Marquis de Lafayette Facts & Worksheets

• • Battle of Brandywine (1777): Lafayette was wounded while helping retreating soldiers. His bravery earned Washington’s respect and later command of a division.
  • Battle of Gloucester (1777): After healing, he led 300 men against a bigger Hessian force and won.
  • Winter at Valley Forge (1777–78): He stayed with Washington’s army through the harsh winter and helped bring the Oneida nation to the American side, who called him Kayewla (‘fearsome horseman’).
  • Albany Mission (1778): Sent to plan an attack on Canada, he found too few men and told Washington, who stopped the plan.
  • Barren Hill (1778): Nearly trapped by a much larger British army, he tricked them and safely led his men out.
  • Battle of Monmouth (1778): When General Charles Lee failed, Lafayette called Washington forward, helping save the American effort.
  • Rhode Island Campaign (1778): Though storms ruined the French fleet’s help, Lafayette led the retreat so well that Congress praised his gallantry, skill and prudence.
• In 1779, Lafayette returned to France, where the king lightly punished him for disobeying orders, but he was welcomed as a hero. Congress even gave him a ceremonial sword. In France, he worked with Franklin to get more French troops and ships. He returned in 1780 aboard the frigate Hermione.
• In 1781, Washington sent him to Virginia to slow down Cornwallis’s army. Even though he had fewer men, Lafayette cleverly avoided capture and wore down the British. At the Battle of Green Spring, he supported Anthony Wayne’s brave bayonet charge. Later, he helped trap Cornwallis in Yorktown. During the Siege of Yorktown (1781), Lafayette’s men captured Redoubt 9, while Hamilton’s troops took Redoubt 10. These victories forced Cornwallis to surrender on 19 October 1781, ending the main fighting of the war.

Role in the French Revolution

• After returning from America, Lafayette brought with him strong ideas about liberty, equality, and the rights of citizens. He quickly became involved in France’s movement for reform.
• In 1786, King Louis XVI called an Assembly of Notables to address France’s financial crisis, and Lafayette was appointed. He criticised those who profited from government land sales through court connections and called for a ‘truly national assembly’ representing all of France. 
• When the king instead summoned the Estates-General in 1789, Lafayette was elected as a representative of the nobility. He pushed for voting ‘by head’ instead of by Estate, so that the larger Third Estate (commoners) could have a fair voice. Although he could not convince most of the nobles, the clergy joined the Third Estate, and on 17 May 1789, they declared themselves the National Assembly, leading to the Tennis Court Oath, in which members vowed not to separate until a constitution was written.
• Lafayette also worked on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, consulting with Thomas Jefferson. This document declared that all men are born free and equal, with rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. The Assembly approved it on 26 August 1789, though the king initially refused to accept it.
• Lafayette was appointed commander of the Parisian National Guard on 15 July 1789, just after the storming of the Bastille. Some royalists saw him as a revolutionary, while many citizens thought he was helping protect the king. He proposed the symbol of the French tricolour (blue, white and red) and worked to maintain order during key events:
  • October Days (1789): When a crowd of women marched to Versailles demanding bread, Lafayette brought the royal family to the balcony to calm them and tried to restore order.
  • Fête de la Fédération (14 July 1790): Lafayette and the National Guard took a civic oath to uphold the constitution alongside the king, symbolising national unity.
  • Day of Daggers (1791): Lafayette disarmed armed nobles who tried to take the king away, increasing his popularity for protecting the monarchy.
• However, Lafayette’s popularity declined as radicals gained influence. During the Flight to Varennes (20 June 1791), the king and queen tried to escape Paris. Lafayette and the National Guard captured them and returned them, but extremists called him a royalist and traitor. Later that year, during the Champs de Mars Massacre, Lafayette ordered the National Guard to fire on protesters calling for the end of the monarchy, killing many and further damaging his reputation. He resigned from the National Guard in October 1791.
• In 1792, Lafayette commanded the Army of the Centre and later the Army of the North, but he was accused of desertion and fled France. He was captured by Austrian forces and held as a prisoner of state for over five years, with his wife Adrienne and children eventually allowed to join him in captivity.

Later Life and Death of Marquis de Lafayette

• After his release from imprisonment in 1797, Lafayette returned to France but stayed mostly out of active politics. He lived quietly at his estate, La Grange, while keeping in touch with friends in America, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. He remained committed to liberty and often offered advice or support to movements for freedom in France and abroad, such as the Greek War of Independence.
• In 1824, Lafayette made a famous grand tour of the United States, invited by President James Monroe to celebrate the nation’s 50th anniversary. He travelled through all 24 states at the time, visiting battlefields, meeting former Revolutionary War comrades, and being honoured with parades, ceremonies and monuments. People across the country celebrated him as the ‘Hero of Two Worlds’.
• During the July Revolution of 1830, Lafayette again became active in French politics. He stood against King Charles X when he tried to regain full power, led the National Guard, and helped make the change to Louis-Philippe’s rule peaceful while keeping the law in place. Later, he became disappointed with Louis-Philippe because the king did not keep his promises and used force to stop protests, like the strike in Lyon.
• Lafayette continued to speak for liberal proposals in the Chamber of Deputies and remained a respected public figure. His neighbours elected him mayor of La Grange and to the council of the département of Seine-et-Marne in 1831. He also spoke at the funeral of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque in 1832, pleading for calm during riots that erupted in Paris, though the June Rebellion was violently crushed by the king.
• Lafayette spoke publicly for the last time on 3 January 1834. The following month, he collapsed at a funeral from pneumonia but recovered. In May, he became bedridden after being caught in a thunderstorm. He died at the age of 76 on 20 May 1834 at his Paris home. He was buried next to his wife at the Picpus Cemetery, with soil from Bunker Hill sprinkled upon his grave by his son Georges Washington. King Louis-Philippe ordered a military funeral to limit public attendance, but crowds formed in protest.
• In the United States, Lafayette was honoured with the same memorial respect given to George Washington. President Andrew Jackson ordered that Congress drape both Houses in black for 30 days and wear mourning badges. John Quincy Adams delivered a three-hour eulogy, calling Lafayette ‘high on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind’, recognising his lifelong dedication to liberty and justice in both France and America.