Marseillaise [key] [Fr.,=of Marseille], the French national anthem, written and composed in 1792 for the army of the Rhine by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a French officer in garrison at Strasbourg. The original title was Chant de guerre de l'armée du Rhin, but it was sung with such success in Paris by the band of soldiers who came from Marseille that it became known as the Marseillaise. Its stirring martial character and its association with revolutionary causes have made it generally familiar. The singing of the Marseillaise was forbidden in France during the Bourbon Restoration.
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