The Embarrassing Adventures of Marquis de Lafayette
This video is part of my series called Short Histories, where I cover historical topics in less than 5 minutes.
Marquis de Lafayette was a French nobleman best known for his part fighting in the American Revolution. However, many people don’t realize how awkward he was in the French courts.
Lafayette was first presented to Versailles at age 17. He was known as being awkward and clumsy. One instance of this was a time when he was dancing the Quadrille with Marie Antoinette. While dancing, Lafayette tripped and fell. Marie Antoinette started laughing at him and soon most of the court had joined in the ridicule.
After many of Lafayette’s embarrassments started to affect the family’s reputation, his father-in-law, Duc D’Ayen, attempted to help Lafayette’s social career by getting him a position in Louis XVIII’s household. The problem with D’Ayen’s plan was that Lafayette had no interest in advancing his social career. Instead, he wished to advance his military career. So, he formed a plan.
Louis was known to be extremely proud of his memory. During a party where both Lafayette and Louis attended, Lafayette told Louis, “Everyone knows that a good memory is a fool’s substitute for wit.” This remark did not make Louis happy, and it looked as if Lafayette had succeeded in ruining his chance in getting a position in his household. D’Ayen, however, was nearly able to fix Lafayette’s “mistake.” He managed to convince Louis that Lafayette had not realized who he was talking to and arranged a meeting so that Lafayette could apologize. When Lafayette attended, he made it quite clear that he knew exactly who he had been speaking to. Just like that, Lafayette was free to pursue his military career and sail to America, where a revolution had just started.
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Sources:
• Quadrille | Excerpt fr...
factsandfables.wordpress.com/...
en.chateauversailles.fr/disco...