Michel du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette
Michel Louis Christophe Motier de La Fayette, marquis de La Fayette (13 August 1731 – 9 July 1759) was a colonel in the French Grenadiers.
Life
The marquis title passed to him from his brother Jacques-Roch upon his death on January 18, 1734 while fighting the Austrians at Milan in the War of Polish Succession.
He was killed by a cannonball at the Battle of Minden in the Seven Years' War. The year he died his faithful son was only at the age of two. He was a Knight of the Order of Saint Louis.
Family
On 22 May 1754, he married Marie Louise Jolie de la Rivière the daughter the Marquis de la Rivière a rich nobleman from Britany. She was a descendant of Louis IX. Her paternal grandfather) was the Comte de La Rivière, until his death in 1770 commander of the Mousquetaires du Roi, or Black Musketeers, King Louis XV's personal horse guard.[1]
He was father of the much better-known Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, who played a significant role in the American and French Revolutions.
References
- ↑ Unger, loc. 383
- Louis R. Gottschalk Lafayette Comes To America
- Genealogie de la Maison Motier de la Fayette