American passports. James Monroe secured passports for Adrienne from Connecticut, which had granted the entire Lafayette family citizenship. Their son Georges, who was hiding to avoid execution, was sent to the U.S.[112] She, however, continued to Vienna for an audience with Emperor Francis II, who granted permission for her to live with Lafayette in captivity.[113] Adrienne lived in his cell with him and finally, in September 1797, after five years' imprisonment, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Directory negotiated the released the family, as a part of the Treaty of Campo Formio, drafted in 1797.[114] Lafayette was not allowed to return to France until 1799, after Napoleon Bonaparte's coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, when Adrienne obtained permission for his return. On return, Lafayette, averse to serving in Napoleon's army, resigned his commission.[115] They retired to La Grange, property of her mother's, which Adrienne had recovered, and where Charles James Fox came to visit.

    Later life and death

    Lafayette was unwilling to compromise with Napoleon's government; thus he stayed away from a government that he viewed as illegitimate, in Paris. In 1804, Napoleon was crowned Emperor, after a plebiscite in which Lafayette did not participate. He remained relatively quiet, although he spoke publicly on Bastille Day events.[116] After the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson asked if he would be interested in the governorship. Lafayette declined, citing personal problems and the desire to work for liberty in France.[117] During a trip to Auvergne, Adrienne became ill. Due to her malady, worsened by the scurvy she had contracted in prison, she was unable to hide her anemia. In 1807, she became delirious but recovered enough on Christmas Eve to gather the family around her bed and to say to Lafayette: "Je suis toute à vous" ("I am all yours").[118] She died the next day, apparently from lead-poisoning complications.[119]

    The Hundred Days

    He was elected to the Chamber of Representatives under the Charter of 1815, during the Hundred Days, which called for Napoleon to abdicate after Waterloo. Lucien Bonaparte, came before the assembly to denounce abdication, Lafayette replied:

    By what right do you dare accuse the nation of...want of perseverance in the emperor's interest? The nation has followed him on the fields of Italy, across the sands of Egypt and the plains of Germany, across the frozen deserts of Russia.... The nation has followed him in fifty battles, in his defeats and in his victories, and in doing so we have to mourn the blood of three million Frenchmen.[120]

    Grand Tour of America

    Portrait of General Lafayette (by Matthew Harris) in 1825

    President James Monroe invited Lafayette to visit the United States from August 1824 to September 1825, in part to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary.[22] During his trip, he visited all of the American states and travelled more than 6,000 miles (9,656 km).[121][122] Lafayette arrived from France at Staten Island, N.Y., on 15 August 1824, to an artillery salute.[123] The towns and cities he visited, including Fayetteville, North Carolina, the first city named in his honour, gave him enthusiastic welcomes.[121] On 17 October 1824, Lafayette visited Mount Vernon and George Washington's tomb. On 4 November 1824, he visited Jefferson at Monticello, and on the 8th he attended a public banquet at the University of Virginia.[124] In late August 1825, he returned to Mount Vernon.[125] A military unit decided to adopt the title National Guard, in honour of Lafayette's celebrated Garde Nationale de Paris. This battalion, later the 7th Regiment, was prominent in the line of march when Lafayette passed through New York before returning to France on the frigate USS Brandywine.[121] Late in the trip, he again received honorary citizenship of Maryland.[126] Lafayette was feted at the first commencement ceremony of George Washington University in 1824. He was voted, by the U.S. Congress, the sum of $200,000 and a township of land located in Tallahassee, Florida to be known as the Lafayette Land Grant.[127][128] His tour is the subject of an essay presented by writer Sarah Vowell in "Reunited", episode #291 of radio show This American Life.[129]

    Accession of Louis-Philippe

    La Fayette and duc d'Orléans, 31 July 1830

    As the restored monarchy of Charles X became more conservative, Lafayette re-emerged as a prominent public figure. He had been a member of the Chamber of Deputies from Seine-et-Marne since 1815 and had pursued the abdication of Napoleon.[130][131] Throughout his legislative career, he continued to endorse causes such as freedom of the press, suffrage for all taxpayers, and the worldwide abolition of slavery.[132] He was not as directly visible in public affairs as in previous years; however, he became more vocal in the events leading up to the July Revolution of 1830.[133] When the monarch proposed that theft from churches be made a capital crime, agitation against the Crown increased.[133] On 27 July 1830, Parisians began erecting barricades throughout the city, and riots erupted. Lafayette established a committee as interim government. On 29 July 1830, the commission asked Lafayette to become dictator, but he demurred to offer the crown to Louis-Phillipe. Lafayette was reinstated as commander of the National Guard by the new monarch, who revoked the post after Lafayette once again called for the abolition of slavery.[134]

    Death

    Monument to Lafayette in Paris

    Lafayette spoke for the last time in the Chamber of Deputies on 3 January 1834. The winter was wet and cold, and the next month he collapsed at a funeral from pneumonia. Although he recovered, the following May was wet and, after a thunderstorm, he became sick and bedridden.[135] On 20 May 1834, Lafayette died. He was buried next to his wife at the Cimetière de Picpus under soil from Bunker Hill, which his son Georges sprinkled upon him.[134][136] King Louis-Phillipe ordered a military funeral in order to keep the public from attending. Crowds formed to protest their exclusion from Lafayette's funeral.[121]

    American President Andrew Jackson ordered that Lafayette be accorded the same funeral honours as John Adams and George Washington. Therefore, 24-gun salutes were fired from military posts and ships, each shot representing a U.S. state. Flags flew at half mast for thirty-five days, and "military officers wore crape for six months".[137][138] The Congress hung black in chambers and asked the entire country to dress in black for the next thirty days.[139]

    Honors

    A U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating La Fayette

    Lafayette was widely commemorated in the U.S. In 1824, the U.S. government named Lafayette Park in his honor; it lies immediately north of the White House in Washington, D.C. In 1826, Lafayette College was chartered in Easton, Pennsylvania. Lafayette was honored with a monument in New York City in 1917.[140] Portraits display Washington and Lafayette in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.[141] Numerous towns, cities, and counties across the United States were named in his honor.

    On July 4th, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entered World War I, Colonel Charles E. Stanton visited the grave of Lafayette and uttered the famous phrase "Lafayette, we are here." After the war, a U.S. flag was permanently placed at the grave site. Every year, on the 4th of July, the flag is replaced in a joint French-American ceremony.[142]

    On visiting Corsica in 1943, General George S. Patton commented on how the Free French forces had liberated the birthplace of Napoleon, and promised that the Americans would liberate the birthplace of LaFayette.

    Lafayette was again granted honorary United States citizenship by Congress in 2002.[143] The Order of Lafayette was established in 1958 by U.S. Representative Hamilton Fish III, a World War I veteran, to promote Franco-American friendship and to honor Americans who fought in France. The frigate Hermione, in which Lafayette returned to America, has been reconstructed in the port of Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France.[144]

    The aircraft carrier USS Langley (CVL-27) was renamed La Fayette by France

    Chateaubriand:

    In this year of 1834, Monsieur de Lafayette died. I may already have done him an injustice in speaking of him; I may have represented him as a kind of fool, with twin faces and twin reputations; a hero on the other side of the Atlantic, a clown on this. It has taken more than forty years to recognise qualities in Monsieur de Lafayette which one insisted on denying him. At the rostrum he expressed himself fluently and with the air of a man of breeding. No stain attaches to his life; he was affable, obliging and generous.[145]

    Several warships were named after La Fayette. The French Navy acquired USS Langley (CVL-27) in 1951 and renamed it La Fayette (R96). A modern stealth frigate is also named after La Fayette, and is also the name of a ship class: La Fayette (F710).

    The city of Fayetteville, North Carolina is named after General Lafayette. In fact, many cities are named after Lafayette, but Fayetteville, North Carolina was the first and, as it is told, the only one he actually visited. He arrived in Fayetteville, North Carolina by horse-drawn carriage in 1825.

    Many streets around the world are named for Lafayette, such as Lafayette Street in Williston Park, New York and Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan, New York.

    See also

    Notes and references

    1. ^ a b Clary, pp. 7, 8
    2. ^ Historians differ on the spelling of Lafayette's name: Lafayette, La Fayette, and LaFayette. Contemporaries often used "La Fayette", similar to his ancestor, the novelist Madame de La Fayette; however, his immediate family wrote Lafayette. - Gottschalk, pp. 153-154
    3. ^ a b c d e Gaines, p. 33
    4. ^ a b Clary, pp. 11–13
    5. ^ a b Gottschlk, pp. 3–5
    6. ^ a b Holbrook, pp. 13, 71
    7. ^ Holbrook, p. 8
    8. ^ Clary, p. 20
    9. ^ Adams, p. 12
    10. ^ Clary, p. 28
    11. ^ Holbrook, p. 15
    12. ^ Charlemagne Tower (1894). The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution. J.B. Lippincott Company. p. 88. http://books.google.com/books?id=vDuF70s1Eu4C&pg=PA22&dq=de+kalb&lr=#PPA33,M1. 
    13. ^ "Nelson, ''Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of Hastings'', p.55". Alibris.com. http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/8802888/used/Francis%20Rawdon-Hastings,%20Marquess%20of%20Hastings:%20Soldier,%20Peer%20of%20the%20Realm,%20Governor-General%20of%20India. Retrieved 2009-08-09. 
    14. ^ Unger, p.24
    15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Holbrook, pp. 15–16
    16. ^ Gottschalk, p.66-82
    17. ^ Clary, p. 75
    18. ^ a b c Holbrook, p. 17
    19. ^ Gaines, p. 56
    20. ^ Clary, p. 83
    21. ^ Charlemagne Tower. The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution. p. 34. http://books.google.com/books?id=vDuF70s1Eu4C&pg=PA22&dq=de+kalb&lr=#PPA34,M1. 
    22. ^ a b Glathaar, p. 3
    23. ^ Cloquet, p. 37
    24. ^ Grizzard, p. 174
    25. ^ a b Martin, p. 195
    26. ^ Holbrook, p. 20
    27. ^ "The Moland House". The Moland House. http://moland.org/index.php. Retrieved 29 September 2008. 
    28. ^ Gaines, p. 70
    29. ^ Clary, p. 100
    30. ^ Holbrook, p. 23
    31. ^ Gaines, p. 75
    32. ^ Grizzard, p. 175
    33. ^ Cloquet, p. 203
    34. ^ "Valley Forge National Historic Park". National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/vafo/historyculture/lafayette.htm. Retrieved 20 October 2008. 
    35. ^ Palmer, pp. 276, 277
    36. ^ Greene, p. 140, 141
    37. ^ Gaines, p. 112
    38. ^ Holbrook, pp. 28, 29
    39. ^ Fiske, pp. 89-92
    40. ^ Clary, p. 243
    41. ^ Cloquet, p. 155
    42. ^ Clary, p. 254
    43. ^ Clary, p. 257
    44. ^ Holbrook, p. 44
    45. ^ a b c d Gaines, pp. 153–155
    46. ^ Gaines, James (September 2007). "Washington & Lafayette". Smithsonian Magazine Online (Smithsonian). http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/washington_main.html?c=y&page=3. Retrieved 21 October 2008. 
    47. ^ a b Holbrook, pp. 53–54
    48. ^ Holbrook, p. 43
    49. ^ Clary, pp. 330–338
    50. ^ Holbrook, p. 56
    51. ^ Clary, p. 350
    52. ^ Holbrook, p. 63
    53. ^ Tuckerman, p. 154
    54. ^ Holbrook, p. 65
    55. ^ a b Kaminsky, pp. 34, 35
    56. ^ Beth Sica (2002-08-09). "''La Belle Gabrielle'', Lafayette and Slavery, Lafayette College". Ww2.lafayette.edu. http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/special/specialexhibits/slaveryexhibit/onlineexhibit/gabrielle.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-09. 
    57. ^ Unger, p.216
    58. ^ Loveland, p. 16
    59. ^ Hirschfeld, p. 126
    60. ^ Gaines, pp. 201, 202
    61. ^ Speare, Morris Edmund. "Lafayette, Citizen of America" The New York Times, 7 September 1919.
    62. ^ Officer, p. 171
    63. ^ Holbrook, pp. 67–68
    64. ^ Gaines, pp. 198–99, 204, 206
    65. ^ Gottschalk, p. 155
    66. ^ Gottshalk (1939). A Lady in Waiting. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 95. 
    67. ^ Wright, pp. 23-24
    68. ^ Gottshalk (1939). A Lady in Waiting. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 96. 
    69. ^ Maurois, Adrienne: The Life of the Marquise de La Fayette, p.113
    70. ^ Tuckerman, p. 198
    71. ^ Neely, p. 47
    72. ^ Tuckerman, p. 210
    73. ^ Doyle, p. 74, 90
    74. ^ Tuckerman, p. 213
    75. ^ de La Fuye, p. 83.
    76. ^ a b Gerson, pp. 81–83
    77. ^ Crowdy, p. 7
    78. ^ Note: Lafayette later sent Washington the key.
    79. ^ a b c Doyle, pp. 112–13
    80. ^ Tuckerman, p. 230
    81. ^ Crowdy, p. 42
    82. ^ Hampson, p. 89
    83. ^ Neely, p. 86
    84. ^ Doyle, p. 122
    85. ^ Clary, p. 392
    86. ^ Thiers, p. vi
    87. ^ Cloquet, p. 305
    88. ^ Doyle, p. 148
    89. ^ Jones, p. 445
    90. ^ Frey, p. 92
    91. ^ Gaines, pp. 345, 346
    92. ^ Holbrook, p. 100
    93. ^ a b Neely, p. 126, 179
    94. ^ Andress, p. 51
    95. ^ a b Andress, The French Revolution and the people, p. 151
    96. ^ a b c Neely, p. 128
    97. ^ a b Andress, p. 61
    98. ^ Broadwell, p. 28
    99. ^ a b c Andress, 72-5
    100. ^ Broadwell, p. 36
    101. ^ Doyle, p. 186
    102. ^ Morris, Vol. I, p.458
    103. ^ Andress, pp. 78, 80, 87
    104. ^ a b Broadwell, p. 37
    105. ^ a b Tuckerman, p. 84-5
    106. ^ Clary, p. 409
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    108. ^ Doyle, p. 190
    109. ^ Lafayette Collection, Library of Congress, Reel 1, Folder 2A
    110. ^ Lafayette Collection, Library of Congress, Reel 1, Folder 5 & 5A
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    112. ^ Clary, p. 413
    113. ^ Clary, p. 418
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