1. His birth name was extremely long.
The future hero of the American Revolution was born Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette in an expansive chateau in Chavaniac, France, on September 6, 1757. “It’s not my fault,” he joked in his autobiography. “I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.”
2. King George III’s brother convinced Lafayette to fight against Great Britain.
In August 1775, Lafayette attended a dinner party at which Great Britain’s Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of King George III, was the guest of honor. The duke, who had been condemned by the king over his recent choice of a bride, hit back at his royal brother’s policies in the American colonies and praised the exploits of liberty-loving Americans at the opening battles of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord months earlier. Lafayette, whose father died in 1759 fighting the British during the Seven Years’ War, received the inspiration he needed to strike back against the empire. “From that hour,” he wrote, “I could think of nothing but this enterprise, and I resolved to go to Paris at once to make further inquiries.”
