Born September 6 1757, Lafayette's early life was punctuated by the death of his father, Michel de Lafayette, who was also a military officer before his 2nd birthday, then the later death of his mother, Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière, at 13.
Although his mother died in 1770 of a sudden illness after the death of her husband she left her son with his paternal grandmother, Marie Catherine de Suat de Chavaniac de la Fayette, and went to Paris to live with her father and grandfather.
