According to an article in La Gazette de Cigogné (October 2003 edition) the UK national anthem is originally French. Cigogné is a village to the south of Bléré. The article claims that around May 1686 following the recovery of Louis XIV of a long illness that started in January 1686 that les demoiselles de St. Cyr (maison royale d'éducation des jeunes filles nobles) composed the following song with these lines being the most memorable:
‘Grand Dieu, sauve le roi!
Long jours à notre roi!
Vive le roi
A lui la victoire
Bonheur et gloire
Qu’il ait un règne heureux
Et l’appui des cieux’
Mme Brinon, the head of St Cyr, gave the song to Jean-Baptiste Lully, originally Italian and the king’s musician, who set it to music. Then in 1714 Handel came across the song during a visit to Versailles. Had the song translated into English and gave the adapted version to George 1st, who ordered that it be sung at all official ceremonies. The rest is history!
I don't know whether this is true but, if so, it is wonderfully ironic that Britain salutes its largely disfunctional monarchy with a song composed to celebrate the recovery of a French king from a long illness!
‘Grand Dieu, sauve le roi!
Long jours à notre roi!
Vive le roi
A lui la victoire
Bonheur et gloire
Qu’il ait un règne heureux
Et l’appui des cieux’
Mme Brinon, the head of St Cyr, gave the song to Jean-Baptiste Lully, originally Italian and the king’s musician, who set it to music. Then in 1714 Handel came across the song during a visit to Versailles. Had the song translated into English and gave the adapted version to George 1st, who ordered that it be sung at all official ceremonies. The rest is history!
I don't know whether this is true but, if so, it is wonderfully ironic that Britain salutes its largely disfunctional monarchy with a song composed to celebrate the recovery of a French king from a long illness!
