(Marie Paul Joseph Gilbert Motier, marquis de)
(Château de Chavaniac, Auvergne, 1757 Paris, 1834.) General and politician.
From a noble family in Auvergne, the future "Hero of both worlds" finds himself, from the age of two, orphan of a father, this one, colonel in the grenadiers of France, having been killed during the battle of Minden, in Westphalia, on August 1, 1759.
At the age of 11, the young man was sent by his mother to the Collège du Plessis, in Paris, before entering the 2nd company of musketeers in 1771, and two years later to the regiment of Noailles, with the rank of second lieutenant. In 1774, La Fayette married the very young Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles (second daughter of the Duke of Ayen), which allowed him to be introduced to the court of Versailles and endowed with some rank.
But, is it awkwardness or expression of a fiery temperament, court life does not please him; the possibility of quenching his great thirst for freedom was offered to him in 1775 with the announcement, in Europe, of the beginning of the American War of Independence.
From then on, both the cause of the Insurgents that the possibility of going to war against England, the hereditary enemy of France, pushed La Fayette to deploy fierce energy to enter into contact with Benjamin Franklin, without arousing the suspicions of his family, who were hostile to his projects. And, despite the lettres de cachet requested by his family to prevent him from going to America, the intrepid La Fayette managed to embark on April 26, 1777, and arrived in Georgetown on June 15.
After having received from the American Congress the rank of major general, he is the host of George Washington on July 31st. From the meeting of these two exceptional men will immediately be born a deep and sincere friendship that time will not be able to alter.
La Fayette took part in the Battle of Brandywine, during which he was wounded and then
received, at the end of 1777, the command of the troops of Virginia. The fiery general distinguished himself again at the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778) and took part in several military engagements whose happy ending was due in large part to his insight. These brilliant successes naturally earned him the warm congratulations of the Congress, as well as a triumphant welcome on his return to France in the spring of 1779.
From that moment, La Fayette worked for his country to intervene alongside the American armies and finally obtained that a body of about 6,000 men, commanded by General Rochambeau, be sent across the Atlantic. Having preceded the French expeditionary force by a few days, La Fayette prepared the plan of operations and led with the famous general a campaign which forced Cornwallis, surrounded in Yorktown, to capitulate on October 17, 1781. This victory was to lead, no more no less , to the independence of the United States.
La Fayette, who returned to France in January 1785, appears to be the instigator of this freedom won through hard struggle. It was in this capacity that, after having traveled all over Europe, notably meeting Frederick II and Joseph II, he began a lively and fascinating correspondence with his friend Washington. Then, a friend of Necker, La Fayette happened to be among those who made up the Assembly of Notables in February 1787; but the advanced ideas he expressed there earned him some coldness from influential members of the royal entourage. La Fayette then decided to return to service and obtained, in October 1788, the command of an infantry brigade. However, for having taken up the cause against the Lamoignon* edicts, he saw his letters of service withdrawn (July 15, 1788), but was elected in March 1789 deputy of the nobility of the seneschalsy of Riom to the States General. /P>
From then on, the liberal spirit of this illustrious Freemason was able to flow freely. After having created with Brissot the Society of Friends of Blacks, intended to fight against slavery, he presented, on July 11, a project of. European Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. He was appointed, on the 13th, Vice-President of the Assembly, and, on the 15th, Commander of the National Guard of Paris. As he wants to resign from this post at the announcement of the murder of Foulon and Denier, he is begged to stay, and he finally agrees to continue to fulfill his duties. Two days later, July 17, 'La Fayette offered his troops the wearing of a tricolor cockade — the blue and red of the city of Paris encircling the white of royalty — exclaiming:"I bring you a cockade which will go around the world! »
But the one that Mirabeau disdainfully called "Gilles César" had to face terrible difficulties. After having "defended" the Palace of Versailles during the days of October 1789, he founded the Society of 1789 on May 12, 1790 and took an oath of loyalty to the Nation on the feast of the Federation (July 14, 1790). , to the Law and to the King. However, the man who was increasingly, and no doubt wrongly, considered the man of the Court, saw his star fade and his dream of being the French Washington dissipate. The political thrust was given to him, despite his orders to have the king arrested, when the announcement of the “flight from Varennes*” was announced. Lieutenant general at the end of June 1791, he severely suppressed the demonstration on the Champ-de-Mars (July 17), firing on the people, and had to resign at the time of the separation of the Constituent Assembly (8 October 1791).
La Fayette, who was offered the chair of mayor of Paris, preferred to retire to Auvergne but was given command of the Center Army. After having taken up publicly and with great courage the defense of the throne, the day after the days of June and August 1792, the fearless general crossed the border, with several members of his staff, but fell into the hands of the enemy powers. who, considering him as one of the instigators of the Revolution, imprisoned him in various places, before incarcerating him, according to an extremely rigorous prison regime, in the fortress of Olmütz in Moravia. La Fayette will stay five years in his jail. His wife, the heroic Adrienne, and his two daughters will come to share his harsh captivity. It was only by an express provision of the Treaty of Campoformio (1797) that he would recover his freedom.
Having traveled through the Netherlands for several weeks, the general returned to France at the announcement of the coup d'etat of 18-Brumaire, refused the post of ambassador to the United States and retired to his estate of La Roche-Blesneau in Seine-et-Marne, from where he assisted, provided with 6,000 francs income, to the imperial epic. But the first abdication plunged him back into public life.
After having supported Louis XVIII, during the First Restoration, he espoused, when the return of the island of Elba was announced, the Emperor's cause, which seemed to him to be the best for France. His rallying earned him a seat as deputy in Seine-et-Marne on May 10, 1815, and that of vice-president of the Assembly. However, he was one of those who contributed to the downfall of the vanquished at Waterloo on June 22, 1815.
This versatile attitude did not prevent him from obtaining the post of Commissar to the Headquarters of the Allies and to speak, in the exercise of his functions, the language of the real and lasting interest of his country. La Fayette finds himself deputy for Sarthe in 1818, and reaffirms at the podium his fundamental conceptions of the freedoms of the individual. A member of the Charbonnerie, he was defeated in the elections of 1824 and returned to the United States where he was received with all the respect due to the man who made it possible to liberate the country.
Back in France during the autumn of 1825, La Fayette was once again elected deputy for Seine-et-Marne in 1827 then, after the Three Glorious Revolutions, he was given command of the National Guard but resigned shortly after, at the following a dispute between him and King Louis-Philippe. Re-elected in December 1830 deputy for Seine-et-Marne, he contributed to defending the causes dictated by justice, freedom and the dignity of man, during the Polish affair in particular, but, in the month of May 1834, this exceptional being, who knew how to keep all his life the romantic enthusiasm of his youthful ideas, died in Paris where he was buried in the cemetery of Picpus.