Marquis de Lafayette

Lafayette, Marquis de (1757–1834), French soldier and statesman who fought in the American Revolution and worked for French-American alliance. He came to America in 1777, joined George Washington's staff as major general, and fought in the campaigns of 1777–78 and at Yorktown (1781). On a visit to France (1779) he persuaded Louis XVI to send troops and a fleet to aid the colonists. In the French Revolution he supported the bourgeoisie, helped set up the National Assembly, drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and commanded the National Guard, but he fell from power after ordering his troops (July 1791) to fire on the populace. In 1824 he revisited the United States, hailed as a hero. He was a leader of the July Revolution (1830) in France.

See also: French Revolution; Revolutionary War in America.