By Gayle Converse
As Alexandria celebrates one of the most beloved actors in the American Revolution, I wanted to share the story of the courageous woman who not only supported the forward-thinking causes of the Marquis de Lafayette, but almost lost her life in doing so.
The daughter of a wealthy French family, Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles was 14 years old when, in 1774, she married 16-year-old orphaned-but-rich Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette in France. Before becoming a major general who fought in the American Revolution, Lafayette’s adoption of the American cause can be explained in this excerpt from an April 1777 letter to Adrienne:
“The welfare of America is ultimately connected with the happiness of all mankind,” Lafayette wrote. “She will become the respectable and safe asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality and peace-ful liberty.”
Lafayette returned home to Adrienne as a hero in 1781. He drafted the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” commanded the national guard of Paris and escorted the French royal family to Paris. The Lafayette family – which now included three children as the couple’s first child died at the age of two – was progressive. Adrienne and Lafayette became antislavery advocates and found their sympathies split between the revolutionaries and the monarch.
But, as the French Revolution became violent, Lafayette was imprisoned in Austria in 1792. During those years – known as the Reign of Terror – the nobility was persecuted. While her husband was held in Austria, Adrienne was placed under house arrest and later sent to a Paris prison, condemned to the guillotine. A mere five days before the Reign of Terror ended, her mother, sister and grandmother were beheaded.
Adrienne was saved at the last moment, predominantly due to American intervention. She was released in 1796 immediately following a visit by Elizabeth Monroe, the wife of future president James Monroe, who was then the U.S. Ambassador to France. Elizabeth had traveled to the prison to exact Adrienne’s freedom. Not wanting to make an enemy of the U.S., France ordered the release.
Adrienne did not stay out of jail for long. After sending her son, George Washington Lafayette, to the U.S., she and her two grown daughters, Anastasie and Virginie’ – the latter named after the Commonwealth – voluntarily spent the next two years with Lafayette in the Austrian prison, where Adrienne suffered from illness due to the dank living conditions.
Napoleon advocated for the Lafayette family’s release in 1797. Once the family’s freedom was restored, Adrienne was determined to restore her property rights, which proved successful. In 1799, the family was able to return to one of her chateaus at LaGrange near Paris.
Eight years later, the fevers that had plagued Adrienne in the Austrian prison returned, causing her death on Dec. 25, 1807 at age 48. Surviving his wife by 27 years, Lafayette often spoke of Adrienne as an “incomparable woman.”
Sharing the stories of the “incomparable” women who fought for freedom is an important part of the celebrations in our nation, particularly as we remember Lafayette’s Oct. 16, 1824 visit to the city.
Several events have been planned to remember the visit. Please visit the Historic Alexandria website for event details.
The writer is a founder of Alexandria Celebrates Women, a nonprofit commemorating the centennial of women’s suffrage and highlighting influential women throughout the city’s history.