marquis de Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Lafayette

Born in 1757 in Chavaniac, France, the Marquis de Lafayette was an aristocrat who chose a life of public action over comfort. Still in his teens, he sailed to America and joined the Revolutionary cause, where he quickly became a trusted officer and formed a close bond with George Washington.

Lafayette played an important role in the American War of Independence, including service in major campaigns that helped lead to victory at Yorktown. Back in France, he became a prominent early voice in the French Revolution, supporting constitutional reform and individual rights during one of the most turbulent periods in French history.

His later years were marked by political ups and downs, including imprisonment and renewed public influence. By the time of his death in 1834, Lafayette had become a symbol of liberty on both sides of the Atlantic, remembered in the United States simply as Lafayette.