Who was the first commander of the National Guard of Paris?

The first commander of the National Guard of Paris was the Marquis de Lafayette. He was elected commander-in-chief of Paris's newly formed citizen militia on 14 July 1789, immediately after the storming of the Bastille.

The force emerged during a crisis of authority. Parisian citizens feared royal troops, disorder, and counter-revolution after Louis XVI dismissed finance minister Jacques Necker. The National Assembly supported the creation of a bourgeois militia on 13 July, and armed citizens soon organized across the capital.

Lafayette was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and had returned to France as a prominent liberal aristocrat. As commander, he promoted the tricolor cockade, combining Paris's red and blue with the monarchy's white. The symbol became an early version of the French national colors.

The title can cause a minor historical confusion because the National Guard initially developed from local and district units, each with its own officers. Lafayette was nevertheless the first overall commander-in-chief of the Paris force. In 1790 he also became commander-general of the National Guards throughout France.