This biography covers a significant part of our history, from the United States War of Independence to 1834. One man is a major figure in it. Gilbert Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch de La Fayette was born in 1757 in Chavaniac in the Haute Loire. His military and political career began with America and the War of Independence, followed by the Revolution, the Empire, the Restoration, and the July Monarchy.
While some men adapt to circumstances and events, becoming political chameleons, La Fayette adhered to a constant: Liberty, and he did not compromise. Thus, he made enemies by refusing to undermine his ideal, the very ideal that took him across the Atlantic to defend this liberty.
A child of the Enlightenment, La Fayette encountered five kings, Napoleon, the Convention, the Directory, the Consulate, the Empire, the Restoration, and the July Monarchy. Gonzague Saint Bris describes the life of this man, a hero of two worlds, born under absolutism, thirsting for liberty, and fighting for this ideal.
His long life of 79 years, an advanced age in the 19th century, allows us to reflect on this tumultuous period of our history, revealing the baseness of some and the rarely encountered greatness of spirit, especially in the political world. La Fayette belongs to this minority who did not sell their soul to the devil.
Thierry Jan
