The invading forces were repulsed from France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy. Strasbourg itself was attacked just a few days later. The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies (from Prussia and Austria) that was under way when it was written. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte and died in Egypt at age 28. These fédérés were making their entrance into the city of Paris on 30 July 1792 after a young volunteer from Montpellier called François Mireur had sung it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille, and the troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille. The melody soon became the rallying call to the French Revolution and was adopted as 'La Marseillaise' after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers ( fédérés in French) from Marseille by the end of May. įrançois Mireur, anonymous, terra cotta bust De Dietrich was executed the next year during the Reign of Terror. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event.

That evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote 'Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin' (English: 'War Song for the Army of the Rhine'), and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian freemason in French service from Cham. On 25 April 1792, Baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg and worshipful master of the local masonic lodge, asked his freemason guest Rouget de Lisle to compose a song 'that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland that is under threat'. Initially, the French army did not distinguish itself, and Coalition armies invaded France. The War of the First Coalition was an effort to stop the revolution, or at least contain it to France. Rouget de Lisle, composer of La Marseillaise, sings the song for the first time at the home of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg (1849 painting by Isidore Pils, Musée historique de Strasbourg).Īs the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries.

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