Cadet Rousselle
French song
"Cadet Rousselle" was a popular French song that satirized a French bailiff by the name of Guillaume (William) Rousselle, widely known as Cadet Rousselle.
The man
Guillaume Rousselle was born in Orgelet, Jura on April 30, 1743, and died in Auxerre on January 28, 1807.
In his 1945 book on Cadet Rousselle, Pierre Pinsseau details Rousselle's life in Auxerre beginning with his 1783 arrival in the town. The circumstances and exact date of Guillaume Rousselle's arrival in Auxerre are unknown, but it is believed to be 1763, one year after the death of his father. His first jobs included work as a domestic servant and lackey and later he worked as a bailiff's clerk.
On March 15, 1780, he petitioned the Lieutenant General of the Bailiwick of Auxerre for the position of head bailiff of the Bailiwick and Courts of Auxerre. His eligibility for this position was confirmed by his Majesty on March 8, 1780, which shows that he had been living in the town for several years.
His appointment in 1780 as a Court bailiff provided sufficient income to allow the purchase of a small house, which had an old porch on top of which he added a construction in the shape of a narrow loggia. He was seen as a jovial bon vivant, a little eccentric, but he enjoyed the sympathy of his fellow citizens.
In Auxerre, he was seen as "good revolutionary", perhaps a little too much so.
The public source identifies “Cadet Rousselle” as french song. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cadet, Rousselle and French.
Why this record matters
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15720451. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1743, 1807, 1945 and 1783.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Cadet Rousselle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.