Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette - American Revolutionary War hero, toast of liberal Europe, and a founder of modern France - started his illustrious life as a shy, clumsy, if aristocratic, country bumpkin. Here, in this essay from New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Thomas Fleming, is Lafayette's surprising - and inspiring - story.
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette - American Revolutionary War hero, toast of liberal Europe, and a founder of modern France - started his illustrious life as a shy, clumsy, if aristocratic, country bumpkin. Here, in this essay from New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Thomas Fleming, is Lafayette's surprising - and inspiring - story.