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Why did the Marquis de Lafayette escort the French royal family from Versailles to Paris?
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Marquis de Lafayette
Marquis de Lafayette, chromolithograph by P.S. Duval, 1851.
The Marquis de Lafayette escorted the French royal family from Versailles to Paris on October 6, 1789, to protect them from a violent mob that had invaded the palace.1
As the commander of the newly formed National Guard of Paris, Lafayette’s troops intervened to save King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette from the fury of the crowd. By escorting them to Paris, he effectively moved the monarchy to the capital, where the royal family subsequently became hostages of the French Revolution.12