La Fayette, Marquis de (17571834)

La Fayette, Marquis de, born in the castle of Chavagnac; went to America in 1777, took an active and self-sacrificing part in the War of Independence; was honourably distinguished at the battle of Brandywine; sailed for France, brought over auxiliaries; he commanded Washington's vanguard in 1782; returned to Paris, and was made commander-in-chief of the National Guard in 1789; would have achieved the Revolution with the minimum of violence and set up a republic on the model of the Washington one; was obliged to escape from France during the Reign of Terror; was imprisoned five years at Olmütz, but was liberated when Napoleon appeared on the scene; as a consistent republican showed no favour to Napoleon; took part in the Revolution of 1830, became again commander-in-chief of the National Guard and a supporter of Louis Philippe, the citizen king; characterised by Carlyle as “a constitutional pedant; clear, thin, inflexible, as water turned to thin ice” (17571834).

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

La Fayette, Madame de * Lafitte, Jacques
[wait for the fun]
Lactantius
Ladislaus
Ladoga
Ladrones
Lady Chapel
Lady Day
Lady of England
Lady of Shalott
Lady of the Lake
La Fayette, Madame de
La Fayette, Marquis de
Lafitte, Jacques
Lafontaine, Jean de
La Force, Duc de
Lagos
Lagrange, Joseph Louis, Comte
La Harpe, Jean François de
La Hogue
Lahore
Laidlaw, William
Laing, David