Background
François Alexandre Frédéric was born at La Roche Guyon on the 11th of January 1747, the son of Frangois Armand de La Rochefoucauld, due d'Estissac, grand master of the royal wardrobe.
François Alexandre Frédéric was born at La Roche Guyon on the 11th of January 1747, the son of Frangois Armand de La Rochefoucauld, due d'Estissac, grand master of the royal wardrobe.
A visit to England seems to have suggested the establishment of a model farm at Liancourt, where François Alexandre Frédéric reared cattle imported from England and Switzerland. He also set up spinning machines on his estate, and founded a school of arts and crafts for the sons of soldiers, which became in 1788 the Ёсо1е des Enfants de la Patrie under royal protection. Elected to the states-general of 1789 he sought in vain to support the cause of royalty while furthering the social reforms he had at heart.
On the 12th of July, two days before the fall of the Bastille, he warned Louis XVI of the state of affairs in Paris, and met his exclamation that there was a revolt with the answer, " Non, sire, e'est une revolution. "
After the events of the 10th of August 1792 he fled to England, where he was the guest of Arthur Young, and thence passed to America.
He returned to Paris in 1799, but received small favour from Napoleon.
His opposition to the government in the House of Peers led to his removal in 1823 from the honorary positions he held, while the vaccination committee, of which he was president, was suppressed.
During the " Hundred Days " he was made a peer of France.
He was again raised to the peerage in 1831.
The third son, Frederic Gaetan, marquis de La Rochefoucauld- Liancourt (1779 - 1863), was a zealous philanthropist and a partisan of constitutional monarchy.
