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- The gay trio to which Hamilton and Laurens belonged was made complete by La Fayette
- —Allan McLane Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton
The Gay Trio is the poly ship between Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens and Marquis de Lafayette with historical significance, though also being represented in the Hamilton fandom.
Canon[]
In March of 1777, Alexander Hamilton met his most intimate friend, John Laurens, when he joined George Washington's army, Laurens had already been part of it since October of 1776. The two are often described as kindred spirits who shared the ideology of wanting to die for their country.
They later met an allied frenchman who was appointed an honorary major general of Washington's continential army in July of that year. They became fast friends, as Hamilton and Laurens saw that Lafayette shares their ideals. Lafayette has always written of his two American friends with the most affection. When describing Laurens, Lafayette only listed the man's positive qualities that led to him becoming his devoted friend. When describing Hamilton, he actually compared the affection he felt for Hamilton to a bond between brothers. Hamilton's wife Elizabeth later confirmed that Hamilton saw Lafayette in the same way, describing their brotherly love as "mutual".
Lafayette can be said to have been quite popular among American patriots, since he married into a rich family in his home of France, he was very generous when supplying his American allies.
What can be said about both Hamilton's friendship with Laurens and with Lafayette is that historians in the years since couldn't quite confirm or deny whether their bond was romantic or whether they simply allowed themselves to be affectionate in their writing since it was common among men at the time. Hamilton's own grandson Allan McLane Hamilton described the three of them as "the gay trio" when getting to Hamilton and Laurens being "completed" by Lafayette, though the meaning of the word "gay" changed since he published The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton in 1910. He had compared them to the Three Musketeers, noting that the American Revolution was less "romantic" than that time period. Interestingly, Allan McLane Hamilton acknowledged that there was a "note of romance" in their friendship, which he claimed was quite unusual even in "those days".
Hamilton - Lin-Manuel Miranda[]
The musical changes the context from Hamilton meeting Laurens and them meeting Lafayette together, to Hamilton being the newest recruit of the army, with Laurens and Lafayette starting the story as friends and having to warm up to Hamilton over the course of the first few songs. Notably, they were both joined by Hercules Mulligan, who was friends with Hamilton first and didn't join the army until a few months later.
Fanon[]
Though the Gay Trio isn't a very popular ship on either side of the fandom, it is one of the more notable historical poly ships that doesn't involve an actual polycule. Though the Hamilton fandom certainly helped popularize the ship, a lot of fanwork is based on their historical portraits rather than the show.
Within the Hamilton fanbase, The Gay Trio is considered an extension of the extremely popular Lams ship, Lafayette is also popular with fans, though far more commonly shipped with Mulligan or Washington. Speaking of Mulligan, some fans integrate him into the polycule, since all scenes they have in the show are the four of them together.
The ship most likely started because of them being described as "gay" by Hamilton's grandson, only for shippers to do further research and find out that the three of them actually had quite a bit of chemistry and all got along, making the idea of them possibly being romantically involved unlikely but not impossible, but the idea of shipping them as such all the more appealing.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Hamilton/Lafayette/Laurens tag on AO3
[]
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| Historical Ships • Historical Figures | ||
| SHIPS | het | Cleosar |
| slash | Clayhoun • Diswerks • Lams • Mengels | |
| femslash | AnneMary | |
| poly | The Gay Trio | |