"Bonaparte's Grand March", also known as "Bonaparte's March", "The Cossack's March", "Hanoverian March" and "Napoleon's March" is a Scottish, English, Irish march in 4/4 time and D Major. The parts are played ABC.
Most titles for this march reference (sometimes with different spellings) Napoleon Bonaparte.
The tune appears in numerous English fiddlers' manuscripts of the 19th century:
  • John Moore of Ironbridge, Shropshire ("Hanoverian March"),
  • J. Winter of Stanton, Gloucestershire (1833),
  • Henry Stables of Waithwaite, Cumbria, (1881),
  • William Irwin of Langdale, Cumbria (1838) and
  • John Clare of Helpstone, Northants (c. 1820) as (see "Napoleon's March").
O'Neill (1922) says
"In the heyday of Bonaparte's renown, early in the nineteenth century, many songs, marches, hornpipes etc. were named in his honor in Ireland. Most of the tunes, being traditional, retain their popularity. It is not claimed that "Bonaparte's Grand March" is an Irish composition. In fact we have no information concerning its history or origin, but there can be no question as to its circulation and popularity in Ireland in former times. Its rescue from the oblivion of faded manuscript to the publicity of the printed page may endow this spirited march with renewed vitality."
While the march probably does not have an Irish provenance, it was also popular in that country. County Cork cleric, collector and uilleann piper James Goodman and Oriel region, south Ulster, curate and fiddler Rev. Luke Donnellan both entered the tune in their music manuscript collections as "The Cossack's March".
It was printed in Kerr's Merry Melodies vol. 4 (c. 1880's) (as "Buonoparte's March") and O'Neill's Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922).
It was recorded by Stephen Baldwin on Here's One You'll Like, I Think (2005) and Bernard O'Sullivan & Tommy McMahon on Clare Concertinas (1975).