Who was the Marquis de Lafayette?
1 Answer
A French aristocrat and officer who fought for the colonists during the American Revolutionary War.
Explanation:
Born in 1757, Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is known to most Americans simply as Lafayette, his title. He was one of several Europeans who came to America to help the colonists during the American Revolutionary War. Others were Casimir Pulaski, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and Friedirch Wilhelm von Steuben.
Lafayette was a close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. He visited France in the middle of the war to help Benjamin Franklin lobby the French king to intervene on the colonist's behalf. Returning to America, he commanded the Virginia troops who blocked Lord Cornwallis of the British army and enabled the French and Americans to institute the Siege of Yorktown, the decisive battle of the war.
After the American Revolution he returned to France and involved himself in French politics, becoming one of the moderate leaders of the French Revolution. When the radical factions tried to arrest him, he fled to the Netherlands where he was captured by Austria. He spent five years in prison in Austria until Napoleon Bonaparte secured his release.
After the restoration he commanded loyalist troops during the French July Revolution of 1830. He died in 1834, and is buried in Paris.
