De l’évidence de qui appartient ce « sang impur »

Abstract

This paper delves into the identifications of the enemies described in “La Marseillaise”, a song of circumstance and the fruit of a precise context, created in Strasbourg on April 26th, 1792, by a young engineer captain.Who really were the enemies whose blood should be shed in the fields? From the mercenary soldier to counter-revolutionary king, all the enemies of the Revolution are mentioned but not with the same precision.The author makes the case for identifying the worse enemy with the former noblemen who crushed the country with their claims before 1789 and were ready in 1792 to join foreign armies to fight the Revolution, the country and the King. The question of the “impure blood” concerns explicitly French noblemen, degenerate enough in the scientific sense of the times, to defile themselves by the treason of their homeland.