#michel louis christophe roch gilbert motier

[nordleuchten]

A Second Letter from La Fayette's Father

I am quite happy right now because I stumbled about this letter from La Fayette’s father and at first I fought it was a letter written two his sister a few two weeks prior to his death that was included in the online exhibition “LaFayette: Citizen of Two Worlds” from Cornell University. As it turns out, it is a different letter.

This letter is written by La Fayette senior to his mother, who would eventually raise his son, after his death at the Battle of Minden. Unlike the letter written to his sister (July 16, 1759), La Fayette’s handwritten message can in parts actually be seen here.

Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette to Marie Catherine de Suat, dame de Chavaniac, July 25, 1759:

DE CHAMBRUN, RENE. “WASHINGTON, SECOND PERE DE LAFAYETTE.” La Nouvelle Revue Des Deux Mondes, 1981, pp. 579–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44201764. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023.

Adieu, ma très chère mère. Conservez-vous pour l’amour d’un fils qui ne saurait vivre sans vous et qui ne cessera d'avoir l'honneur d'être avec le plus tendre et le plus respectueux attachement, ma très chère mère, votre très humble et tout obéissant serviteur et fils.

Lafayette.

Je vous prie de vouloir bien assurer des sentiments les plus tendres et les plus vifs ma sœur et ma femme et de faire mes compliments à M. Vidal --

J’embrasse mon fils.

My Translation:

Farewell, my dearest mother. Assure yourself of the love of a son who cannot live without you and who will never cease to have the honor of being, with the most tender and respectful attachment, my very dear mother, your very humble and obedient servant and son.

Lafayette.

I beg you to assure my sister and my wife of the most tender and passionate feelings and to pay my compliments to M. Vidal --

I kiss my son.

It goes without saying, that this is a very personal and therefore very moving letter, especially since it would be his final good-bye to his mother. What I find quite noteworthy beyond that, is the similarity to the letters his own son would write almost twenty years later.

Both men are in a very similar situation; young soldiers, far away from home, entangled in a war against England (even facing off the exact same officer) with a pregnant wife and a young child at home. While the younger La Fayette’s letters appear to be far more outspoken on the subject of the love for his children, I feel like the older La Fayette’s feelings are no less sincere. We have to take into account that there is a much smaller sample size with La Fayette senior than with his son and that he was his own person, with his own writing style and own way to express himself. But even these two letters show somewhat of a consistency. The older La Fayette ends this letter by “kissing” his son. He ends the letter to his sister with saying:

(…) Please kiss my son for me

[thephantomofthelibrary]

6 September 1757

261 year ago today in the Chateau de Chavaniac, Auvergne, France, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette and Marie Louise Jolie de la Riviere

[ohhthatssosarella]

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (Lafayette in the U.S.) was born on September 06, 1757 in Chavaniac, France. His parents were Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette [1731-1759] and Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière [1737-1770.]

In 1774 he married Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles, Marquise de La Fayette [1759-1807]. Together they had four [4] children: Henriette du Motier [1775-1777], Anastasie Louise Pauline du Motier [1777-1863], Georges Washington Louis Gilbert du Motier [1779-1849] and Marie Antoinette Virginie du Motier [1782-1849].

Besides being a French aristocrat and military officer, Marquis de Lafayette was a politician, Estates General (Auvergne), Member of the National Assembly, a member of the Chamber of Representatives, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

He served in the French Army, Continental Army and National Guard (France). He served France from 1771-1777, the United States from 1777-1781, and France again from 1781-1792 and 1830. In the United States he was a Major General and in France he was a Lieutenant General.

In the American Revolutionary War he took part in the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Gloucester, Valley Forge, Battle of Barren Hill, Battle of Rhode Island, Battle of Monmouth, Battle of Green Spring, and the Siege of Yorktown. In the French Revolution he took part in The March on Versailles, Day of Daggers, and Champ de Mars massacre. He also took part in the War of the First Coalition and the July Revolution.

He died on May 20, 1834 (aged 76) in Paris, France. The cause if his death wad difficulties following pneumonia. He was laid to rest at Picpus Cemetery (under soil from Bunker Hill) in Paris, France.

[nordleuchten]

A letter from La Fayette’s father

La Fayette is a well known character throughout European and North American history - the man who held the titel of Marquis de La Fayette before him, his father, is less prominent though.

Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette died young at the age of 27 in the battle of Minden. He was hit by a canonball, fired from an artillery unit under the command of William Phillips (a man his son would later face during the Revolutionary War in America). Here is a letter [1] he wrote to his sister on July 16, 1759 ... a mere two weeks before  being killed on August 1, 1759.

To my great disappointment I could not find a picture of the backside of the letter. Still, the handwriting of La Fayette Sr. is clearly visable where he wrote down the adress. I furthermore have only a partial transcription of the letter. La Fayette writes about rather ordinary things, about his stay in the camp, about the ongoing campaign, his wife ... but he ends with a very touching sentiment, instructing his sister that she  should:

"(...) Please kiss my son for me"

[thephantomofthelibrary]

6 September 1757

260 year ago today in the Chateau de Chavaniac, Auvergne, France, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette and Marie Louise Jolie de la Riviere.

[nordleuchten]

hiii, so, do you have more information about how was Lafayette's relationship with his own family?

I know that his father died when he was very young, and that a LOT of people of his family died as well, letting him rich very young as well, but, do you have more details about everything?

Thank Youu <3

Hello Anon,

thank you for your question, the relationship between La Fayette and his blood-relatives is actually quite interesting.

Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Motier

Starting with Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Motier, his father, and until his death during the Battle of Minden on August 1, 1759, the Marquis de La Fayette. The Battle of Minden was a battle fought during the Seven Year War (the European counterpart of the French and Indian War) and Christophe stepped up during the battle after his commanding officer was killed in action. This decision, which probably would have earned him a promotion or at least an honourable mention otherwise, got him killed. He was struck by a cannonball from the artillery unit of a certain William Phillips – a man who would go on to fight against the younger La Fayette, Gilbert, during the American War of Independence. Just that this time Phillips would died and La Fayette would survive.

Young La Fayette was not quite two years old when his father died and there was no real relationship between the two of them. Young La Fayette’s baptism actually was delayed a few days in the hope that his father could make it home in time – but he could not. Young La Fayette mentioned both his parents and other family members as well in his memoirs but the account is short - and with “short” I mean that he managed to cramp 14 years of his live, the death of his father, mother and grandfather into one single sentence. He wrote concerning his father:

It would be too poetical to place myself at once in another hemisphere, and too meticulous to dwell upon the particulars of my birth, which soon followed the death of my father at Minden (…)

We see in this (and in later accounts as well) that young La Fayette sometimes wrote his father died before he was born. A statement that is not true. It seems that his father was such a distant memory for young La Fayette, that he could not recall his fathers death-day. Christophe however, seemed to love his son dearly. There is a letter, addressed to one of his sisters, written about two weeks before his death (and therefore one of the last letters he ever wrote). He wrote on July 16, 1759 from Minden:

I believe [my wife] embarked on a frantic journey. I hope she will have fun (...) Please kiss my son for me.

La Fayette inherited all of his father’s titles, most notable the title of Marquis de La Fayette. The ownership of the family properties fell to Christophe’s widow, young La Fayette’s mother.

Next up would be La Fayette’s little sister. Her name was Marie-Louise-Jacqueline and she was born on April 5, 1760. This is virtually everything known about her because she died aged just three months. Naturally, she and La Fayette had no relationship and she is not mentioned in her brother’s memoirs.

Marie Louise Jolie de la Riviére, likely after the death of her husband

La Fayette’s mother was Marie Louise Jolie de la Riviére, daughter of the Marquis de la Riviére and the member of a very wealthy and very influential noble family. By all means she appears to have been a very religious woman. After the death of her husband, she left the Auvergne for Paris. Her son stayed behind. This may sound like a heartless thing to do, leaving your son behind, but she knew that he would be provided for - both financially and emotional. La Fayette lived with his grandmother and an aunt (later two aunts and a cousin). These women absolutely adored little La Fayette and he described his childhood as a happy one. His mother grew up in the bustling city of Paris and had trouble accustoming herself to the Auvergne. This was made worse by the fact that the people there spoke a dialect that Christophe had been fluent in, but that she could not master at all. She decided to return to Paris, to her friends and family. She stayed in the Auvergne every summer though, to take care of the family’s property as well as to spend time with her son. When La Fayette was twelve years old, her mother brought him with her to Paris to educate him there and introduce him at court (where she had a good standing). She died on April 3, 1770. Concerning her death, La Fayette wrote in his memoirs:

(…) of my removal, at twelve years of age, to a college at Paris, where I soon lost my virtuous mother (…)

La Fayette inherited the Chateau Chavaniac as well as vast properties in Brittany from his mother.

A few weeks after the death of his mother, La Fayette’s grandfather, the General comte de la Riviére (allegedly due to the grieve of losing his beloved grand-daughter) died. La Fayette wrote in in memoirs:

(…) where the death of her [Marie Louise Jolie de la Riviére] father rendered me rich, although I had been born, comparatively speaking, poor (…)

It is true, La Fayette inherited mainly money from his grand-father, a whole lot of money. He gained an annual income of 1.200 Livre (around about 1.2 Million modern US-Dollar) - not bad for a fourteen-year old.

Returning to his father’s side of the family tree there is Marie Catherine de Suat, dame de Chavaniac, La Fayette’s paternal grandmother. If you were to ask me, I would say that de Suat had a huge influence on La Fayette. First of all, she was a very intelligent, confident and strong willed women. She had been widowed long ago and had survived and even thrived in a men’s world. The Chateau Chavaniac was part of her dowry and she manged the chateau and the surrounding property well. She bought more land and even some rights that the family then could enact (yes, back then the nobility could buy rights). She was furthermore very generous toward the people who lived in Chavaniac (the town that was named after the chateau). She let them hunt in the forests and extracted way less from the villagers than she legally could. The people loved and respected her. Where all over France the dissatisfaction of the people grew (and would later fuel the French Revolution), the people of the Auvergne were quite pleased with their local nobility.

Louise Charlotte de Chavaniac with a portrait of her daughter Marie and young La Fayette from the book Lafayette by Harlow Giles Unger

De Suat lived with her two daughters in Chavaniac. The older one, Marguerite Madeleine du Motier, had never married because she could not bear to leave her home and her family. The younger one, Louise Charlotte de Chavaniac, had married and moved back to Chavaniac when La Fayette was fife years old. She had recently been widowed and was the mother of a little girl, Marie de Guérin (some sources call her Louise-Jeanne). Marie was one year older than La Fayette. The two cousins grew up like brother and sister. In fact, after her death La Fayette would write:

Never did brother and sister love each other more tenderly than we did. She married some time after I did and died in childbirth while I was in America; this was one of the greatest griefs of my life.

La Fayette’s wife Adrienne wrote after Marie’s death at the age of just twenty a letter to her husbands aunts. She wrote on February 16, 1779:

Monsieur de Lafayette has returned, as modest and as charming as when you last saw him, his sensibility undiminished. In the midst of our joy, we are distressed at not being able to go to embrace you and to share with you a grief that we feel very deeply. We even fear that the joy of his return will renew that sorrow in you.

Even after leaving his ancestral home behind, after moving to Paris and fighting in America, La Fayette stayed close with his two aunts. In the same letter from February 16, 1779 for example Adrienne wrote:

(…) I greatly fear that Monsieur de Lafayette will not be able to go to see you for a long time, and this grieves him.

It was not only La Fayette who loved his aunts but also Adrienne. After they married, La Fayette’s aunts treated Adrienne just like family. Quoting again the letter from February 16, 1779, Adrienne wrote:

I speak confidently to you of the state of my heart, my dear aunts, but I am very much concerned with what you must be suffering. Everything that rends your hearts saddens mine, and I am sorry that you cannot see our delightful hero. If you should decide to try to come to see him, I would take care of finding you lodgings—in a convent or elsewhere—with enthusiasm inspired by the desire of seeing you and the joy your visit will bring him. I would arrange every detail and, for the reward as well as the convenience you would find here, I expect that you would be at least as comfortable here as in Auvergne—and we would be much happier. (…) my dear aunts (…) accept this testimony of the sincere, tender, and respectful attachment that I have sworn to you for life.

Later, during the French Revolution, Adrienne stayed with her children and Louise Charlotte de Chavaniac in Chavaniac when the troops of the Jacobins came to arrest her and the children. They had no quarrel with Louise, but the old women demanded to be arrested with Adrienne for she would not part ways with her.

I hope that answered you question and I hope you have/had a beautiful day!