Marquis de Lafayette
Also called: Lafayette, La Fayette, Gilbert du Motier
Nobleman and veteran of the American War of Independence who commanded the Paris National Guard and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and fled abroad in 1792, only to be held captive by the Austrians
Born a nobleman at Chavaniac in Auvergne in 1757, he crossed the Atlantic at nineteen in 1777 to volunteer in the American War of Independence, won Washington’s trust and distinguished himself at Yorktown (1781), becoming the “Hero of Two Worlds”. In 1789 he sat in the Estates-General for the nobility, presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and, the day after the fall of the Bastille, became commander of the Paris National Guard. He tried to preserve a constitutional monarchy but lost popularity after the Champ de Mars massacre of 1791, and in August 1792 fled abroad only to be held by the Austrians for five years. He led the National Guard again in the July Revolution of 1830 and died in Paris in 1834.
