Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette

DAR Ancestor # is A067795 He was in the service of France with the rank of MAJOR GENERAL.

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• Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (French pronunciation: [ma%CA%81ki də la fajɛt]; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), or Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in the province of Auvergne in south central France. Lafayette was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution.
• In the American Revolution, Lafayette served in the Continental Army under George Washington. Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, he still managed to organize a successful retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he returned to France to negotiate an increased French commitment. On his return, he blocked troops led by Cornwallis at Yorktown while the armies of Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, prepared for battle against the British.
• Back in France in 1788, Lafayette was called to the Assembly of Notables to respond to the fiscal crisis. Lafayette proposed a meeting of the French Estates-General, where representatives from the three traditional classes of French society — the clergy, the nobility and the commoners — met. He served as vice president of the resulting body and presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the French (Garde nationale) National Guard in response to violence leading up to the French Revolution. During the Revolution, Lafayette attempted to maintain order, for which he ultimately was persecuted by the Jacobins. In 1791, as the radical factions in the Revolution grew in power, Lafayette tried to flee to the United States through the Dutch Republic. He was captured by Austrians and served nearly five years in prison.
• Lafayette returned to France after Bonaparte freed him from an Austrian prison in 1797. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies under the Charter of 1815, during the Hundred Days. With the Bourbon Restoration, Lafayette became a liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1815, a position he held until his death. In 1824, President James Monroe invited Lafayette to the United States as the "nation's guest"; during the trip, he would visit all of the then twenty-four states. For his contributions to the American Revolution, many cities and monuments throughout the United States bear his name (Fayetteville, North Carolina was the only one of those he actually visited in person). During France's July Revolution of 1830 Lafayette declined an offer to become the French dictator; instead he supported Louis-Philippe's bid as a constitutional monarch. Lafayette died on 20 May 1834, and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Revolutionary War battlefield Bunker Hill. He became a natural born citizen of the United States during his lifetime and received honorary United States citizenship in 2002.

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• Born Sept. 6, 1757, in France to a wealthy noble family
• Father was killed by British in Battle of Minden
• Joined Freemasons at age 17
• Joined the American Revolution at age 19
• Tactical skill and French alliances helped clinch victory at Yorktown

Born into an ancient family of French warriors, the Marquis de Lafayette inherited an inclination for gallant adventures along with a vast estate. When the time came to prove his mettle, it was not at the service of France, but the rebellious American colony improvising a new government an ocean away. Just 19 years old and speaking only a few words of English when he presented himself in Philadelphia in 1776, his inauspicious entry into American history belied the monumental effect of his passion, instinctive skill, and connections.

A Noble Birth

At his birth in 1757, the Marquis de Lafayette was baptized Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, a mantle of monikers meant to confer the protection of like-named saints. The family was one of France's oldest, its generations seeded by soldiers who took up swords in battles of legend, in the crusades and alongside Joan of Arc. In 1759, British forces killed his father in the Battle of Minden. At just 2 years old, the death of his father set his first toddler's step on the path to America, a quest fueled by dual desires for vengeance and revolutionary ideals.

Newly widowed, his mother moved to Paris, leaving her son in the care of his grandmother, whose generous and fair-minded treatment of her peasants imprinted the forming character of the young Lafayette. After her altruistic example, America's revolutionary principles were natural conclusions.

Masonic Influences

In 1775, Lafayette's admission to the Masonic Military Lodge acquainted him with America's pursuit of liberty. The colonists' struggle was the catalyst that led him to cast his fortunes, both figurative and literal, with the Americans. Their noble pursuit, coupled with lingering French resentment of the British after the Seven Years War, made eager volunteers of many Frenchmen, the Marquis de Lafayette among their number.

Joining the Revolution

Colonial Williamsburg's Mark Schneider interprets Lafayette's instinct for strategy. After purchasing the ship La Victoire and setting a course to America, Lafayette learned his first English phrases during his 54 days at sea. His June, 1777 landfall in South Carolina brought him within several days' ride of his grail: the twin opportunity to exact a pound of flesh from the British, and to satisfy his DNA's demand that he raise his sword before the oppressor of his age.

Congress declined his services when Lafayette presented himself in Philadelphia, but his earnestness, and his assurance that he would serve at his own expense, won him the rank of major general. He quickly fell into the company of George Washington, and the two formed a bond of will and philosophy so strong that Washington came to regard Lafayette as his son, a relationship reciprocated by the young Frenchman.

The Battle of Yorktown

On a visit to France in 1779, Lafayette won formal French support for the American cause, a diplomatic coup that vivified Revolutionary forces. Lafayette's tactical cunning and fearlessness in battle saved the Revolution many times, but his French connections were played to their greatest advantage at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown. Lafayette cornered Britain's Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in a triangular trap comprised of French reinforcements to the west, American troops to the east, and the York River to the north. After a siege of several days, Cornwallis capitulated on October 19, 1781. This fatal blow to British forces ensured the American Revolution was all but won.

http://www.history.org/almanack/people/bios/biolafayette.cfm

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Wife/Partner:       Marie-Adrienne (d' Ayen) de NOAILLES 

Child:       Anastasie Louise Pauline MOTIER de la FAYETTE 

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His 2-Great Grandchild: Maria Christina dei Conti RIGNON

 His 5-Great Grandchild:       Philippe Leopold Louis Marie (Crown Prince) of BELGIUM 

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Fra

http://fabpedigree.com/s098/f312799.htm