Anonymous asked:

Do you know much about Lafayette's time when he was at Versailles/court before he went to America?

marq-de-laf answered:

Lafayette’s time at court was filled with lackluster accounts and embarrassing anecdotes. He was in his teens for most of his time at Versailles, and he was a country-groomed one at that. He felt out of his element and refused to speak at great length on any topic he did not know about…which were many…for fear of sounding foolish. This gave others the impression that the young man was aloof and passionless. 

Marie Antoinette did indeed laugh him from the floor for his bumbling dance skills. He once drank so much in an attempt to keep up with his notably naughty brother-in-law that he had to be carried away in a carriage, completely wasted. Social elites feared that the Noailles family had brought a dud into the fold. 

Lafayette later assured his reader in his memoirs that this perceived passionless attitude was due his younger self’s fear that his pride would be wounded if he was made out to be ignorant of some important point or courtesy. This descriptor was dropped after his time in America. From then on, the court viewed him almost as a romanticized young adventurer hero worthy of gossip and interest.