People of the Revolution and the USSR

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People of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era

GlossaryFeuillants

Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette

Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette
Feuillants Liberalism and republicanism France France 1757–1834 ○ Natural causes · Paris

French general who fought in the revolutions of two continents

He presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on 11 July 1789, and after the storming of the Bastille was made commander-in-chief of the National Guard. The Guard's firing on the crowd at the Champ de Mars in 1791 cost him popular trust and ended his middle course.

French military officer and politician, born in 1757 to a land-owning family at Chavaniac in Auvergne and dead in Paris in 1834. He volunteered for the American Revolutionary War, served as a Continental Army major general at the siege of Yorktown, sat in the Estates General of 1789, commanded the National Guard, and helped write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the Revolution he sought a middle course and defended constitutional monarchy, but the bloodshed on the Champ de Mars in 1791 cost him popular trust, and the Austrians held him over five years after his arrest was ordered in 1792. He refused to serve Napoleon and sat as a liberal deputy under the restored Bourbons. In the July Revolution of 1830 he again commanded the National Guard and backed Louis-Philippe. He advocated the abolition of slavery and was called the 'Hero of the Two Worlds'.

Career timeline
  • 1777–1781Continental Army major general in the American Revolutionary War; commanded the American right at the siege of Yorktown in 1781
  • 1787–1789Member of the Assembly of Notables; deputy of the nobility to the Estates General of 1789
  • 1789–1791Commander-in-chief of the National Guard; presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
  • 1791–1792Commander of the Army of the Centre and then the Army of the North; fled after a warrant for his arrest in August 1792
  • 1792–1797Held prisoner by Austria and Prussia at Olmütz and elsewhere; released in 1797
  • 1814–1830Liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies under the Bourbon Restoration
  • 1830Commanded the National Guard in the July Revolution and backed the accession of Louis-Philippe

Alexandre de Lameth

Alexandre de Lameth

Politician who moved from the revolutionary triumvirate to the Feuillants

He joined the Third Estate in 1789 but, through the triumvirate and the Feuillants, sought to stabilise the Revolution behind a constitutional monarchy; when the monarchy fell in 1792 he emigrated.

An aristocratic officer and veteran of the American War of Independence, Lameth joined the Third Estate in 1789 and supported the abolition of privilege. He formed the “triumvirate” with Barnave and Duport before becoming a Feuillant defender of constitutional monarchy. After exile and return, he served as a prefect under Napoleon and later as a liberal deputy.

Career timeline
  • 1777–1785Entered the king's bodyguard corps and served as a cavalry officer; in 1782 he fought in the American War of Independence as a colonel under Rochambeau.
  • 1789Elected deputy of the nobility of Péronne to the Estates-General, he rallied to the Third Estate and was among the promoters of the abolition of privilege on the night of 4 August.
  • 1789–1791With Barnave and Duport he formed the triumvirate leading the Assembly's left; on 20 November 1790 he was elected president of the Assembly.
  • 1791–1792A founding Jacobin and then a Feuillant leader defending constitutional monarchy; promoted maréchal de camp in the Army of the North in May 1792, he crossed to the enemy with Lafayette on 10 August and was interned by Austria.
  • 1800–1814Returning to France, he served as prefect of the Basses-Alpes, Rhin-et-Moselle, Roer and Pô, was made a Baron of the Empire in 1810, and became lieutenant general and prefect of the Somme in 1814.
  • 1820–1827Under the Restoration he sat as a liberal opposition deputy for Seine-Inférieure and then Seine-et-Oise, fighting the Villèle ministry.