Well, not really but M@’s opinions of LaFayette had at least three 180-turns, for lack of a better metaphor. Blew hot & cold, definitely. In your Blog Hostess’ relentless attempt to post something AND goof off on a national holiday, This is actually an email answering the inquiry a good friend postulated vis-a-vis the notorious relationship between the Queen and the Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette. What follows is unedited, so We’ve highlighted in blue. Enjoy your barbeques, kids!
I’m writing this off the top of my head from memory…forgive the vagueness and rambling! 1. Upon return from the Revolutionary War, La Fayette and other French soldiers were received as heroes at Versailles with a ball (or something very akin to a ball). I can remember Antonia Fraser’s line exactly. “She met him at the door.” Then again, Fraser (who’s the niece or daughter of a Countess and is entitled to the title ‘lady’) is a rabid monarchist and she defends every last action of M@’s as innocent, sweet, charitable or motherly. She also denies all possibility that Antoinette and Axel von Fersen were lovers, which I personally find completely ridiculous considering all the evidence to the contrary. Fersen is also relevant to this bullet point as he was one of the returning heroes at the ball. So even if she did give Lafayette his hero’s welcome, her delight at seeing von Fersen probably meant Lafayette didn’t receive the attention to which a general and a marquis was entitled. (That last bit is my own extrapolation.)
Marquis de Lafayette looking extra heroic with his noble steed. (Yeah, Eddie Murphy just said that in ‘Shrek’.)

He also had a hand in helping the royals when they attempted to escape Paris when they fled to Varennes. All of Lafayette’s loyalty probably contributed to his fall from grace in the eyes of the Revolution. Then again, the entire French Revolution seems to be very poorly run in my opinion. So many decisions seem to be made out of emotion rather than legal procedures and evidence…they turned on Mirabeau and others who originally fathered the cause.
Huh, so I guess ‘point 3’ doesn’t really have much information on how Lafayette was treated by the Queen but I can’t imagine he’d be included in the Varennes plot by Fersen unless he was held in some esteem. I’d have to poke around.I know it’s not a glamorous post but how often does Marie Antoinette tie in with a National Holiday? I know many Americans LOVE to pick on the French, especially war veterans or tourists after an altercation with a rude Parisian. (It never happened to your Blog Hostess, We let them think that We are Spanish.) But let’s remember one of the leading causes of France’s bankruptcy, the overthrow of the French royal family and their ultimate death.
Yep. It’s ‘cos they helped us. We wonder if M@ thought it was worth losing her head over. Probably not. In tribute, let’s all stop citing the last Queen of France as the idiot who said “Let them eat cake”. That was Louis XIII’s wife, a Spanish princess, who said “Let them eat the crust off my brioche,”.
The short answer is, the future king of France is Spanish born.
LikeLike
thank you! 🙂
LikeLike
The birthplace of Lafayette was liberated from the Germans, but not after Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon. Random observation.
LikeLike
Interesting! Thanks for commenting! Where was Lafayette originally from?
LikeLike