Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle Biography

Dromo's Den

ROUGET DE LISLE, Claude Joseph (1760-1836). A French poet and composer. He was born at Lons-le-Saunier. It was at Strassburg on the night of April 24, 1792, that Rouget de Lisle, then a captain of engineers, wrote the immortal Marseillaise. (See MARSEILLAISE.) A few days later he was suspended from his rank because he refused to sanction the extreme measures of the Revolutionary party. After a two months' exile in Alsace he entered the army again as a volunteer under General Valance, who restored him to his former rank. During the Reign of Terror he was again proscribed and was confined in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on being released from which he composed the Hymn of the Ninth Thermidor. Later the Convention endeavored to atone for former injustice by giving him promotion. In 1796 he abandoned military life and went to Paris to devote himself to poetry and music. In 1830 he was pensioned by Louis Philippe. On July 14, 1915, the body of Rouget de Lisle was removed to Paris and with most impressive ceremony placed in the Hôtel des lnvalides. His published works include: Chant des vengeances (1798); Chant du combat (1800); 50 Chants français (1825); and the libretti to a few operas. Consult A. Lanier, Rouget de Lisle (Besançon, 1907). [see French Revolution]

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 179-180.