Marquis de Lafayette

Lafayette was married to 14 year old Marie Adrienne Fran�oise de Noailles, marquise de La Fayette, the daughter of Jean de Noailles, and Henriette Anne Louise d'Aguesseau.

Because both of them were very young at the time they got married, Adrienne's mother managed their courtship and kept them apart for a year. The couple had four children together: Henriette, Anastasie, Georges Washington and Virginie.

Lafayette died in Paris in 1834. He was buried next to his wife at the Picpus Cemetery and was given a military funeral in order to keep the public away. Crowds assembled together to protest their omission from Lafayette's funeral.

Lafayette was born at the chateau de Chavaniac, in Chavaniac, near Le Puy-en-Velay, in the modern department of Haute-Loire to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette and Marie Louise Jolie de La Riviere.

His father was colonel of grenadiers and was killed in battle during the Seven Years War, and his mother and grandmother both died in 1770, and they left Lafayette a large inheritance.

He attended the College du Plessis (Lycee Louis-le-Grand) and in 1771, he started his training to become an officer at the Musketeers of military Household of King of France.

Lafayette was increasingly getting inspired to join the American Revolution after listening to various stories about it and finally in 1776, he arranged through an American agent in Paris, to enter the American service as a major general.

In 1777, he cruised to America, masquerading as a woman, even after he was threatened by the British government and was told that his ship will be seized and he would be imprisoned if he disobeys the orders.

The Continental Congress in America commissioned him as a major-general and George Washington accepted him as his aide-de-camp since making him a commander with control of a division was not possible as he was of foreign birth.

His first major warfare responsibility came with the Battle of Brandywine; he was shot in the leg. George Washington appealed to the doctors to take particular care of Lafayette, which made the bond between the two even stronger.

In 1778, he outmaneuvered the British army that was sent to incarcerate him at Bunker Hill, which was later renamed ‘Lafayette Hill’, and assembled an unsteady Continental attack at Monmouth Courthouse to force an impasse.

On his trip to America in 1784, Lafayette was awarded with an honorary degree from Harvard, a portrait of Washington from the city of Boston, and a bust from the state of Virginia.

As an honor for his contribution to the American Revolution he was made a natural born citizen of America.

Lafayette's whole life is an inspiration, a symbol of friendship between America and France, of a better world where rights and liberties are worth fighting for. His contribution in the American Revolution is his biggest work in life.