Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de

Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de

(born Sept. 6, 1757, Chavaniac, France—died May 20, 1834, Paris) French military leader. Born to an ancient noble family of great wealth, he was a courtier at the court of Louis XVI but sought glory as a soldier. In 1777 he went to America, was appointed a major general, became a close friend of George Washington, and fought with distinction at the Battle of the Brandywine. He returned to France in 1779, persuaded Louis to send a 6,000-man force to aid the colonists, and returned to America in 1780 to command an army in Virginia and help win the Siege of Yorktown. Hailed as “the Hero of Two Worlds,” he returned to France in 1782, became a leader of liberal aristocrats, and was elected to the Estates General in 1789. He presented the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the National Assembly. Elected commander of the national guard of Paris, he sought to protect the king, favouring a constitutional monarchy. When his guards fired on a crowd of petitioners in the Champ de Mars (1791), he lost popularity and resigned his position. He commanded the army against Austria (1792), then defected to the Austrians, who held him captive until 1797. Returning to France, Lafayette became a gentleman farmer. In the Bourbon Restoration, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1814–24) and commanded the national guard in the July Revolution (1830).