For generations, the spirit of Lafayette has inspired liberty, unity, and friendship across borders. Today, we are proud to open a brand-new chapter in our story with the launch of our official newsletter!
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Vive Lafayette!!!
For generations, the spirit of Lafayette has inspired liberty, unity, and friendship across borders. Today, we are proud to open a brand-new chapter in our story with the launch of our official newsletter!
Vive Lafayette! is designed to be your go-to hub for all things AFL: from speaker series recaps and historical features to member announcements and upcoming gatherings. Thank you for your continued dedication to keeping Lafayette’s memory alive. Dive in, explore, and Vive Lafayette!
Welcome
Vive Lafayette! is designed to be your go-to hub for all things AFL: from speaker series recaps and historical features to member announcements and upcoming gatherings. Thank you for your continued dedication to keeping Lafayette’s memory alive. Dive in, explore, and Vive Lafayette!
Free Speaker Series brought to you by the American Friends of Lafayette.
For all our Free Speaker Series- Bookmark our Zoom link for quick access to the presentations on the scheduled dates and time.
November 19, 2026: Bob Geake | Author of A Man of Uncommon Valor: James Mitchell Varnum, the American Revolution, and the Foundation of the New Republic
January 7, 2026:
Free Speaker Series brought to you by the American Friends of Lafayette.
November 19, 2026: Bob Geake | Author of A Man of Uncommon Valor: James Mitchell Varnum, the American Revolution, and the Foundation of the New Republic
January 7, 2026: Pierre Oury: The Lafayette Escadrille ( due to technical difficulties, it was not recorded to share- so we're doing it again!!!!)
TBD: Peter Reilly: Lafayette the Super Hero.
TBD: Alan Hoffman: Lafayette: Here of the American Revolution and Abolitionist
TBD: Olga Anna Duhl
To view past recordings of theAFL Speaker Series, click here.
To view past recordings of theFL Speaker Series, visit the AFL website.
Marquis de Lafayette talk at French & Indian War Foundation
Where: The Chapel at the Village of Orchard Ridge | 400 Clocktower Ridge Drive, Winchester, Virginia
When:November 15, 2026
Details: The free event includes light refreshments, a business meeting at 2 p.m., and Roy Wulf as the Marquis de Lafayette at 3:15 p.m.
Cost: Free
November 18, 2026: Lecture—Old World Meets New World: Franco-American Encounters, 1776-1783 | Anderson House 2118 Massachusetts Ave., NW | Virtual or In Person | Register link
November 24, 2026: November 24, 2026: The Marquis | Marc Leepson on Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General |Charleston Library Society 164 King Street Charleston, SC 29401 The Marquis | Marc Leepson on Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General |Charleston Library Society 164 King Street Charleston, SC 29401
December 7, 2026: December 7, 2026: The American Friends of Lafayettewill release a theatrical play commemorating the 250th anniversary of Lafayette visiting Silas Deane with Baron de Kalb in Paris. The American Friends of Lafayette will release a theatrical play commemorating the 250th anniversary of Lafayette visiting Silas Deane with Baron de Kalb in Paris.
The Franco-American Alliance in Gloucester County: The 1781 Battle of the Hook
The Franco-American Alliance in Gloucester County: The 1781 Battle of the Hook.
This session features Robert Kelly, Vice President of the American Friends of Lafayette & Director of the Gloucester Museum of History.
Where: Lynnhaven House (4409 Wishart Rd., Virginia Beach, VA 23455)
February 13, 2027: February 13, 2027: Alexandria George Washington Birthday Parade | Luncheon | Tour of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial | Details Forthcoming Alexandria George Washington Birthday Parade | Luncheon | Tour of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial | Details Forthcoming
November 25, 1777 – Battle of Gloucester: Lafayette led a reconnaissance detachment in New Jersey and successfully engaged a superior force of Hessian mercenaries, earning high praise from General George Washington.
December 19, 1777 – Arrival at Valley Forge: Lafayette marched with George Washington and the Continental Army into winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, sharing in the hardships of the troops throughout that harsh winter.
December 23, 1781 – Departure for France After Victory: Following the British surrender at Yorktown, Congress granted Lafayette permission to return to France on a diplomatic mission. He set sail aboard the frigate Alliance.
December 24, 1779 – Birth of His Son: Adrienne gave birth to their son in Paris, named Georges Washington de La Fayette in honor of General Washington.
December 24/25, 1807 – Death of Adrienne de La Fayette: Adrienne passed away in Paris at the age of 48 with Lafayette by her side. She is buried in the Picpus Cemetery in Paris.
Follow us on social media for more content, on this day in Lafayette history, and event coverage.
Follow us on social media for more content, on this day in Lafayette history, and event coverage.
Adrienne, Prisoner and Liberator
by Paul Spalding
(excerpt)
Adrienne de La Fayette (1759-1807) was one of the outstanding heroic actors of the Revolutionary period. After she barely survived incarceration by radical Jacobins, herimagination, resourcefulness, and persistence allowed her to rescue the person who, at the timeand for decades to come, most consistently embodied for the world the universal values ofliberty, human rights, constitutional democracy, and national independence: her husband Gilbert.She very likely saved his life by ending his solitary confinement at a prison deep in centralEurope, serving as his amanuensis with the outside world, and by helping to make hisincarceration a celebrated cause among a growing international reading public. Though theJacobins had seized all the family fortune, Adrienne received monetary gifts from admirers andmanaged to open lines of credit to give Gilbert the economic means to shape a new life. After hisrelease into uncertain exile, she helped give him places to live, initially at and near the estate ofher aunt on the periphery of northern Europe. She then provided Gilbert with a permanent homein the form of property that she managed to recover in France.
Adrienne was born in Paris, literally entitled and in lavish surroundings. She grew up a scion of the Noailles, the highest aristocratic family in France bar the royal family itself. Herfamily’s grand Parisian townhouse on the rue de Saint-Honoré, around the corner from the royalTuileries and Louvre palaces, displayed the family’s status to all who passed it by. She took adistinct social step down to marry into the provincial nobility when, at age 14, she took vowswith a notably awkward but, happily, very rich 17-year-old marquis named, in shortened form,Gilbert de La Fayette. Even after the French Revolution abolished nobility in 1790, there waslittle indication that she was ever ashamed of her origins as a high noble. She proudly signed hername “Noailles de La Fayette” even after her husband had adopted the plebian, one-word formof his own name, “Lafayette.”
Her childhood household abounded in women who were devout Catholics, from her nurse to her convent-educated mother. Adrienne’s own Catholic faith was a key to herpersistence against all odds. It was independent of the institution of absolute monarchy, despitethe pre-revolutionary French government’s efforts to combine them. It not only showed concernwith personal salvation but emphasized the ultimate triviality of wealth and social estate, and theGod-given dignity of every person. She found no contradiction between her intense piety andenthusiastic support of her husband’s struggle for constitutionally grounded liberty and humanrights. A striking instance of her engagement on behalf of freedom and justice was how shejoined her husband in buying plantations in French Guiana to prepare slaves for emancipation.
In August 1792, radical Jacobins overthrew the young constitutional government that Gilbert had helped establish in France. They began a Reign of Terror against perceived enemies,including the Noailles family and Gilbert. This led in turn to Gilbert’s flight abroad andimprisonment by the counterrevolutionary Prussian king and Austrian Habsburg emperor. It alsoled to the seizure of all family assets, Adrienne’s arrest in November 1793, and her subsequentincarceration in a series of prisons. Her sister, mother, and grandmother, as well as many otherrelatives and close acquaintances were guillotined and dumped in a mass grave. She escaped execution only by the interventions of successive American resident ministers Gouverneur Morris and James Monroe, as well as by the actions of Monroe’s wife Elizabeth.
There is a bronze plaque installed near the French Memorial Monument on the Yorktown battlefield detailing the losses incurred by the French Navy for each of the 61 warships engaged in the Western theater of operations during the entire War of Independence. The total is 3,520.
This plaque was installed in1971 by Le Souvenir Français, prior to the erection of the Monument by Le Souvenir Français and the Federation of French War Veterans, which was inaugurated in 1989.
In this special year, which marks the 250th anniversary of the United States and the 400th anniversary of the French Navy, we are proud to pay tribute to all the sailors (and embarked soldiers) who fought at sea and died during this epic struggle.
Most died in combat, in naval engagements along the Eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Others perished at sea, from scurvy or other illnesses, on the voyage to America or on the way home. Many succumbed in hospitals, from Rhode Island to Virginia and in Martinique and Guadeloupe, to illness or to wounds received in battle.
Those who died in hospitals rest in mass graves, their precise locations not always known. The majority of those who died at sea were thrown overboard to rest at the bottom of the ocean, as was customary at the time, and have no proper burial.
It is to them that this granite memorial is dedicated.
We salute the courage of all those who died far from home and their loved ones, for a noble cause and a country most of them never set foot in.
Gear up for our upcoming events and celebrate our shared history by visiting the American Friends of Lafayette Store! Whether you're building your personal library or looking for the perfect gift, check out our latest collection:
Apparel: High-quality scarves (restock will be announced soon), sweatshirts, hoodies, shirts, & hats designed for historical gatherings and everyday wear.
Keep Track of the Year: Official AFL250 calendars featuring key historic dates and artwork.
Membership Gear: Official AFL member badges to proudly display your involvement.
Nothing brightened our Halloween more than seeing your incredible Lafayette-inspired or Colonial themed costumes! We were blown away by the tag notifications filling our Instagram Stories. It’s clear that Marquis de Lafayette’s story continues to inspire creativity across generations, including some extraordinarily dressed pets!
As always, thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to the American Friends of Lafayette.
If you see a news article, social media post, or something of interest, please don't hesitate in sending it us. americanfriendsoflafayette@gmail.com
Vive Lafayette!!!!!
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Copyright The American Friends of Lafayette 2024 "The American Friends of Lafayette" is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Mail correspondence to: PO Box 84114 Gaithersburg, MD 20883 Email: americanfriendsoflafayette@gmail.com
