" cur non? "

History and all that shit :) elias/eli he, him

[bxnchberry]

Until he was eleven La Fayette lived at Chavaniac. Then, to ward the middle of 1768, his mother at last prevailed upon his guardians to let her take Gilbert to Paris.

" It grieved me [he wrote later) to part from a grandmother, two aunts, and a cousin, all of whom I adored. I felt no curiosity to see the capital. I remember my astonishment on the road when I found that people did not raise their hats to me, as they did at Chavaniac when the young lord of the manor drove past."

- Adrienne:the life of the Marquise de La Fayette by Maurois André, page 26

[bxnchberry]

I am Here, with my Wife, Son, daughter in law, and New Born little grand daughter taking Care of my Wounds, and Stretching My Rusted Articulations untill I can Return to my Beloved Rural Abode at La Grange.

Marquis De Lafayette to th*mas j*fferson,, June 4th 1803

[bxnchberry]

His grand-mère paternelle, Edouard's widow, had brought Chavaniac into the family as part of her dowry. She had lived in the house since 1701. Madame de Chavaniac was an unusually enlightened mistress over the family's estates, allowing the peasants to hunt and garden on her lands and to take firewood from her forests. When times were hard she made sure nobody went hungry. Moreover, she was a canny businesswoman who expanded the family's properties. She also bought out all supervising feudal rights over Lafayette, so he owed allegiance to no lord but the king.

Adopted son by David. A Clary (page 7)

[bxnchberry]

Adrienne died on Christmas Eve, 1807, at a quarter before twelve, at the age of forty-eight. It was the faithful Beauchet who, with one of La Fayette’s comrades-in-arms, went to register the death at the town hall. The Journal de VEmpire in recording the event recalled the exemplary virtues of the deceased; “Everyone should weep for Madame de La Fayette. She was the joy of her family, the protector of the poor, the consolation of the afflicted, the ornament of her country and the honor of her sex"

Adrienne : the life of the Marquise de La Fayette by Maurois André,, page 486