The Battle of Brandywine
The Marquis de Lafayette first battled on American soil at the Battle of Brandywine Creek. He was part of Washington’s defense of Philadelphia, which was about to attacked by an English army under a certain General Howe. Howe’s plan was to attack Philadelphia from the east instead of coming up from the south from the British occupied New York. This however led to a huge delay, as instead of a swift march for 4-5 days, Howe’s army spent weeks at sea. Due to this, the Americans had plenty of time to fortify their position and mobilize an army, although this would not help them. When the two armies finally met at the river of Brandywine Creek the 11th September 1777, Washington had set his tactics according to the notion that Howe would attack straight towards the fortifications at Chadds Ford. This was not entirely the case, as Howe did indeed attack Chadds Point, but he also sent a strong battalion of soldiers to another bridge, and attacked Washington’s flank. Lafayette saw that chaos ensued among the ranks, and swiftly led the men in a retreat.
The Battle of Yorktown – The End of the American War of Independence
The Marquis’ most famous and most important campaign was when he fought with a small force against a superior English force led by the Lord Cornwallis. This General-Lieutenant had won a significant victory in Carolina, but was forced to flee south to the state of Virginia. Lafayette was stationed there, and had fought against the British occupation forces that had been quite an annoyance for the French Marquis. Lord Cornwallis instantly saw that Lafayette would easily be defeated if he joined the British in Virginia. He did so and started immediately started to pursue Lafayette. Lafayette’s skill in eluding Cornwallis with a mixture of sensible retreat and cunning skirmish attacks is remarkable. This way, the Marquis de Lafayette bound Lord Cornwallis’ army to Virginia, as the English commander could not retreat to the safety of New York without defeating Lafayette. Under this time, George Washington and the American Continental Army mobilized their navy as well as 1000 men to aid Lafayette in the south, whose military schemes had resulted in Cornwallis’ defense of a small peninsula called Yorktown. There, the General-Lieutenant met his definite defeat.
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
Lafayette came home from the new independent United States of America to the jubilant crowds of Paris in 1782. He acquired many friends among the nobility who shared his ideas about freedom. Furthermore, the peasants of the Third Estate heard of his liberalistic ideas and his fame continued to grow.
Liberalism & Politics
He always said what he thought, so he eventually fell into the disapproval of the Court of Versailles. He did not help the situation by rushing headlong into politics. He started by fighting for the freedom of Protestants, who in absolutist France had very limited civil rights. He also made a clear example to the rest of the world, when he bought a property in French Guyana in the West Indies and freed all the black slaves who came with the land. In a letter to his friend; the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington has his hopes up for the slaves of America and wish that “God give that a similar state of mind is bestowed upon the people of this land”. Lafayette used his good contacts to get himself into the Assembly of Notables and then did something extraordinary. He scrutinized the corrupt and stagnated economy of France, and then sent in a formal complaint to the King; Louis XVI. In the complaint he accused the court for squandering tax money and also attacked the whole tax-system. It was miraculous that the Marquis did not get sent to the Bastille, in fact, he was not punished at all. He was, however, disdained by the whole court, and was often called “the American”, due to his constant reference to the American system and its proclaimed democratic superiority. As time went by, the Assembly of Notables struggled to govern France. Someone suggested that the Estate Generale should be called together, but many conservatives opposed this. Lafayette supported the proposition and also said that a new tax-system that was entirely run by the state, also, he suggested that a National Assembly should be formed. These were revolutionary ideas, and the Assembly of Notables was stunned. His actions made marked him an enemy of the King, and Lafayette was dismissed from his prestigious status in the army.
Revolution!
Things started to move very fast for Lafayette, and for the whole of France. He was narrowly voted into the Noble Estate, even though the Third Estate offered to vote for him as their candidate. The Generale did not make progress, and the Third Estate soon started to make demands on liberal reforms in the country. This ended in a tennis court. The Third Estate, along with a few nobles and priests, were not allowed to gather in the official rooms of the Third Estate, so they went to the nearby Jeu de Paume, the tennis court. There they formed the National Assembly, which they proclaimed to be the governing body of France. Lafayette was not part of this from the beginning. However, when the King’s men came to remove the National Assembly from the Jeu de Paume they found Lafayette and about ten or twelve other noblemen stand in their way, with weapons drawn. The Marquis’ plan succeeded and the National Assembly was safe, for now. As Louis XVI gathered soldiers to finally remove the eyesore that the National Assembly posed, Lafayette experienced his most important moment of his life. The 11th of July 1789, Lafayette read aloud the first draft of his Declaration of the Rights of Man. This was the peak of his career as a politician, and as a believer in liberalism and the “American way”. After the fall of the Bastille, Lafayette became Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard. His belief in constitutional monarchy made him the enemy of the Jacobins when they came to power and his popularity severely diminished. He was sent as a Lieutenant-General to Austria, but he was still defiant against the Jacobins. From the battlefield he wrote a letter where he denounces all Jacobin philosophies. This made Lafayette an enemy of the same revolution he had protected. After seeing Paris full of Jacobin sympathesizers he fled to Belgium with a few trusted companions. He was taken prisoner by Austrians and would be kept prisoner in the German States until Napoleon Bonaparte seized power and freed him.
Analysis
The Marquis de Lafayette one of the young noblemen who actually were interested in helping the British Colonies against England. Was this due to a passion for freedom and equality? Probably not. In the Seven Years’ War the English had won over the French, and now it was time for vengeance. While fame, glory and the acquisition of wealth was a factor for French noblemen to go to North America, one of the main purposes for France, and indeed also for Lafayette, to aid the Americans was to discredit England and make them lose their colonies. Lafayette went to North America against the wishes of the Court. Louis XVI himself said: “I am a royalist by trade”. Lafayette was one of those who nudged France the tiny bit that was needed for it to help rebels and republicans, although merely to destroy the hated English.
The War of Independence rage, and while Lafayette proved himself to be a good commander and handled his missions very well, he never had a mission of great importance. Furthermore, he almost exclusively fought as a subservient officer under the command of a more experienced war-veterans; such as the French Count Rochembau and George Washington himself. The outcome of the battles he participated in is not likely to have changed if for any reason Lafayette would have been absent from the battles.
In the Virginia campaign, Lafayette’s role in this seems to have been trivialized by many, but the military skill of Lord Cornwallis points towards that if a less able commander had been in charge of the French/American forces in Virginia, then the British might have won the state of Virginia. If this had happened, the war would have continued, and many more soldiers would have died on both parts. However, the war would have probably ended with the defeat of the British anyway. The Americans had aid from all the old enemies of England and they had better military commanders. Finally, it can be concluded that Lafayette really did help in the Revolution, but he did not have an impact on the conduct, nor the outcome of the revolution. His actions resulted in reducing the loss of life on the American side greatly, and that is not something to scoff at.
In France, Lafayette’s politics had little success. His thoughts were benevolent, but he was too fleeting and unstructured in character to actually make any reforms. What he did was to inspire the population of France. His belief in liberty and equality was spread over the kingdom and those thoughts were the spirit of the revolution. We must not forget the pinnacle of Lafayette’s life, his Declaration. Lafayette wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and it really did have an impact upon society. This is a document that will forever be remembered in the history of France. Lafayette made a permanent mark upon the world, and that was the teachings of liberty, equality and brotherhood. By this, Lafayette greatly affected the French Revolution. By trying to enforce the ideas of liberty, equality and brotherhood into an absolutist society, he was a true believer of democracy. We owe the free world we live in today to men like him. He was truly a revolutionary man.
Source Listing & Source Criticism
Lafayette by William E. Woodward, Vepe Förlag, Stockholm 1939
It should be noted, that the information about Lafayette was contradicting at times. This might be due to an inaccuracy in the history webpage, but it might also be due to Woodward’s personal bias for the Marquis de Lafayette in his book. The book is, although it contains unnecessary romantization of Lafayette, much more detailed and in-depth, and was preferred over the website. Be wary, as any source containing information about the Marquis de Lafayette should be cross-checked with another source.
Full name being Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette.
Lafayette, William E. Woodward, Vepe förlag, 1939, Stockholm, Introduction
Lafayette, William E. Woodward, Chapter 8
Lafayette, William E. Woodward p. 154-157
Lafayette, William E. Woodward Chapter 16-17