Rouget de Lisle Claude-Joseph

Rouget de Lisle Claude-Joseph, (1760-1836), wrote some forgotten verse and songs, but achieved immortality in 1792 when, as a French army officer, he wrote the words and music of the ‘Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin’. Renamed ‘La Marseillaise’ when sung by the Marseille fédérés, it was adopted as the national anthem and, with the exception of periods of reaction (e.g. under Napoleon, during the Restoration), has kept its place ever since.

[Peter France]