Authors: Harlow Giles Unger
Lafayette, in his uniform as a French brigadier general and maréchal de camp, in 1782, from an engraving by Adèle Ethiou of the painting at Versailles. (
From the author’s collection
.)
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2002 by Harlow Giles Unger. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Unger, Harlow G., date.
Lafayette / Harlow Giles Unger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-471-39432-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757–1834. 2. Generals—United States—Biography. 3. United States. Army— Biography. 4. Generals—France—Biography. 5. Statesmen—France—Biography. 6. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Participation, French. 7. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Biography. I. Title.
E207.L2 U45 2002
944.04′092—dc21
[B]
2002071327
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my dear friends
André and Eva Mandel
To my brother
Roger H. Unger, M.D
.
and
To my son
Richard C. Unger
The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; She is destined to become the safe and venerable asylum of virtue, of honesty, of tolerance, and of peaceful liberty.
Lafayette, June 7, 1777
13 The Notables and the “Not Ables”
17 The Most Hated Man in Europe
Selected Bibliography of Principal Sources
Maps
The Battle of Brandywine Creek
Lafayette’s campaign, Virginia cape
The siege of Yorktown
Illustrations
Lafayette as a French brigadier general and maréchal de camp, at twenty-five
The Château de Chavaniac
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, Lafayette’s father
Julie de La Rivière de La Fayette, Lafayette’s mother
The six-year-old Lafayette and his aunt Charlotte
Lafayette at eleven
The duc d’Ayen
The duchesse d’Ayen
Lafayette, the sixteen-year-old groom
Adrienne de Noailles, Lafayette’s fourteen-year-old bride
Menu, Lafayette wedding dinner
Lafayette, captain of the Dragons de Noailles, at eighteen 16
The comte de Vergennes
The comte de Broglie
“Baron” Johann de Kalb
George Washington
Major General Nathanael Greene
The Peale portrait of Lafayette, in American major general’s uniform
King Louis XVI
Cartoon of the comte d’Estaing
The comte de Rochambeau
Benedict Arnold
Lord Cornwallis
Admiral de Grasse
The surrender at Yorktown
Lafayette’s children
Lafayette and James the slave
Queen Marie-Antoinette and her children
The Assemblée des Notables
Gouverneur Morris
Storming the Bastille
Bailly and Lafayette greet the king
Georges-Jacques Danton
Maximilien Robespierre
Jean-Paul Marat
The
Fête de la Fédération
Mob presents severed head to National Assembly
The beheading of King Louis XVI
Lafayette in chains
Adrienne Lafayette after release from prison
Napoléon I
The Château de La Grange
King Louis XVIII
American triumphal arch
Charles X
Lafayette enthrones the duc d’Orléans in 1830
Lafayette in his garden, at seventy-five
Lafayette’s grave in Picpus Cemetery, Paris