Adrienne's Ultimate Valentine

It's Valentine's Day and I am thinking about the famous love between Lafayette and his wife Adrienne! It's an audatious but true story worthy of a miniseries. Here are just a few spoilers!

Not long after the storming of the Bastille and on July 14, 1789, Lafayette was made Commander of the French National Guard. Throughout his tenure Lafayette's frustration with the violence of the revolution put him at odds with leading revolutionaries. He nevertheless carried out his duties until the one incident he promised wouldn't happen did: Louis XVI and his family snuck away one June night under cover of darkness. They didn't get far, and Lafayette ordered their arrest. But the damage was done and Lafayette was held personally responsible. Just a few short weeks later in July, 1791 the Parisian mayor, unable to quel a growing mob at Champs de Mars called on the National Guard to restore peace. The mob numbering nearly 50, 000 refused to disperse. Under Lafayette's orders the Guard fired onto the growing crowd, killing anywhere from 10 to 50 revolutionaries. The following months added to Lafayette's political troubles, and Revolutionary leaders began publicly questioning his loyalty. Calls for his head were swift. Like the royals, Lafayette fled France in the dead of night, adding another lengthy sepearation to Lafayette and Adrienne's relationship.

In keeping with Lafayette's luck, his escape didn't go as planned. (It's really worth its own story.) He was eventually recognized and taken captive in Austria in 1792. This was an especially unfortunate bit of luck. Prussia's King Frederich Willhelm II was no fan. Despite Lafayette's genuinely middling politics he was widely viewed throughout Europe as a revolutionary, and Frederich was determined to hang on to his thrown. He wasn't about to let a famous rabble rouser loose, and killing him outright might have sparked such an event. Hoping to aviod all things Lafayette, Frederick planned to imprison him until the French monarchy was restored, at which point he'd return him to France to face fate. Except the Jacobian revolutionaries held steadfast. So Lafayette was left to suffered alone, often in solitary confinement, in a series of Austrian prisons for nearly three years.

Meanwhile back in France Adrienne was herself imprisoned, first under house arrest and eventually in a cell in Paris awaiting the guillotine. Her survival was no small feat. It's estimated nearly 20,000 aristocrats and royalists were killed during the Revolution's Reign of Terror during which Adrienne's grandmother, mother and sister perished. Influentials in the United States and England continued to write letters pleading on the Lafayettes' behalf but they went unheeded. Eventually the United States's Minister Plenipotentiary James Monroe and his wife Elisabeth travelled to Paris. While there they made sure the Revolutionaries knew Lafayette and Adrienne were beloved in the new country. To solidify the point, Elisabeth took the enormous risk of meeting Adrienne in prison for picnics. The ploy worked. Not wanting to damage political relations between France and the United States, Adrienne was eventually freed. But her trials didn't end there. Fearing for her only son, she put a 16-year-old George Washington Lafayette on a ship bound for the United States. As if that separation weren't enough, Adrienne's next steps showed a depth of commitment rarely documented. She tidied up the Lafayette holdings she'd been managing throughout the US and French Revolutions and set off for Austria, and Lafayette, with her two daughters. Unable to secure his release, they intended to join him in prison. When Adrienne arrived in Austria, she still hoped she could sway Frederich Willhelm II to let her husband go but the king refused, so Adrienne, Anastasie and Virginie joined Lafayette in his cells in Olmutz. Their confinement lasted another two years. For his part Lafayette knew none of Adrienne's plans. Imagine his surprise when his extraordinary wife and daughters walked into his cell! Imagine the depth of Adrienne, Anastasie and Virginie's love.

Adrienne's willingness to join her husband was one thing. What she voluntarily lived through solidifies her love as one for the ages. While all the Lafayettes endured severely debilitated health while at Olmutz, Adrienne truly suffered most. At one point she asked to visit a doctor and was told that if she left prison she couldn't return. Remarkably, she chose to stay. After two years and the rise of Napoleon to the throne, the family was released from their hellish confinement in 1797. Adrienne never fully recovered. Continuing to suffer from debilitating illnesses, she succumbed to death in 1807. She was only forty-eight years old. 

All of Europe knew this story of love and devotion. And...there is so much more. In many ways Adrienne is even more famous in France than Lafayette.

Did you know?  

Many people think Beethoven's opera Fidelio (Fidelity) was inspired by Adrienne's devotion to Lafayette!