‘French Royalist Medley’ - ‘Vive Henri IV’ & ‘Vive Le Roi’

Описание: This lovely medley was sung by Choeur Montjoie Saint Denis, this ‘French Royalist Medley’ is a combination of two separate songs, ‘Vive Henri IV’ from 1604 which served as a semi-official anthem of the Kingdom of France and ‘Vive Le Roi’ from 1815 supporting the return of Louis XVIII and Bourbon rule. Below is the info for both songs.

Vive Henri IV:

‘Vive Henri IV’ was the national anthem of the Kingdom of France between 1590-1792. Its melody has been played since at least 1581, where it was a Christmas song. In 1589 it appears into a book of dance songs and such by Jehan Tabourot called ‘Orchesographie’. Sometime in the 1590s the tune was refitted in ‘Vive Henri IV’ with the lyrics celebrating King Henry IV and France as a whole.

It was used unofficially as the national anthem up until the French Revolution, where it would be refitted into various different songs, including ‘Vive Louis XVI’ a song expressing support for the constitutional monarchy of France, and ‘Meurs Bonaparte’ a song expressing for the death of Napoleon Bonaparte as a tyrant.

It returned as the unofficial anthem of France after the house of Bourbon was restored to power in 1814, as ‘Le Retour des Princes français à Paris’ with different lyrics expressing support for,the restoration of Louis XVIII as king of France. It remained until 1830, when the Bourbons were deposed again.

Vive Le Roi:

'Vive Le Roi' is a French song written in 1814 to celebrate the restoration of the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. The song was written by Rouget de Lisle. In 1814 after Napoleon I's reign ended, the brother of Louis XVI, and uncle of Louis XVII, became King of France as Louis XVIII, his reign lasted into early 1815, until Napoleon returned to France from exile and tried to retake the nation, he failed and Louis reigned until his death in 1824, when the French throne passed to his brother Charles.

It might be noticeable the lyrics I provide here are different from the ones contained in my ‘Vive Henri IV’ video. I’ve learnt some admittedly mediocre French since then, and tried to edit the English lyrics a bit closer in accuracy to their French counterparts.

The ‘Vert Galant’ in the first verse was a nickname for Henri IV for laying with many women despite his age, so ‘womaniser’ isn’t a direct translation, but rather the meaning of the name. The name would be ‘Green Galant’.