Hero Of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, Duncan - B

        Gilbert de Lafayette was born on Sept. 6, 1757 to a family of noble heritage on his father's side, and significant wealth on his mother's. His father died two years later. He grew up in the Auvergne region in south central France until his mother moved him to Paris when he was 11. A year later, she too died. Gilbert was now the wealthy Marquis de Lafayette. The noble de Noailles family set sights on him as a future son-in-law. He and Adrienne were wed in 1774. The following year he summered at Metz where he was a newly appointed officer in the army, joined the Masons, and began to consider freedom and equality as the foundation of his political philosophy. Before his career could begin though, he was caught on the wrong side of an army reorganization and was out of a commission.

      Dreaming of glory, he turned his attention to America and somehow convinced the Continental Army's recruiter in Paris to offer him a commission as a Major- General. His value was his membership in the nobility, his connection to the crown, and his wealth, which he used to purchase a ship to take him and others to America. He arrived in Philadelphia in the summer of 1777 and was warmly welcomed.  At Brandywine, he fought bravely, was wounded and won praise from Washington.  He worked in 1778  as liaison when the French forces arrived in America, and at year's end returned to France, where he was proclaimed a hero.  He returned to America in 1780, and announced more troops, supplies and funds were on the way. Washington assigned Lafayette a division and tasked him with pursuing an army in Virginia. As both sides traversed Virginia, Lafayette had the good fortune to command the army that actually bottlenecked Cornwallis at Yorktown. The twenty-four year old general was in charge of the attack that led to the British surrender. Lafayette had made his name.

   Returning to Paris, he took up the life of a wealthy and famous family man with three children. He was one of 144 Notables called to an assembly in 1787 to try and find a solution to the kingdom's precarious finances. It soon became evident that France's financial mess was caused by the profligacy of the Bourbons, and that massive tax revisions were necessary. However, no consensus was reached and the situation continued to deteriorate. The marquis was identified with the reform oriented republicans and lost favor at the court. When the coffers were completely empty in the summer of 1788, the creditors demanded reform through a calling of the Estates-General. Lafayette was part of the first convocation of the Estates-General since 1614, and made a notable speech on the topic of the rights of man. However, events soon overcame the assembly when the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789. A great revolution was underway.  In the new realm, Lafayette was put in command of the national guard, where he had to juggle preserving liberty and keeping order. His design of the guard's uniforms in white, red and blue eventually became the national flag. He deftly averted a peoples attack on Versailles in October and, in the course of seeking a compromise, convinced the king to move to Paris. As the king had indicated a willingness to create a constitutional monarchy, the marquis believed he was heading the revolution toward a peaceful resolution On the first anniversary of Bastille Day, Lafayette hosted a Fete de la Federation involving hundreds of thousands honoring the royal family and the National Assembly. He was at the apogee of his career, and would soon plummet. When the king attempted to escape France in the summer of 1991, Lafayette erroneously told the the government that he had been kidnapped. He had previously assured the Assembly that the king would not run. He was clearly wrong, and was the target of abuse by the angry radicals. When, in the midst of a confusing riotous day on the Champs de Mars, he ordered his men to fire, Lafayette sealed his fate. He resigned in October. He and his family left the city for their ancestral home in Auvergne. A year later, he was accused of treason. Danton, a long term opponent signed an arrest warrant, and the marquis fled the country.  The Austrians considered him an instigator of revolution and arrested him. By doing so, they probably saved his life. His wife was arrested and all of his assets confiscated. The new American ambassador, James Madison, saved Adrienne from the guillotine. The US passed a law authorizing full pay for Lafayette, thus affording him a chance to upgrade his life while imprisoned. Adrienne was set free in early 1795 as a gesture of goodwill to the US. She and her two daughters joined Lafayette in jail. Freedom came in 1797 when Bonaparte defeated the Austrians and they let their French prisoners out.

      Impoverished and unwelcome in France, the family moved to Denmark. He was allowed to return in late 1799 with the admonition to stay out of politics and Paris. The family moved to a chateau in LaGrange that Adrienne's family owned. His citizenship was reestablished, but he and Napoleon were wary of each other. The emperor wanted his support; he wanted liberty and freedom for all. Lafayette focused on his farming and his family. On Christmas Eve in 1807, Adrienne died at the age of forty-eight. Lafayette was saddened by France's losses, but welcomed the downfall of Napoleon. Louis XVIII's restoration bestowed a charter of rights, but it was a gift from the king and not a true constitution. In 1818, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. As the monarchy turned to the right, Lafayette began to work to overturn it. He was involved in a plot that failed, and managed to avoid indictment, but did lose his seat in the 1823 elections. With reaction prevailing, he decided it was time to return to America. Accompanied by his son, Georges, and a secretary, the marquis arrived in New York in the summer of 1824. He was honored for a full year throughout the country, where he visited all twenty-four states and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill by laying the cornerstone for a new memorial. He met just about every luminary in the land including Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Jackson and President Adams. He sailed to France in a US ship christened Brandywine in his honor.

     Charles X was now king and was bound and determined to turn back the revolution. As part of his program was the restoration of the aristocracy's wealth, Lafayette was once again a wealthy man. He was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In July of 1830, the king tried to eliminate many of the freedoms that were now part of the body politic. Rioters in Paris put Lafayette back in charge of the National Guard and forced the king to abdicate. He supported the duc d'Orleans for the throne because the duc believed in the principles of the liberals. He and Lafayette stood on the balcony of the Hotel de Ville waving the tricolor flag. Lafayette was again the toast of the country, and Louis Philipe, the new king, vowed to support republican institutions. The king lapsed into the Bourbon's old ways and the opposition had Lafayette removed from power, although he stayed on in the Chamber and continued to argue for expanding the electorate. He wound down his activities in Paris, and died at his country home in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven. His funeral procession in Paris attracted 200,000 spectators. The extraordinary Marquis Lafayette was buried in a churchyard with his wife.