Le Boudin: Difference between revisions

{{Main article|Honneur et Fidélité|Alsace-Lorraine|Swiss Guard}}

While the tune was composed prior to the Legion's [[French Intervention in Mexico|departure for Mexico]] in the 1860s the lyrics were progressively composed after the [[Franco-Prussian War]], since [[Alsace-Lorraine|Alsatians and Lorrains]] flocked to the legion after these regions were annexed by Germany.<ref name="Fischer">Fabienne Fischer, Alsaciens Et Lorrains En Algerie: Histoire D'Une Migration, 1830-1914, p.120 [httphttps://books.google.becom/books?id=L-AJ174uPtwC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=alsaciens+lorrains+l%C3%A9gion+%C3%A9trang%C3%A8re+1871&source=bl&ots=VDq70hqXl2&sig=KAzYE6AeVZfr5ZlaRjBGqTr6rsY&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=wgsFUPrbNcKGhQfApbHjBw&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBQ]</ref> The song makes also repeated reference to the fact that the [[Belgium|Belgians]] are "lazy shirkers", this comes from the fact that the [[Leopold II of Belgium|King of the Belgians]], who wished to remain neutral in the Franco-German conflict, asked the French government to not commit the Belgian Legionnaires into the conflict. France agreed to this request and the Belgian Legionnaires remained in [[French Algeria]] (the Legion's home), to the dismay of the rest of the Legionnaires. This is why the song says that there's no blood sausage (boudin) for the Belgians. The song also mentions the Swiss who constituted the most important foreign contingent of the Legion in the 1870s.<ref name="Fischer"/>

{{Main article|Honneur et Fidélité|Alsace-Lorraine}}