Royalist Marseillaise

A friend recently sent me a link to the below video. I'd always hated the Marseillaise because of what it stands for, but the anti-republican words of this version, composed by the Armée Catholique et Royale of the Vendée makes an evil song a great one. Thus, I couldn't help but share it:



The Vendéans would often sing this song as they marched into battle. In the excellent (but brief) survey of the Vendéan War by Michael Davies (R.I.P.), there is an account of a battle on 19 March 1793 at Saint-Vincent-Sterlanges where republican troops were moving cautiously at night through the bocage. They saw several hundred silouettes in the next valley and their experienced commander, General Marcé was about to order the attach when a subordinate cheerfully exclaimed that they must be another republican unit because they were singing the Marseillaise. Only when it was too late did they realise that the words were not the usual ones, but the above version. By then the Armée Catholique et Royale had the jump on them and shots and cries of "Vive la Religion! Vive le Roi!" rang out. Les Bleus were then quickly routed. (Davies, Michael For Altar and Throne, The Remnant Press 1997,p. 38)



Posted on the Feast of St. Francis of Paula, Confessor, a.D. MMVIII