As the early stages of the French Revolution continue to unfold on the streets of Paris, Lafayette’s new role as the commander of the National Guard forces him to maintain a delicate balancing act between the preservation of revolutionary liberty and the restoration of public order.

Returning home after the Yorktown campaign, Lafayette participates in the negotiations that would formally end the Revolutionary War. He subsequently embarks on a grand tour of the United States, revisiting old friends, making new ones, and weighing in on some of the political issues that beset the fledgling nation.

Rejoining the American war effort in 1780, Lafayette is sent south to bring a traitorous general to heel. Unbeknownst to him, his actions were setting the stage for the dramatic final act of the War of Independence: the Battle of Yorktown.

After the formalization of an alliance between France and the United States, Lafayette is dispatched to facilitate cooperation between allied forces- a task that would prove more difficult than he’d hoped. Returning temporarily to his home country in 1779, the marquis continued to work tirelessly to advance the American cause abroad.

Lafayette accompanies Washington and the Continental Army at their winter encampment at Valley Forge. During this time, he finds himself entangled in a series of political intrigues and inconclusive military actions that threaten to shake his faith in the American cause.

Upon arriving in America, the Marquis de Lafayette is granted a commission in the Continental Army, serving directly under George Washington. Most expected this to be nothing more than a ceremonial appointment, but Lafayette remained determined to prove his worth to the American cause and to win glory on the battlefield.

Born into a noble family in the small French town of Chavaniac, Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette would lose both of his parents at a young age. The orphaned marquis would inherit a massive fortune that would allow him to live a life of luxury and privilege at Versailles. That is, until he made the fateful decision to leave it all behind.