GILBERT DU MOTIER, MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE
« Hero of two worlds »
CHAVANIAC-LAFAYETTE, FRANCE (red)
The Château de Chavaniac is a fortified manor house flanked by two towers of black stone.
It was built in the 14th century and was partially destroyed by a fire in 1701.
The Château de Chavaniac was the birthplace of General Lafayette in 1757.
(The room of the young Lafayette)
He was married in 1774 to Adrienne de Noailles
The Château de Chavaniac of eighteen rooms furnished in the Louis XIII style is now a museum open to the public.
The French and American flags fly permanently over the château in honor of the key role Lafayette played in the French and American revolutions.
In 2009, the Conseil Général de la Haute-Loire took over management of the château
It is located in Chavaniac-Lafayette, Haute-Loire, in Auvergne, France.
Note: The Château de Chavaniac from 1916 t0 2009
In December 1916, a group of wealthy philanthropists led by Scottish-born American industrialist John C. Moffat purchased the castle for the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund to serve as a center of philanthropy for people affected by World War I. Parts of the château were used as a school, an orphanage and a hospital (known as the Lafayette Preventorium) until 1920. During the post-war period, the château was extensively renovated (The roof was redone, foundations were stabilized, a tower was rebuilt and the south wing was built in the rear with a square tower) and furnished with memorabilia from Lafayette and other period pieces.
During World War II the château was used as a secret hiding place for Jewish children.
In 1966 John Moffat died and was buried with his wife on the grounds of château. The Lafayette Memorial Association Inc. took over management of the château. The museum was renovated in the 1990s. In 2007 the Lafayette Preventorium became a separate institute (Institut thérapeutique, éducatif et pédagogique).
The American Revolutionary War and the involvement of Lafayette
The departure of Lafayette at Paulliac (near Bordeaux) 1777
« La Victoire »
Pauillac (Black arrow)
Monument of departure of Lafayette in 1777 at Pauillac near Bordeaux
May 6, 2016, Pauillac becomes Pauillac-La Fayette with a statue of La Fayette looking the little harbor from the Capitainerie
(Photo by Pierre Thébeaud, Commandeur Ordre Lafayette)
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Michel Cessateure and Philippe Eyquem, designers of the model of « La victoire »
Pierre Thébaud, gouverneur, commandeur de l’Ordre Lafayette et Jean-Michel Selva, Officier de l’Ordre Lafayette, Coordinators. Photo Guillaume Bonnaud 2016
…Louis XVI publicly forbade any and all French officers, particularly Lafayette, from leaving France to support the Rebels…
But the party of officers reached Bordeaux ahead of the king’s orders and Lafayette boarded La Victoire under an assumed name…He sent a note to Paris to gauge his wife’s feelings…the response he received a week later was not favorable. But Lafayette was following a dream… and he ordered the ship to sea.
La Victoire stopped at the small Spanish port of Los Passajes (or Pasaia today) and Kalb convinced Lafayette to repair relations with his family before their final departure from Europe….
Taking the missives to heart, he returned to Bordeaux to face the music and left La Victoire at Los Passajes to await instructions. At Bordeaux he wrote to Versailles, justifying his actions. There was talk there that the king’s orders were only for show, and when no reply from the court came in what he thought was a timely manner, Lafayette considered “silence was a tacit consent.” … But the military commander at Bordeaux didn’t buy any of that and threatened to arrest the Marquis unless he delivered himself to authorities at Marseilles. Lafayette pretended to comply and left Bordeaux in a coach under escort. But on the road, he eluded his escorts and “disguised as a courier”…
…Before crossing the border, at Saint-Jean-de-Luz where Lafayette had passed on his return to Bordeaux, he was recognized by the daughter of the postmaster, but a sign silenced her and Lafayette could reach Los Passages…and the waiting La victoire
Saint Jean de Luz (black arrow)
…The ship finally sailed for America on April 26, 1777, with Lafayette, Kalb, and about a dozen other officers… Lafayette and his party arrived on the American shore on June 13 at Georgetown SC…Crédit : https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/11/departure-lafayette/
1780 – Departure of Lafayette at Port-des-barques aboard L’Hermione (near Rochefort and la Rochelle)
Replica of L’Hermione in Yortown, VA – June 4-5, 2015
Port-des-barques (black arrow)
Monument of departure of Lafayette – Buste de Lafayette by Guy Manseau
General La Fayette boarded the Hermione at Port-des-Barques near Rochefort on March 11, 1780 and arrived in Boston on April 28 carrying the secret news that he had secured French reinforcements (5,500 men and 5 frigates under the command of Comte de Rochambeau) for the American Revolution under the command of George Washington
1782- LAFAYETTE IS BACK HOME
AFTER HIS INVOLVEMNT 1777-1781 IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
AND PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF THE MODERN DEMOCRACY
1782-1789, end of the French « Ancien Régime »
Lafayette is 25 years old and promoted to the grade of « Maréchal de Camp » (General).
Crowned with his glory he embarks on business and French politics.
- 1784: Travel to USA
- 1785: Acquisition of a plantation « La Gabrielle » in French Guyana
- 1787: Member of the « Assemblée des notables d’Auvergne »
- 1788-99: Incorporation and promotion of the « Société des amis des noirs » (Society of Black Friends). Lafayette is a notorious abolitionist.
1789-1791: Period of the Revolution
- Spring 1789, during the « États Généraux » he is elected « deputy of the nobility »
- July12-13, 1789, he is elected « Commandant de la Garde nationale »
- July 14, 1789, Occupation of the Bastille and destruction / « cocarde tricolore »
- July 17, 1791, Fusillade du Champs-de-mars
- Fin 1791-1792, Lieutenant General of the Armée du Centre and of the Nord à Metz
1792-1814: After the fall of the Monarchy
Lafayette declared « traitre à la nation » by the Jacobins, is threatened with arrest and guillotine. He fled with part of his army staff. He was arrested by the Austrians and incarcerated in Prussia (August 1792- September 1797).
Released 5 years later, he stays away from the political life established by Napoléon Ist to which he is hostile. 1814, end of the Empire
The French revolution and the exile of Lafayette
During the French revolution the Marquis de Lafayette, was rejected by the revolutionaries when he voted against the death of King Louis XVI.
With the fall of the monarchy on August 10, 1792, and when the minister of justice, Danton, put out a warrant for Lafayette’s arrest on August 14, Lafayette decided to flee to the United States through the Dutch Republic.
He entered the Austrian Netherlands, the area of present Belgium and was taken prisoner by the Austrians near Rochefort.
Rochefort, Belgium (black arrow)
Memorial, Rochefort
-Lafayette was held at Nivelles, then transferred to Luxembourg where a coalition military tribunal declared him, de Pusy, and two others to be prisoners of state for their roles in the Revolution. The tribunal ordered them held until a restored French king could render final judgment on them.
-On September 12, 1792, the prisoners were transferred to the custody of the Prussian fortress of Wesel, where the Frenchmen remained from September 19 to 22 December22, 1792.
-When victorious French revolutionary troops began to threaten the Rhineland, King Frederick William II transferred the prisoners east to the citadel at Magdeburg, where they remained from January 4, 1793 to January 4, 1794.
– Then Frederick William decided to stop armed hostilities with the French Republic and turned the state prisoners back over to the Habsburg Austrian monarch Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor. Lafayette and his companions were initially sent to Neisse (today Nysa, Poland) in Silesia. On 17 May 1794, they were taken across the Austrian border, where a military unit was waiting to receive them. The next day, the Austrians delivered their captives to a barracks-prison, in the fortress-city of Olmütz, Moravia (today Olomouc in the Czech Republic) untill 1797.
Credit : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chavaniac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette#Conflict_and_exile
Lafayette return to France in 1799
Released 5 years later (September 17, 1797) he spent two years in exile (Duchy of Holstein and Holland) and will return to France on November 9, 1799, after the Coup d’État of 18 Brumaire of Bonaparte but stays away from the political life established by Napoléon Ist to which he is hostile. 1814, end of the Empire
1815-1830: The « Restauration »
Louis XVIII (July 1815- Sept.1824) and Charles X (Sept. 1824-August 1830)
- Lafayette rallied the Bourbon, but during the first 3years of the Restoration he did not get involved.
- November 1818 he is elected deputy of Sarthe, but will not be reelected in 1824.
July 1824 to September 1825, Lafayette Farewell Tour in USA
- Invited by the US Congress, Lafayette visited more than 60 towns in the different 24 states: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine (ex-Massachusetts / North part), Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia. Plus Washington D.C.
- In appreciation for his service and support, during the American Revolutionary War, Marquis de La Fayette were given a Land Grant (23,000 Acres) in Tallahassee Florida and the sum of $200,000.
1830-1848: Louis-Philippe 1st
- The Revolution of the « Trois Glorieuses » or Revolution of July hunt Charles X of power. On July 31, 1830 Lafayette welcomed at the « Hôtel de ville » of Paris the Duke Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, a liberal noble attached to the Revolution.
- Lafayette at nearly 73 years is for the second time commander of the National Guard… for five months!
Courpalay (black arrow) / Chateau La Grange-Bléneau
CHATEAU DE LA GRANGE-BLÉNEAU, FRANCE
The « Home » of Lafayette who lived there from 1802 until his death in 1834
The Château de la Grange-Bléneau is recorded since the 13th century, the castle has belonged to several families: Courtenay, Aubusson-La Feuillade and d’Aguesseau. Ownership passed from Henriette d’Aguesseau to her daughter Adrienne de La Fayette. She passed it on to her husband, General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
The Château de la Grange-Bléneau is located in the commune of Courpalay in the Seine-et-Marne France.
Credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_la_Grange-Bl%C3%A9neau
Lafayette final years and death in Paris
Paris 8e Arrondissement (black arrow)
In 1827, the Marquis de Lafayette, who had a seat in the Chamber of Deputies and was therefore in need of housing in Paris for the duration of sessions.
He rented the apartment on 6 rue d’Anjou (now 8 rue d’Anjou in the 8th arrondissement of Paris), on the first floor in the left wing of the courtyard.
While in Paris, which was the case in winter and during the sessions of chamber Lafayette received every Tuesday. Lafayette spoke publicly for the last time in the Chamber of Deputies on January 3, 1834. He died in this apartment on May 20, 1834 at 4:30 am at the age of 76.
He was buried next to his wife at the Picpus Cemetery under soil from Bunker Hill, MA which his son Georges Washington sprinkled upon him. King Louis-Philippe ordered a military funeral in order to keep the public from attending.
Lafayette died on May 20, 1834 in Paris at the age of 77 years. He is buried in the cemetery of Picpus, Paris
In conclusion, Lafayette can be defined both as an aristocrat of liberal orientation, a general officer, a French and international politician.
In the United States, President Jackson ordered that Lafayette receive the same memorial honors that had been bestowed on Washington’s death in December 1799. Both Houses of Congress were draped in black bunting for thirty days, and members wore mourning badges. Congress urged Americans to follow similar mourning practices. Later in 1834, former president John Quincy Adams gave a eulogy of Lafayette that lasted three hours, calling him « high on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind ».
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette
TOPIC I (T1)
OUTDOOR SCULPTURES IN FRANCE
Statues, Busts, Monuments, Memorials… Historic Parks and Places…
LAFAYETTE STATUES
*PARIS
PARIS 16e arrd.
Statue of Lafayette and Washington by Bartholdi, Place des États-Unis, Paris – By Bartholdy 1895
NOTE: There is a replica of this statue in New York City into a small park in Harlem — at the junction of West 114th Street, Morningside- and Manhattan Avenues
PARIS 8e arrd.
Lafayette equestrian statue.
The statue was initially placed in the court of the Louvre, Paris, but removed to make space for a modern pyramid of steel and glass cover to a staircase leading to a lower level entrance to the museum. The new location of the statue is Cours-la-Reine, (from Place de la Concorde to Place du Canada). Paris / 8e arrd) – By Paul Wayland Bartlett – 1908
NOTA : A replica was placed at Metz in 1919-20- In 1899 the American born sculptor from Connecticut, Paul Wayland Bartlett, who had moved to Paris with his father at the age of nine and ended up studying sculpture under Emmanuel Fremiet, was chosen to produce the bronze equestrian statue of Lafayette.
An early version appears on the Lafayette dollar
PARIS 1er arrd.
This statue of Lafayette (1757-1834) is located in the wing Rohan-Rivoli of the Louvres overlooking the Rue de Rivoli. By Pierre Gras in 1917
*METZ
Metz (black arrow)
1st statue : In August 1920, the replica of the statue in Paris by the sculptor Bartlett, was inaugurated in the Square Boufflers of Metz, at the very place where Lafayette stood in 1775, at the Governor’s Palace. It was destroyed by the Nazis in the Second World War.
2nd statue : 1945 -2004
After the Liberation of Metz, the Third American Army and the American Legion restored the mutilated pedestal. July 1983, a group of cyclists from America and from Lorraine, at the end of a bicycle tour of Alsace-Lorraine-Champagne, gathered around the pedestal in Metz and decided to initate a restoration of the statue. The objective was finally realized on November 20, 2004, (the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Metz at the end of WWII), with the inauguration of M. Goutin’s equestrian statue of Lafayette in the Square Boufflers, Metz. Credit http://www.xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/laf_mon.htm
*LE PUY-EN-VELAY
Le Puys en Velay (black arrow)
Statue of Lafayette. by Ernest-Eugène Hiolle (1834-1886)
-During the World War II occupation, the Nazis removed it from its pedestal and placed it on a truck for transport to be melted down for armaments. A few nights before the Germans were to remove it, six partisans slipped into the area to save the statue. They were foiled in their mission because the German truck failed to start. The next night, 60 partisans returned to hand carry the statue five miles, and buried it in a barn where it remained for the duration of the war. After the war, the statue was returned to its original place of honor.
-This statues of Lafayette was rededicated in February 2001 in LaGrange, Georgia. It is an exact replica of the one located in Le Puy, France. It was erected in 1976 as part of the U.S. Bicentennial observation.
*SAINT-AVOLD
Lixing-Les-Saints-Avold (black arrow)
The equestrian statue of the Marquis de Lafayette
Saint-Avold, France is the sister city of Fayetteville, N.C. USA
Fayetteville N.C. is home to Fort Bragg, one of the largest U.S. Army posts in the world.
Saint-Avold is home to the largest American World War II cemetery in Europe.
TOPIC II (T2) PLACES IN FRANCE
and Europe (town, city, village …) may refer for General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette.
Chavaniac-Lafayette
La Grange Bléneau
TOPIC III (T3) – SQUARES, STREETS…
Parks, places, sites …
FRENCH REGIONS &DEPARMENTS
« Embarcadère Lafayette »
Gironde banks downtown Bordeaux
Department of Gironde (542 communes)
6 Streets La Fayette or Lafayette (alphabetic order)
-Basens / Bordeaux / Marcheprime
-Pessac / Taillan-Médoc / Villenave D’Ornon
-1 Esplanade La Fayette / Pauliac
-1 Allée La Fayette / Bordeaux –Caudéran
(Credit : Pierre Thébaud, Commandeur Ordre Lafayette)
Marquis de La Fayette – Memory Spaces 