Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (May 10, 1760 in
Lons-le-SaunierLons-le-Saunier is a commune and capital of the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France.-Geography:The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the "premier plateau" of the Jura massif...
,
JuraJura is a department in the east of France named after the Jura mountains.- History :Historically, Jura belonged to the Free County of Burgundy, known in French as the Franche-Comté. Dole was the capital until the region was conquered by Louis XIV and it was moved to Besançon...
– June 26, 1836 in
Choisy-le-RoiChoisy-le-Roi is a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located . from the center of Paris.-Geography:Crossed by the Seine river, it is located...
,
Seine-et-OiseSeine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its official number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968....
) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
who in 1792 wrote
La Marseillaise"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France.- History :"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on April 25, 1792...
, the French
national anthemA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
.
Rouget de Lisle entered the army as an
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
and attained the rank of captain. The
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
that has immortalised him, the
La Marseillaise"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France.- History :"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on April 25, 1792...
(based on Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 25The Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on December 4, 1786, alongside the Prague Symphony, K.504. Although two more concertos would later follow, this work is the last of the twelve great piano concertos written in Vienna between 1784–1786.Though...
), was composed at
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
, where Rouget de Lisle was quartered in April 1792. He wrote the words in a fit of patriotic excitement after a public dinner.
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (May 10, 1760 in
Lons-le-SaunierLons-le-Saunier is a commune and capital of the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France.-Geography:The town is in the heart of the Revermont region, at the foot of the "premier plateau" of the Jura massif...
,
JuraJura is a department in the east of France named after the Jura mountains.- History :Historically, Jura belonged to the Free County of Burgundy, known in French as the Franche-Comté. Dole was the capital until the region was conquered by Louis XIV and it was moved to Besançon...
– June 26, 1836 in
Choisy-le-RoiChoisy-le-Roi is a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located . from the center of Paris.-Geography:Crossed by the Seine river, it is located...
,
Seine-et-OiseSeine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its official number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968....
) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
who in 1792 wrote
La Marseillaise"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France.- History :"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on April 25, 1792...
, the French
national anthemA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
.
Rouget de Lisle entered the army as an
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
and attained the rank of captain. The
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
that has immortalised him, the
La Marseillaise"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France.- History :"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on April 25, 1792...
(based on Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 25The Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on December 4, 1786, alongside the Prague Symphony, K.504. Although two more concertos would later follow, this work is the last of the twelve great piano concertos written in Vienna between 1784–1786.Though...
), was composed at
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
, where Rouget de Lisle was quartered in April 1792. He wrote the words in a fit of patriotic excitement after a public dinner. The piece was at first called
Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine") and only received its name of
Marseillaise from its adoption by the
ProvençalProvence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
volunteers whom
BarbarouxCharles Jean Marie Barbaroux was a French politician of the Revolutionary period.-Early career:Born in Marseille, Barbaroux was educated at first by the local Oratorians, then studied law, and became a successful lawyer...
introduced into
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and who were prominent in the storming of the
Tuileries PalaceThe Palais des Tuileries was a royal palace in Paris. It stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
on the
10th of AugustOn 10 August 1792, during the French Revolution, a mob—with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune—besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and the royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly. This proved to...
. Rouget de Lisle was a royalist and was cashiered and thrown into prison in 1793, narrowly escaping the guillotine. He was freed during the counter-revolution.
Rouget de Lisle wrote a few other songs of the same kind as the
Marseillaise and in 1825 he published
Chants français (
French Songs) in which he set to music fifty songs by various authors. His
Essais en vers et en prose (
Attempts in Verse and Prose, 1797) contains the
Marseillaise; a
proseProse is the ordinary form of written language. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical reading, as it is often articulated in free form writing style...
tale
Adelaide et Monville of the sentimental kind; and some occasional poems.
He died in poverty in 1836. His ashes were transferred from
Choisy-le-RoiChoisy-le-Roi is a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located . from the center of Paris.-Geography:Crossed by the Seine river, it is located...
cemetery to the Invalides on 14 July 1915, during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. A monument was erected to his memory in Lons-Le-Saunier.