Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Jeremy Cranmer

Lafayette's lineage was likely one of the oldest and most distinguished in Auvergne (in south central France). and, perhaps, in all of France. Males of the Lafayette family enjoyed a reputation for courage and chivalry and were noted for their contempt for danger.

Lafayette was born on 6 September 1757 in Chavaniac-Lafayette, near Le Puy-en-Velay, in the province of Auvergne.  His father was colonel of grenadiers, but died on the battlefield in 1759.  He was struck by a cannonball while fighting a British-led coalition at the Battle of Minden in Westphalia.  Lafayette became marquis and Lord of Chavaniac, but the estate went to his mother. She went to live in Paris with her father and grandfather, leaving Lafayette to be raised in Chavaniac-Lafayette by his paternal grandmother, Mme de Chavaniac.

Catharism and the Albigensian Crusade

Anne Collins Jan 2019

.Where they lived

Catharism, a heretical Christian sect, flourished in Southern Europe between the 11^th and 14th centuries, possibly spreading along trade routes from the east.  In Europe it sprang up in Cologne and northern Italy and the Languedoc area of southern France. Here the Cathars are sometimes known as the Albigensians because Albi is the place where the heretical religion first took hold in France.  Towns in the area are Toulouse, Beziers, Carcassonne and Albi.

This southern part of what is now France was very much a place of small mini kingdoms with settlements under the control of various counts and nobles.  Some owed allegiance to Peter 11 of Aragon as the Pyrenees are close.   The word oc in Languedoc  means yes, hence Languedoc. In northern parts around Paris, under the king of France the language was the Langue d’Oil which later became oui. 

What they believed and organisation

 The name Cathars comes from the Greek katharoi, meaning the pure ones. Ideas and beliefs may have come from Persia or the Byzantine Empire. They are remembered for their prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church which did not recognise their beliefs as being Christian.  This persecution which resulted eventually in their elimination ensured that the Languedoc became pat of the territory of the king of France, who held sway in the area of Paris.

 Cathar beliefs were initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines and practices differed from place to place.  Very few records have come down and most of what is known of them comes from the Catholic Church records, notably an Inquisitor who treated them abominably.