Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle has immortalized him, "La Marseillaise", was composed at Strasbourg, where Rouget de Lisle was garrisoned in April 1792. France had just declared war on Austria, and the mayor of Strasbourg, baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, held a dinner for the officers of the garrison, at which he lamented that France had no national anthem. Rouget de Lisle returned to his quarters and wrote the words in a fit of patriotic excitement. The piece was at first called "Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin" ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine") and only received its name of "Marseillaise" from its
Claude de Beauharnais (1756–1819) Claude de Beauharnais (1756–1819) Claude de Beauharnais (26 September 1756, La Rochelle – 10 January 1819, Paris) was a French politician. He was the son of Claude de Beauharnais (1717–1784), comte of Les Roches-Baritaud (uncle of Alexandre de Beauharnais and of François de Beauharnais) and his wife Fanny. His mother held a famous salon in Paris. He married twice. The first time was in 1783 to Claudine Françoise Adrienne Gabrielle de Lézay-Marnézia, by whom he had one son, Albéric Jules Albert de Beauharnais (23.08.1787–1791), who died in infancy, and one daughter, Stéphanie de Beauharnais (born 28 August 1789 – 1859),