[The republicans] have chased away our priests, and they hunt them down like rabid dogs; they have chased away our lords, our friends away, you know? They have killed our poor King; yes, they have killed our poor King, and they would have killed God, if they could have done it! And now, they want us to defend them by sending our good men to the slaughter! This is too much! And I swear to you that not one of our men will leave to be killed in the company of these damned Huguenots!
Vincent Bernard, a Vendean peasant, in response to the French Republic’s enactment of forced military conscription in 1793.
Quoted in Revue de Bretagne et de Vendée, Volume 4, AD 1858.
La Marseillaise des Blancs is a song created in 1793 and conceived as a response to La Marseillaise, the hymn of revolutionaries. This song was discovered in the wallet of Jacob Madé dit Sans Poil, a parish leader who was killed on 16 May 1793. Like the partisans of the Republic who adapted the royalist refrain from the republican texts, the Vendeans (or Bas-Poitevins) had their own version of the Marseillaise.
LYRICS:
Allons armée catholique,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la république,
L’étendard sanglant est levé (bis.)
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Les cris impurs des scélérats?
Qui viennent jusque dans nos bras
Prendre nos filles, nos femmes!
Aux armes, Poitevins,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchez, marchez!
Le sang des bleus
Rougira nos sillons!
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Arise, Catholic army
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us, the Republic’s
Bloody banner is raised (repeat)
Do you hear in the countryside
The impure cry of the wretches?
Who come into our arms
To take our daughters, our wives!
To arms, Poitevins,
Form your batallions,
March, march!
The blood of the blues
Will redden our furrows!
Twenty decades have now passed, and throughout that period the Vendée uprising and its bloody suppression have been viewed in ever new ways, in France and elsewhere. Indeed, historical events are never fully understood in the heat of their own time, but only at a great distance, after a cooling of passions. For all too long, we did not want to hear or admit what cried out with the voices of those who perished, or were burned alive: that the peasants of a hard-working region, driven to the extremes of oppression and humiliation by a revolution supposedly carried out for their sake– that these peasants had risen up against the revolution! That revolution brings out instincts of primordial barbarism, the sinister forces of envy, greed and hatred–this even its contemporaries could see all too well. They paid a terrible enough price for the mass psychosis of the day, when merely moderate behavior, or even the perception of such, already appeared to be a crime.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Speech at the Memorial de la Vendée, Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne, France, 25 September 1993
“Monsieur D’Elbée” is a song recorded by French songwriter Didier Barbelivien for his studio album Vendée 93, which was released in 1992. Inspired by the novel of Victor Hugo Ninety-three, it traces episodes of the War in the Vendée, particularly the period 1793-1796.
LYRICS:
Monsieur D'Elbée (bis)
C'est par vous qu'ils seront sauvés
Monsieur D'Elbée (bis)
Et nos paroisses et nos curés
Monsieur Stofflet (bis)
Par le sabre et le pistolet
Monsieur Stofflet (bis)
Nous allons délivrer Cholet
Cathelineau, Cathelineau
De Chemillé à Beaupreau
Cathelineau, Cathelineau
Nous ferons claquer nos sabots
Monsieur d'Bonchanps (bis)
Vous allez garder Saint Florent
Monsieur d'Bonchamps (bis)
Nous sommes des soldats paysans
Monsieur d'Charette (bis)
Avec nos fourches et nos serpettes
Monsieur d'Charette (bis)
Venez marcher à notre tête
Monsieur Henri (bis)
Nous défendrons nos métairies
Monsieur Henri (bis)
Avec nos cœurs et nos fusils
Monsieur d'Lescure (bis)
Au nom de Dieu, on vous le jure
Monsieur d'Lescure (bis)
Nous vous suivrons jusqu'à Saumur
M'sieur d'la Verrie (bis)
La Gaubretière n'est pas un nid
M'sieur d'la Verrie (bis)
C'est toute la vendée qui rugit
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Monsieur D'Elbée (repeat)
It is by you that they will be saved
Monsieur D'Elbée (repeat)
And our parishes and our priests
Mr. Stofflet (repeat)
By the sword and the pistol
Mr. Stofflet (repeat)
We will deliver Cholet
Cathelineau, Cathelineau
From Chemillé to Beaupreau
Cathelineau, Cathelineau
We will snap our clogs
Monsieur d'Bonchanps (repeat)
You will keep Saint Florent
Monsieur d'Bonchamps (repeat)
We are peasant soldiers
Monsieur d'Charette (repeat)
With our forks and our billhooks
Monsieur d'Charette (repeat)
Come march at our head
Monsieur Henri (repeat)
We will defend our farms
Monsieur Henri (repeat)
With our hearts and rifles
Monsieur d'Lescure (repeat)
In the name of God, we swear to you
Monsieur d'Lescure (repeat)
We will follow you to Saumur
M'sieur d’la Verrie (repeat)
The Gaubretière is not a nest
M'sieur d’la Verrie (repeat)
It is the whole Vendée that roars
