Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine") was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. 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. The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it France's first anthem; but it lost this status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII, and Napoleon III, only being re-instated briefly after the July Revolution of 1830. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "La Marseillaise" was recognised as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement, and in 1871, it had been adopted by the Paris Commune. Eight years later in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since. (Wikipedia)