Lafayette (1962)
Director: Jean Dreville
Cast: Jack Hawkins (Gen. Cornwallis), Orson Welles (Benjamin Franklin), Howard St. John (Lafayette), Edmund Purdom (Silas Deane), Vittorio De Sica (secret agent), Michael Le Royer
Below average movie of the Frenchman who served as an officer in the American Revolution. Allying himself with the revolutionary bourgeoisie in France, he became one of the most powerful men in France during the first few years of the French Revolution.
Historical Background:
Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de
1757 -- born in Chavaniac, France into an ancient noble family.
1774 -- marries the daughter of the influential duc d'Ayen. He joins the circle of young courtiers at the court of King Louis XVI.
1777, July -- arrives in Philadelphia and is appointed a major general . Quickly becomes friends with George Washington.
177, Sept 11 -- Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania.
1778, May 28 -- as a division commander he leads a masterly retreat from Barren Hill.
1779 -- returns to France; helps persuade the government of Louis XVI to send a 6,000-man expeditionary army to aid the colonists.
1780, April -- Lafayette back in America; gets command of an army in Virginia. Forces the British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis to retreat across Virginia
1780 -- traps Cornwallis at Yorktown where Cornwallis surrenders, ending the war, October 19. Lafayette is a "hero."
1782 -- back in France he is promoted brigadier general.
1784 -- tours several states on a visit to the United States.
1784-1789 -- a leader of the liberal aristocrats and an outspoken advocate of religious toleration and the abolition of the slave trade.
1789 -- is elected a representative of the nobility to the States General. He supports the maneuvers by which the bourgeois deputies of the Third Estate that leads to their control of the States General and the conversion into a revolutionary National Assembly.
1789, July 11 -- he presents to the Assembly his draft of a Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
1789, July 15 -- a crowd storms the Bastille. Lafayette becomes commander of the newly formed Paris national guard.
1789, August 27 -- after extensive revisions the document is adopted.
1789, Oct 6 -- his troops save Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette from the fury of a mob at Versailles on October 6; takes the royal family to Paris, where they are held hostage.
Lafayette starts to become disillusioned with the radicalness of the revolutionaries.
1791, July 17 -- his guard fires on a crowd of petitioners demanding the abdication of the King on the Champ de Mars in Paris, killing or wounding about 50 demonstrators.
1791, Oct -- his popularity destroyed, he resigns from the guard.
1791, Dec -- is appointed commander of the army at Metza.
1792, April -- tries to suppress the radical democrats after France goes to war with Austria.
1792, Aug -- monarchy overthrown in a popular insurrection.
1792, August -- Lafayette defects to Austria to avoid being tried for treason. They hold him captive.
1797 -- free from captivity with the Austrians.
1799 -- Napoleon Bonaparte in power; Lafayette returns to France and becomes a gentleman farmer.
1814-1824 -- sits in the Chamber of Deputies during most of the reign of King Louis XVIII .
1824-25 -- receives great adulation during a visit to the United States.
1830 -- commands the national guard that helps overthrow King Charles X and installs Louis-Philippe on the throne; six months later, he retires.
1834 -- dies in Paris.
Return to Home Page (Vernon Johns Society)