Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Marquis de La Fayette was a French aristocrat and military officer. He fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. He has been considered a national hero in both countries.

About Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in brief

Summary Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de LafayetteMarquis de La Fayette was a French aristocrat and military officer. He fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. He is sometimes known as \”The Hero of the Two Worlds\” for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States. He died on 20 May 1834 and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Bunker Hill. He was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne in south central France. One of Lafayette’s early ancestors, Gilbert de Lafayette III, had been a Marshal of Joan of Arc’s army during the Siege of Orléans in 1429. His non-grandfather was Michel de La Rivière, commander of the Comte de Mousquetaires du Roi, or ‘Black Musketeers’, King Louis XV’s personal horse guard. His paternal uncle Jacques-Roch died on January 1734 while fighting the Austrians at Milan in the War of the Succession; upon his death in 1759, the title of marquis passed to his brother Michel de Lafayette de La Rivière. He also had a great-grandson, Michel de la Rivières, who died on the battlefield on August 1, 1759; his great-great-granddaughter was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette, who was killed on January 1, 1815 in the Battle of Verdun.

He had a daughter, Marie-Anne, who became the first woman to be a member of the French House of Representatives. She died in 1815. He has been considered a national hero in both countries. He served as a member. of the Assembly of Notables in 1787, convened in response to the fiscal crisis. In 1789, he helped to write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with Thomas Jefferson’s assistance. He advocated the end of slavery, in keeping with the philosophy of natural rights. In August 1792, radical factions ordered his arrest, and he fled into the Austrian Netherlands. He was captured by Austrian troops and spent more than five years in prison. He returned to France after Napoleon Bonaparte secured his release in 1797, though he refused to participate in Napoleon’s government. In 1824, President James Monroe invited him to the U.S. as the nation’s guest and he visited all 24 states in the union and met a rapturous reception. He declined an offer to become the French dictator. Instead, he supported Louis-Philippe as king, but turned against him when the monarch became autocratic. According to legend, another ancestor acquired the crown of thlélé in France in the Sixth Crusade during the Sixth Crusade.