Lafayette was a leader of liberal aristocrats during the 1780s, and he supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy. In 1789 he drafted, with the help of Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expressed the principles that inspired the French Revolution. As the revolution began, he was elected commander of a newly formed national guard of Paris, and he supported limited efforts to shift power from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie. However, after members of his national guard killed and injured dozens of demonstrators in 1791, Lafayette lost popularity, and he became a commander in the French army.
Discover