The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by Fédéré (volunteers) from Marseille marching to the capital.

The anthem's evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music.

The Italian violinist Guido Rimonda pointed out in 2013[1] that the incipit of "Tema e variazioni in Do maggiore" of Giovanni Battista Viotti[2] has a strong resemblance to the anthem.

[3][4] This incipit was first thought to have been published before La Marseillaise, but it appeared to be a misconception as Viotti published several variations of "La Marseillaise" in 1795[5] and wrote as a note "I have never composed the quartets below" (Je n'ai jamais composé les quatuors ci dessous).

[6][7][8] As the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries.

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".

[9][10] That evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin"[11] ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine"), and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian freemason in French service from Cham.

[12] A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event.

[11] A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte and died in Egypt at age 28.

[15] The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies (from Prussia and Austria) that was under way when it was written.

[17] It later lost this status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII and Charles X, being re-instated only briefly after the July Revolution of 1830.

[18] During Napoleon I's reign, Veillons au salut de l'Empire was the unofficial anthem of the regime, and in Napoleon III's reign, it was "Partant pour la Syrie", but the government brought back the iconic anthem in an attempt to motivate the French people during the Franco-Prussian War.

[18] Several musical antecedents have been cited for the melody: Other attributions (the credo of the fourth Mass of Holtzmann of Mursberg)[26] have been refuted.

Contre nous de la tyrannie 𝄆 L'étendard sanglant est levé, 𝄇 Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Mugir ces féroces soldats ?

C'est nous qu'on ose méditer De rendre à l'antique esclavage !

Children's verse: We will start our career When our elders are no more, We will find their dust there 𝄆 And the trace of their virtues 𝄇 Much less jealous to survive them Than to share their coffin, We will have the sublime pride To avenge them or follow them.

[29] During World War I, bandleader James Reese Europe played a jazz version of "La Marseillaise".

[31] In Russia, "La Marseillaise" was used as a republican revolutionary anthem by those who knew French starting in the 18th century, almost simultaneously with its adoption in France.

In 1875 Peter Lavrov, a narodnik revolutionary and theorist, wrote a Russian-language text (not a translation of the French one) to the same melody.

[40] The English philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham, who was declared an honorary citizen of France in 1791 in recognition of his sympathies for the ideals of the French Revolution, was not enamoured of "La Marseillaise".

Contrasting its qualities with the "beauty" and "simplicity" of "God Save the King", he wrote in 1796: The War whoop of anarchy, the Marseillais Hymn, is to my ear, I must confess, independently of all moral association, a most dismal, flat, and unpleasing ditty: and to any ear it is at any rate a long winded and complicated one.

In the instance of a melody so mischievous in its application, it is a fortunate incident, if, in itself, it should be doomed neither in point of universality, nor permanence, to gain equal hold on the affections of the people.

[41]Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of France for most of the 1970s, said that it is ridiculous to sing about drenching French fields with impure Prussian blood as a Chancellor of the modern democratic Germany takes the salute in Paris.

[43] The British historian Simon Schama discussed "La Marseillaise" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 17 November 2015 (in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks), saying it was "... the great example of courage and solidarity when facing danger; that's why it is so invigorating, that's why it really is the greatest national anthem in the world, ever.

There is no more ferocious tyranny right now than ISIS, so it's extremely easy for the tragically and desperately grieving French to identify with that".