btw I was Procrastinating™ and then from my no thoughts head empty state of mind came the question: wtf happened to lafayette's aunt, the Madame de Chavaniac (idk if that's her title, but that's how I remember her, hope you know who I'm talking about here)???
Like, most places I've seen talking about her, she's just like, a side character for either Gilbert or Adrienne, but like, what was she doing the whole time over there? Do we have letters between her and her nephew from his time fighting in the amrev? do we know how she was when the frev was happening? what she thought of Gil's participation and later on imprisionment? when did she died? were the lafayette's present at her death bead or funeral? so many questions about our queen that had to deal with a child lafayette
Dear @msrandonstuff,
This one took me a while to come to, I am sorry for that.
Yes, I am quite aware whom you are referring to. After the death of La Fayette’s father and his mothers return to Paris, our young Marquis was raised by his grandmother and two aunts. His grandmother, Marie, was known as “Madame du Motier” for obvious reasons. His older aunt, Marguerite-Madeleine, was known as “Mademoiselle du Motier”. She had never married because, as the official story goes, she could not bear to leave her family. La Fayette’s younger aunt, Louise-Charlotte, was known as Madame de Chavaniac. She had married the Baron Guérin de Chavaniac and had a daughter with him, Marie de Guérin. After she was widowed, she moved back in with her mother, spinster sister – and her young nephew. La Fayette and Marie were close in age (Marie was a born in 1756) and the two of them were very, very close growing up.
The name Chavaniac might ring a bell for some of you – it is the name of the ancestral home of the La Fayette’s in the Auvergne, where La Fayette spend his boyhood. The Chavaniac in the Baron de Chavaniac had nothing to do with said ancestral home and it is a pure coincidence, that Madame de Chavaniac got this name.
I already broached the subject of La Fayette’s cousin, Marie. She married the Marquis d’Abos and died 1778 in childbirth. La Fayette was in America at the time and the news of her death greatly affected him. He described his relationship with Marie as follows:
Never did a brother and sister love each other more tenderly than we.
The women of Chateau Chavaniac doted on La Fayette and the warm feelings were very much mutual. Although there are no (surviving) letters between La Fayette and his family from the time of the American Revolution, we have several letter from La Fayette to Adrienne. He instructs his wife to tell his aunts that she had had news from him and that he was alright and he also asked if she had heard anything from the two women.
Adrienne was very affectionate with La Fayette’s aunts as well. In a letter to Madame de Chavaniac for example, she addressed the women as “my dear aunt”. Furthermore, she tried her best to render any service and comfort to La Fayette’s aunts that she could.
La Fayette visited the Auvergne more or less regular after the end of the American Revolution and he more often than not brought his entire family with him. On other occasions, Adrienne and the children visited Chavaniac and La Fayette’s aunts alone while La Fayette himself was caught up in business. There is one very memorable letter from La Fayette to Adrienne from March 27, 1783
It was shortly before nightfall that I found myself again in the château where I had left two very dear people who are there no longer. The first moment was terrible for my aunt, her cries and her grief were enough to frighten one. But she gradually recovered, and despite the abundance of her tears, an immense change has taken place since my arrival. I found her horribly changed and aged; but now she has more strength, spends the day out of her room, comes to the table and eats something. Since my arrival, the house has been full of people, and she is busy doing the honors. For myself, I have given up all formalities and think only of my aunt. She talks to me about my affairs and about her own, and I tell her about you, our children, and America. We broached the affair of the Chevalier de Chavaniac; she wants to pursue it, and if she does she really must try to win. But I would prefer that she give up all her property, which would enable us to arrange things as we please. She still wants to go to Langeac, at least for the moment. But I hope that this summer we shall persuade her to come to Paris. I rejoice in the change my presence has brought about in her, and in truth it is miraculous. (…) There is not a corner in this house, not a tree around it, where I do not feel as if I am about to see my aunt and Mme d'Abos again, and I must pay painful attention in order to comprehend that of the three of us I am the only one still living. (…) I plan to leave again on Thursday because it is indispensable to my aunt that I stay until then. She doesn't know the extent of the sacrifice I am making for her. But I know your heart, and I know you would insist on my staying here. It will be ten or eleven days. (…) My aunt loves you tenderly, is very touched by your concern, and is writing you, I think, today. I have carried out your commissions, which are much appreciated. I gave her poor Anastasie's portrait. Have one made of George and Virginie and also have a copy made of the little picture you have of me. If all that is ready, I can send it to her when I arrive.
Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 5, January 4, 1782‑December 29, 1785, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 117-118.
Beside the inner workings of the family, there is a lot to unpack in this letter. Marguerite-Madeleine du Motier, La Fayette’s older aunt had just died. While we have no exact date of death, I would suspect that she passed away sometime in early 1783. La Fayette wrote from Madrid to the Comte d’Estaing on February 18, 1783:
(…) I shall quickly leave for France, to which I am recalled by terrible anxiety about the fate of one of my aunts.
Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 5, January 4, 1782‑December 29, 1785, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 97.
We also have no date of death for La Fayette’s paternal grandmother, Madame du Motier, but based on the context that some letters provide, I would assume that she has died before La Fayette went to America, probably even before he married Adrienne. Anyway, Louise-Charlotte, after the death of her mother, all of her siblings and her daughter was now the last La Fayette permanently living at Chavaniac.
The affair of the Chevalier de Chavaniac that La Fayette’s mentions was an inheritance case between Louise-Charlotte and her brother-in-law, her late husband’s brother, that was battled out at the time. The judges had already once ruled in favor of the Chevalier, but La Fayette’s aunt was determined that she was in the right and not the Chevalier.
While La Fayette’s aunt appears to have loved all of her nephews children, she appears to be especially taken with Georges. He finds a special mentioning in a letter from La Fayette to Adrienne from June 24, 1784:
Your Chavaniac trip, if it is possible, pleases me very much. I am very keen on George's going, not only because of my aunt, but especially for his health, so that he will breathe the country air and run without hindrance, and especially without fear that he will do himself harm; and finally, I would like him to be raised without any fastidiousness, and I would rather know he is with the wolves of [illegible] than with the nice children at the Tuileries.
Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 5, January 4, 1782‑December 29, 1785, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 229-230.
While in America in 1784, La Fayette wrote a long letter to Adrienne on October 10, 1784, broaching, among other things, the topic of his aunt:
I rejoice at all the good you will have done my aunt, and my heart loves to be obliged to you for it. Your conjugal virtues will have impressed M. de Lastic even more, and his poor wife will have glimpsed some disadvantageous reflections. I am impatient to know how our children took to the country and their father's natal air. It will be a great source of satisfaction for me if my aunt has followed you to Paris. If she hasn't consented to do so, try again in your letters to convince her.
Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 5, January 4, 1782‑December 29, 1785, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 260-262.
La Fayette was not exactly happy that his elderly aunt was living alone at Chavaniac but he would never be able to convince her to move indefinitely to Paris with him. She settled in the capital for a short time and La Fayette’s reaction was nothing short of ecstatic. He wrote to Adrienne on January 25, 1785:
Here I am, very near you, my dear heart, very impatient to arrive, and very happy to feel behind me the distance that has separated us. What crowns all my joy is to learn that my aunt is settled in Paris.
Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 5, January 4, 1782‑December 29, 1785, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 292-293.
It was Adrienne who had brought Louise-Charlotte home with her after her latest visit.
But by June 12, 1785, La Fayette had written to Henry Knox and told him that he had just returned to Chavaniac in the company of his “aged aunt”.
Louise-Charlotte was at Chavaniac when the French Revolution began and after La Fayette’s imprisonment she was joined there by Adrienne and the children. The people in the area had always held the La Fayette’s in high esteem and the Grande Peur was not felt in Chavaniac. On the contrary, when officials came to arrest Adrienne, the townspeople were far angrier with these officials than they had ever been with their local nobility. The events from now on are best described by Virginie in her book. Louise-Charlotte was at the center of one of the last happy moments the family as a whole would share. Virginie wrote:
My father gave up the command of the National Guard, and set out for Auvergne, with my mother in the beginning of October. The journey was long for they were often obliged to stop in order to acknowledge the marks of sympathy they received on the way. We followed in another carriage, and my brother joined us shortly afterwards. We were thus all assembled together at Chavaniac, with our aunt, Mme de Chavaniac, who was then seventy-two. My grandmother, Mme d’Ayen, and my aunt, Mme de Noailles, came also to share our happiness; but my mother, wearied by all she had suffered, was not yet able fully to enjoy it.
Mme de Lasteyrie, Life of Madame de Lafayette, L. Techener, London, 1872, p. 201-202.
Louise-Charlotte and Adrienne’s mother, the duchess d’Ayen had previously met on similar get-togethers and got along splendidly. The more dire things got, the more the spirits of everybody at Chavaniac suffered. Louise-Charlotte was especially concerned that Adrienne had arranged for Georges to be send away – so much so that Adrienne tried to conceal Georges’ departure from her. Here is what Virginie wrote next:
My aunt, then seventy-three, years of age, who had never, under any consideration, been induced to leave Chavaniac, declared she would not separate herself from her niece and said, with generous abnegation, that she would accompany her even to Paris. They departed followed by their servants, who hoped to make themselves useful by mixing with the soldiers.
Mme de Lasteyrie, Life of Madame de Lafayette, L. Techener, London, 1872, p. 213-214.
As a short clarification, everybody called Louise-Charlotte their aunt, La Fayette, Adrienne and their children as well, even when the woman was not technically their aunt.
The soldiers had no arrest warrant for the old Lady, but Louise-Charlotte was adamant that they had to take her as well and so they did. This was during the first Adrienne was arrested. Not only was Louise-Charlotte a great support for Adrienne, she also proved to be a great help when business transactions had to be done later.
The sale of my father's property had been for a long time talked of It began by the mill of Langeac my aunt came forward to purchase it with her claim My mother accompanied her to Brioude where the auction was to take place She went to the district Citoyens she said I feel myself obliged to protest before the sale begins against the enormous injustice of applying the laws on emigration to one who is at this moment the prisoner of the enemies of France I ask you to take note of my protestation She was listened to with respect several members even proposed to insert her protestation in the official report No Citoyens she answered you might suffer for it and that would truly grieve me you must not involve yourselves into difficulties out of politeness when you will not do so to avoid committing an act of injustice As for me thank God I have never been accomplice to any I will not be so in this case by my silence and I ask you to register my protestation in a separate note It was decided that her request should be granted
Mme de Lasteyrie, Life of Madame de Lafayette, L. Techener, London, 1872, p. 264-265.
It was also Louise-Charlotte who bought back Chavaniac. Virginie wrote:
She [Adrienne] settled the affairs of my aunt who had just bought back Chavaniac from its purchasers.
Mme de Lasteyrie, Life of Madame de Lafayette, L. Techener, London, 1872, p. 327.
La Fayette himself wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson on September 10, 1808:
Our Children being so provided with nine thousand francs, and some Charitable Legacies of my Parents being acquitted nothing remains of my own fortune—The Mansion of Chavaniac has been purchased by my Aunt for a trifling Sum—I hope She will enjoy it long—One half of the Small Revenue around it is by Marriage Contract insured to my Son—The other part will be a little and I hope late inheritance.
“To Thomas Jefferson from Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, 10 September 1807,” Founders Online, National Archives, [This is an Early Access document from The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. It is not an authoritative final version.] (09/12/2022)
We know from different letters over the year, that La Fayette visited his aunt roughly once a year for several weeks and he often took his children with them. As they got older and had families of their own, he was mostly accompanied by Georges – who introduced Louise-Charlotte personally to his new young bride.
Louise-Charlotte died in 1811. There is one letter in La Fayette’s memoirs that is addressed to his aunt Louise-Charlotte. It is a bit longer so I am placing it under the cut for everybody who wants or do not want to read it. I hope the answer was worth th1e wait and I hope that you have/had a lovely day!
