Noble Blood - The Noble Revolutionary

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

If you're familiar with the musical 'Hamilton,' yoiu probably know about "America's favorite fighting Frenchman:" the Marquis de Lafayette. A teenage nobleman enraptured by the ideals of the American Revolution, he would put his life on the line to fight alongside George Washington, only to face another revolution when he returned back to France.Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Noble Blood merch— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They hit a bogo. Well, then you got it. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. It is September 11th, 1777, and a soldier fighting in the American Revolutionary War is setting off valiantly into battle on Brandywine Creek, about 30 miles. southwest of Philadelphia. It's a foggy day, but that's not the source of the smoke in the man's eyes and nose. The British musket balls are flying towards him. Gunpowder erupts everywhere around him. Somewhere behind, he has left General George Washington. This soldier is only 20 years old, and this is his very first battle of the war. He has come to the army from a great distance away, guided by one goal to help secure America's freedom. But right now, as the smoke is filling his lungs,

his one goal has changed slightly. Right now he needs to rally the beleaguered American troops against the British in order to stop the British from advancing to the capital in Philadelphia. He also wants to stay alive. When the soldier opens his mouth to speak, perhaps to inspire his fellow soldiers, he has a very unusual accent, the accent of French nobility.

This man fighting in the Continental Army of the American Revolution is the Marquis de Lafayette. You may know him from Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit musical Hamilton, in which he's described as America's favorite fighting Frenchman. That description is exactly, right. Throughout his life, Lafayette loved America in ways that would almost certainly embarrass any self-respecting Frenchman today. He named his son George Washington. He kept a gold-plated copy of the

Declaration of Independence in his house in France. He helped recruit the French king to fight against the British monarchy on the American side. And yet, Lafayette's time during the American Revolution is only one half of the story. The other half happens when he goes back to France afterward, intending to spread American democratic ideas, where he encountered instead a bloodthirsty mob dead set against an internal rather than external enemy. The story of the Marquis de Lafayette

is the story of a bone-deep commitment to democracy, even when that democracy was deeply flawed. It's the story of the differences between two revolutions. And it's the story of that brave, determined Frenchman who ran straight into the heat of the Battle of Brandywine with a bullet headed straight for him. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Preemptive apologies for this pronunciation, but the man named Marie Joseph, Paul, Eves, Roche, Gilbert de Montier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, was born in the south of France on September 6th, 1757. If all of those names sound like a mouthful, Lafayette himself would have agreed. I was baptized like a Spaniard, he wrote later in his memoir,

with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle. It was true that his family needed wartime protection. They had a long and frightening tendency to die bravely and young on world historical battlefields. In Lafayette's ancient noble line, his ancestors had fought beside Joan of Arc and in the Crusades, and in King Louis XVI's Horseguard, called the Black Musketeers. Lafayette's father also fought in the seven years war, which would spill over into the then-American colonies as the French and Indian War. And in keeping with the Lafayette tradition, the Marquita Lafayette's father died in battle one month before his young son's second birthday. Lafayette spent much of his childhood honing his instinct for courage.

You might be familiar with the legendary Beast of Givandon, a mysterious creature that tormented the French countryside in the middle of the 18th century. As many as 200 people were attacked by a mysterious wolf or wolf-like animal whose physical characteristics grew in size as the legend around the creature grew. To this day, historians aren't sure exactly what sort of animal. animal or animals were causing the attacks. But whatever it was, it galvanized the French government into action. Nobles, royal huntsmen, and professional soldiers all set out to try and kill the beast. In fact, multiple people would report that they were the one who had successfully killed the animal, only for the attacks to continue. Lafayette was eight at this time, and rather than hide away inside, as no doubt many people were advising children to do with a mysterious man-killing monster on the loose,

Lafayette joined the hunt. He never found that first beast he pursued, and he was soon beset by a different tragedy. When Lafayette was 12, only 10 years after his father died, his mother died too. Listeners, here's a heads up. If you know the life story of Alexander Hamilton, or if you mostly know Lafayette through Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical version, then you might notice a lot of similarities between Lafayette and Hamilton. Their early orphanhood won't be the only similarity you notice. Although one thing Lafayette did not have in common with Hamilton was the fact that he was born of nobility,

and not just any nobility. When Lafayette became an orphan, he inherited the massive family fortune. So before his 13th birthday, Lafayette was one of the richest aristocrats in all of Europe. Lafayette turned 19 in 1776. Word of the American Revolution had reached

the fashionable salons of France, and the French people were, to say the least, thrilled by it. After all, they had lost the seven years war miserably to Britain. They had given up their Canadian colonies to the British, so they loved the idea of Britain getting defeated, in the most humiliating way, too, by one of her own colonies. So Parisians were playing a card game called Le Boston, and as we mentioned in an earlier episode of this podcast, they were all hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Benjamin Franklin, ambassador from America, in his famous fur cap. And Lafayette, of the long line of courageous, battle-hungry nobleman, was personally delighted.

The world was being changed across the sea in America. Lafayette believed deeply in fairness, freedom, and democracy. Perhaps it's a slightly strange system of beliefs for a guy who was a most, the richest nobleman in all of France, but it was planted firm as a flag in his heart. My heart was enlisted, he wrote, and I thought only of joining my colors to those of the revolutionaries. So Lafayette decided that he had to get to America. He approached Silas Dean, who was an envoy from Connecticut in Paris trying to help Franklin recruit French aid to the American cause. Lafayette had never...

in his life been in a battle any bigger than hunting a wolf monster that may or may not have existed. But nonetheless, Dean took a look at his money and title and made him major general in the Continental Army. Of course, the French government wasn't exactly thrilled. The king was tacitly allowing Frenchmen to go to the aid of America, but he himself was thus far still publicly neutral. Lafayette's father-in-law flat out forbade him to go. In 1777, Lafayette was 19 years old, and his even younger wife was pregnant again at this point with their second child. But that didn't matter to Lafayette. In his mind, he was consumed with visions of glory on the other shore of the Atlantic, and nothing could have gotten in his way. And let's not forget, he was

rich. So he paid for his own ship, which he named La Victoire, he snuck out onto it, leaving behind a goodbye letter for his father-in-law. In the letter, he sounds exactly like the naive, idealistic, over-enthusiastic 19-year-old that he was. He wrote, quote, You will be astonished, my dear papa, by what I'm about to tell you. I am a general officer in the Army of the United States of America. And so he set out on a long, extremely seasick, eight-week journey to the United States. Nauseous on the deck,

steadfastly turning his head toward the distant American shore he couldn't see, the young, inexperienced aristocrat was, perhaps a little bit of a fool. Or perhaps he was about to become, as historian Sarah Vowell put it, quote, the best friend America ever had. The first order of business was to find

Revolutionary America's real best friend, George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. So Lafayette made his way to Philadelphia, where he met George Washington at City Tavern on July 31st, 1777, a town. a tavern which incidentally is still standing on 2nd Street in Philadelphia today. Lafayette spotted Washington across the crowded room. It was a scene straight out of a rom-com.

Washington stood six feet tall, a veritable giant for the era. He was 45 years old at this point, an august age compared to most of the younger revolutionaries. And Lafayette couldn't take his eyes off of him. Lafayette made his way to the general across the crowded room and stood before him, where the two men sized each other up. Lafayette was not DeVee Diggs, by the way, if that's who you're picturing. He was 5'9, notably tall, if not giant, for the age, and a bit stout with red hair. He stood in front of Washington, filled with excitement and a little bit of fear.

Lafayette had boarded his ship in France, not knowing any English. He had studied the language on board, but he worried that his newfound English would falter now when he was desperate for this commander to like him. And as in any good rom-com, Washington didn't like him at first. America had been flooded with revolution-hungary Frenchmen, using the American Revolution as a proxy war to avenge France's defeat against the British. Washington was getting sick of them. Nevertheless, Lafayette persisted. On September 11th, 1777, he was standing beside George Washington as the Battle of Brandywine raged. Thus far, Washington had not allowed Lafayette to fight. Ever since landing in America, it had turned out that Lafayette's

appointment to Major General back in France had been merely ceremonial, a way to get his French influence and his money. But now the British General Cornwallis was coming across the Brandywine Creek, and Lafayette was begging Washington to let him into the battle. Washington agreed. Lafayette charged into the fray through the mist of the foggy day and the terrible smoke of the muskets. Here he was at last fighting for freedom in what felt to him like the center of the world. He would be stopped by nothing now, not even a bullet that hit him straight through the leg. The musket ball went clear through his left calf, but Lafayette kept fighting until the blood was literally pouring from his boot. After the battle was done, Washington told the doctor to

take care of Lafayette as if he were Washington's own son. The friendship between the two men was set. Both orphans, Lafayette looked up to Washington like a father, and Washington happily took on their role. This was a Frenchman dedicated in body and spirit to the American cause. As long as you fight, Lafayette wrote to Washington, I want to fight along with you. After Brandywine, Washington wanted Lafayette to do exactly that. He successfully lobbied Congress to give Lafayette a real not ceremonial command. But the battle that was the American Revolution wasn't only raging on American shores.

As we discussed in our episode on Benjamin Franklin, the American Army was cash-strapped and resource-strapped, rag-tag and often undisciplined. So the real battle for Washington was also the fight for international aid, specifically from France. So Lafayette was, went back to France on January 11, 1779, about a year and a half after he had landed in America.

Technically, Lafayette had disobeyed the French crown by going to fight in America, and when he got back, he was placed under house arrest. But it wasn't really that serious. Congress wrote a letter on Lafayette's behalf addressed to, quote, our great, faithful and beloved friend and ally Louis the 16th, King of France and Navarre. Obviously, they were trying to butter Louis up. Congress praised Lafayette for his zeal, courage, and attachment to the cause of revolution against the British, and lo and behold, the house arrest was short-lived. Lafayette was thrilled to be reunited with his wife, and within the year their first son was born. True to form ever the enthusiastic son of America, Lafayette named the boy exactly what you might expect.

George Washington, Lafayette. Lafayette spent his time in France working to help convince the French to send aid to the American war effort. But he couldn't stay away from his beloved America for long, not when his adoptive country was still in the middle of its physical war. So on April 28, 1780, he docked in Massachusetts and, sought out his beloved George Washington. The French, he was happy to report, were sending troops. Six thousand French soldiers would be docking shortly under the command of General Rochambeau.

We all know now that America won the Revolutionary War. Lafayette actually fought alongside Alexander Hamilton in its last major land battle, the Battle of Yorktown. The American Revolution was over. The British crown was defeated. And Lafayette was the most beloved and important Frenchmen of the entire war. He named his next daughter, Virginia, after Washington and Jefferson's beloved home state of Virginia. He was the consummate revolutionary. What's up, everyone?

I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest. you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like,

and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come, look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved.

And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that.

There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through. and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah.

He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging. in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. But of course, then, things got more complicated, as real life always does.

History rarely fits into stories of pure heroism or pure villainy, pure revolutionary or full moderate. It's always more complicated than that. and when the French Revolution came in 1789, Lafayette had been America's revolutionary, but he was revolutionary France's moderate. Yes, he wrote the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in consultation with Thomas Jefferson, who obviously you know was the author of the American Declaration of Independence. And yes, he sent the key of the infamous Bastille Prison to, George Washington in Mount Vernon. But in October of 1789, he also stood on the balcony of Versailles,

home of the hated King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. He stood beside the hated queen. The mob below was calling for her blood. Lafayette by then was the head of the French National Guard, charged with protecting the beleaguered and revered. viled monarchs in a France full of starving people, whose lack of representation boiled their blood. Of course, he understood their desire for democratic representation, for dignity. He was America's great revolutionary, after all. He was an abolitionist, too, all too aware of the abomination of slavery in America where he had fought for freedom. Yet the Marquis de Lafayette was also, above all, a believer in ordered, fair, free democracy.

And the anger of the French mob had, in his mind, surpassed reasoned revolution and entered into the pure madness of the mob. He had gone back to France intending to spread American democratic ideals. But now he was encountering a bloodthirsty revolution against an inhuman. internal rather than external enemy, with the heads of innocence on pikes. So the Marquis de Lafayette brought Queen Marie Antoinette out to the balcony. The French tricolour glistened in his eyes, reminding him perhaps briefly of the colors of his most beloved home back in the United States. And the great hero of the American Revolution,

the man who had sailed from France to France, to free America from that tyrant King George kissed the French queen's hand. Why? We could write a whole other podcast or a book even about this period of Lafayette's life, but in many ways it's the story of the difference between these two revolutions. The 18th century revolutionary period is not as simple as many in America assume. Many of us learn the oversimplified version, rather flattering to America. We overthrew our subservience to monarchy in the revolution that began in 1776, and then the French were inspired by us and followed suit in their own revolution in 1789. But of course, the reality is more complicated.

You may notice that the current government of France is not its first republic, as the American states, system of government is. France is on its fifth republic. In historian Sarah Vowell's words, there were, quote, decades of instability unleashed by the French Revolution, as opposed to the governmental continuity spawned by the American Revolution. After the French Revolution of 1789, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor not once, but twice. In between, King Louis the 18th was monarch. Not once, but twice. Lafayette would live through events that are covered in another very famous modern Broadway musical, L'A. M. Robb, which is not actually about the French Revolution of 1789, but the second revolution of 1830. One detail I skipped earlier, Lafayette's daughter, Virginia, actually had her full name Marie Antoinette, Virginia. She was named for both the French queen,

and an American state freed from a British king. In some ways, that encapsulates Lafayette's entire story. Lafayette was simply not revolutionary enough for the French revolutionaries. In 1792, when he was 34, he was jailed in Austria. His wife sent their son, George Washington, to safety across the sea, where he stayed at Mount Vernon with his godfather, George Washington. by then the President of the United States. Lafayette spent five years in prison.

Eventually, with the help of Napoleon and a little bit of American diplomacy, Lafayette was freed. In 1824, at the age of 66, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to America at last. President James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, personally invited him for essentially a USA 50th birthday tour. It was like spring break for Lafayette. He visited all, then 24, states of the union, and America went wild for him, and he for them.

He was like a where's Waldo or Forrest Gump of early American institutions. He laid the cornerstone for both the Brooklyn Public Library and the monument of Bunker Hill. He was there for the infamous election of 1824 when neither John Quincy Adams nor Andrew Jackson won enough electoral votes to be president and so the election got thrown to the House of Representatives. He was in the room where loser Jackson shook winner,

John Quincy Adams, hand. Lafayette had towns, schools, and endless American children named after him. But this triumphant trip would be Lafayette's last visit to America. He returned to France and died 10 years later on May 20th, 1834, at 76 years old. He was buried in France, but he was the world's greatest Americafile until the very end. His son, George Washington, spread soil from Bunker Hill atop his grave. The United States House and Senate draped their chambers in black to mourn him.

And the red, white, and blue American flag was mounted on his final resting site, where it remained even through the Nazi occupation of France. The flag still flies on his grave to this day. That's the story of America's noble revolutionary, the Marquis de Lafayette. but stay tuned after a brief sponsor break to hear about how Lafayette became an official American long after he died. On August 6, 2002, the United States Congress passed Public Law 107-209. This was a joint resolution of Congress, quote, conferring honorary citizenship of the United States posthumously on Marie-Joseph, Paul, Yves, Roche Gilbert de Montier, the Marquis,

the Marquis de Lafayette. Only seven other people in history have ever received the honor of being granted posthumous American citizenship. And as of 2002, there had only been five people. Winston Churchill,

Prime Minister of the UK during World War II, Raoul Wallenberg, the Swede who rescued Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust, William and Hannah Penn, founders of Pennsylvania, and Mother Teresa. Lafayette was the sixth to join that list.

The joint resolution cited his rank of Major General, his wounding in the Battle of Brandywine, his voluntary offering of his own money to support the cause, and the risk to his own life that he undertook in order to fight, quote, for the freedom of Americans. 168 years after his death, Lafayette, who had always so dearly wanted to belong in America, America finally got his wish.

Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Danish Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Julia Melani, and Armand Kasam. The show is edited and produced by Noami Griffin and Rima Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms.

So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast we're recording it as we tailgate

Our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey With all the snacks and drinks Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They hit a bogo. Well, then you got it. Listen to soccer moms on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.