Contradictions, eh?<\/p>\n
Life is full of them, but it\u2019s rare to find so many in one place, at one time, and in one person.<\/p>\n
Le Chevalier d\u2019Eon<\/strong> was both a diplomat and a soldier; born noble, yet later impoverished; an international celebrity, but also a clandestine spy.<\/p>\n And, throughout the course of her life, d\u2019Eon lived as both a man and a woman\u2014she was the first openly transgender person in European history. <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n By many accounts, d\u2019Eon appears to have perpetuated much of the mystery herself, becoming the subject of great public fascination, particularly in London, where she spent much of her life.<\/p>\n But who was she, and what drove her to become a social pioneer? She was certainly not the first person to have questioned the identity assigned to them at birth. And d\u2019Eon lived in the 18th century when, let\u2019s just say, a lot of people weren\u2019t exactly hip to alternative lifestyles. But d\u2019Eon didn\u2019t just survive her swim against the social tides of the time\u2014she masterfully played her identity to her advantage, and became an icon in the process.<\/p>\n Before we move on, a brief note about pronouns: since D\u2019Eon lived as both a man and a woman at various times throughout their life, my attempt here will be to use whichever pronoun seems most appropriate, by considering what d\u2019Eon\u2019s preference may have been at the time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On October 5, 1728, d\u2019Eon was born Charles-Genevi\u00e8ve-Louis-Auguste-Andr\u00e9-Timoth\u00e9e d\u2019\u00c9on de Beaumont. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n I know what you\u2019re thinking: \u201cHoly shit, that\u2019s a lot of names.\u201d You\u2019re not wrong! For brevity\u2019s sake, let\u2019s stick with d\u2019Eon. But, for just a moment, it\u2019s worth nothing that d\u2019Eon\u2019s six forenames are of the typically male variety. D\u2019Eon was born to a family of aristocrats in Burgundy\u2014as a boy.<\/p>\n D\u2019Eon\u2019s early life was unremarkable\u2014living as a young man, he studied in Paris and took advantage of some of that sweet, sweet aristocratic nepotism to get a foot in the door as a civil servant. And he did damn well, rising through the ranks toute de suite. By 1756, he got a nice little job lined up. It was nothing big, he just became the \u2026<\/p>\n Yeah. What were you doing when you were 28 years old?<\/p>\n It was a pretty impressive gig for someone who hadn\u2019t yet hit 30, but that\u2019s not even the half of it. The job was just a cover for something even cooler: spycraft.<\/p>\n At some point early in his career\u2014these things weren\u2019t exactly done on the books, you see\u2014d\u2019Eon was recruited for King Louis XV\u2019s secret network of spies. Le Secret du Roi\u2014the King\u2019s Secret\u2014was relatively new, having been established in the 1740s. Unlike the Rhonda Byrne book, this Secret wasn\u2019t about vision boards. It was about placing Louis XV\u2019s cousin Prince de Conti on the Polish throne, effectively creating a French satellite state. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n D\u2019Eon\u2019s mission, should he choose to accept it (actually, it was probably mandatory\u2014French monarchical despotism, and all that) was to infiltrate the Russian court of Empress Elizabeth as an ambassador, and start pulling those marionette strings.<\/p>\n Up to this point, it appears d\u2019Eon had been living entirely as a man. But, by some accounts, d\u2019Eon\u2019s time in the court of Empress Elizabeth may have been d\u2019Eon\u2019s first exposure to cross dressing. The Empress often hosted her famous Metamorphoses Balls, in which every attendant was expected to wear a dress. <\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Elizabeth was an aesthetically inclined woman: she owned over 15,000 dresses, and changed her outfits throughout the day. But dresses weren\u2019t enough: Elizabeth admired her own figure, and preferred the way men\u2019s attire showed her legs. And, when you\u2019ve got the power of an empress, you can force members of your court to party however you like. <\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately for France, the Seven Years War erupted the same year d\u2019Eon arrived, before he could pull the aforementioned strings and get Russia to support Prince de Conti for the Polish throne. D\u2019Eon returned to fight for France as a dragoon.<\/p>\n The Seven Years\u2019 War ended about seven years later\u2014go figure\u2014and things didn\u2019t turn out so well for the French. The winning side, led by the British, really stuck it to France in the subsequent treaties. Apparently already over his war hangover, Louis XV was thirsty for revenge.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, d\u2019Eon had returned to France, and was awarded the cross of St. Louis for his service as a dragoon captain\u2014a type of mounted soldier\u2014in the later stages of the war, when he fought at the Battle of Villinghausenand and was wounded. <\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> At the age of only 35, d\u2019Eon had been knighted and given the title of \u201cChevalier,\u201d which was the French equivalent of knighthood. <\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n After returning from the war, d\u2019Eon resumed his ambassadorial duties in the British court. But d\u2019Eon\u2019s spying wasn\u2019t over, because Le Secret had a new mission: invade Britain. To this end, d\u2019Eon was tasked with scouting the British coastline for weak points.<\/p>\n Oh, it didn\u2019t. D\u2019Eon\u2019s relationship with the French government back home deteriorated. See, d\u2019Eon had expensive tastes, and was chastised by the French government for importing way too much wine. On top of that, d\u2019Eon\u2019s professional situation was less than tenable.<\/p>\n See, d\u2019Eon wasn\u2019t intended to be the true ambassador\u2014again, this was just a cover.<\/p>\n Technically, d\u2019Eon was named a minister plenipotentiary, with ambassador status. But the real ambassador was to be Comte de Guerchy, who was expected to arrive later that year. And look, I know history can be rough on some folks. But nobody liked Comte de Guerchy, and he lacked diplomatic experience. Guerchy was on his way to London to replace and demote d\u2019Eon to secretary. On top of that, d\u2019Eon\u2019s secret job as a spy would likely put him at odds with Guerchy. <\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n D\u2019Eon did the one thing he could to improve the situation: he reamed out his superiors with a string of angry letters. As a spy, he was often working against Guerchy and official French policy, but for his cover, he needed to work as a secretary underneath Guerchy. He was at odds with himself, and made it clear to his superiors that he wasn\u2019t happy about it.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This strategy panned out brilliantly, assuming d\u2019Eon\u2019s goal was to be fired six months into his job, because that\u2019s exactly what happened. D\u2019Eon was ordered to return to France immediately, so that he could receive a stern talking to, and maybe get locked away in the Bastille forever.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n D\u2019Eon wasn\u2019t interested in disappearing in the Bastille, so he stuck around London. Failing to secure an extradition, the French Foreign Ministry tried and failed to kidnap d\u2019Eon, and d\u2019Eon retaliated.<\/p>\n He threatened to his Le Secret spymasters that he\u2019d publish all their secrets if he wasn\u2019t absolved of his misbehaviors, and released the first volume to prove he wasn\u2019t messing around.<\/p>\n And, just like that, d\u2019Eon suddenly become an 18th-century Edward Snowden\u2014a centerpiece of European politics, now far more popular in England than in France. <\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This is right around when rumors of d\u2019Eon\u2019s gender-related peculiarities began to surface.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear who started these rumors\u2014it may have been political enemies, or d\u2019Eon himself. The idea that d\u2019Eon may have actually been born a woman began to gain traction, as well, with the assumption that he had merely been passing as a man all along. <\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Amazingly, d\u2019Eon\u2019s gambit paid off: somehow, blackmailing France won him an annual pension from Louis XV, with purse strings attached, of course: d\u2019Eon had to continue spying for Le Secret and hand over the remaining, unpublished French secrets that he had threatened to divulge\u2014which, fine, that\u2019s fair enough.<\/p>\n But King Louis, being very uncool about the whole thing, took the deal a step too far with a further demand: that d\u2019Eon officially declare a gender before returning to France. <\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n D\u2019Eon made what was an unprecedented decision for the time, and declared herself a woman.<\/p>\n As much as we may like to believe that Europe at that time was open-minded when it came to gender roles, d\u2019Eon\u2019s declaration was likely accepted because so many in the French government already presumed it to be true. This was in part due to the rumors that had snowballed regarding d\u2019Eon\u2019s identity, which suggested d\u2019Eon had actually been born a woman, but had been forced into the life of a man by a domineering father who had wanted a son.<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n And the story\u2014of a brave young woman passing as a man all her life in order to serve her country and live up to the expectations of her father\u2014was far more beneficial to d\u2019Eon than the alternative: returning to France as a man and a \u201ctrickster.\u201d <\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n In 1777, d\u2019Eon returned to France as a woman, only to find misery.<\/p>\n France\u2019s patriarchal society had little room for d\u2019Eon in the capacity that she had previously enjoyed as a man. Forced into early retirement, she was repeatedly barred from re-entering military service (she had even requested to serve in the American War of Independence), and had lost her political clout. <\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n For someone used to living such an extraordinary life, d\u2019Eon could no longer stand it to live in France, exiled to her family estate in Tonnerre, and deprived of awesome things to do. In 1785, she sailed back to London, which was relatively free of the despotism that was keeping her down in France.<\/p>\n In England, d\u2019Eon was welcomed. To English eyes, she was a heroine and a celebrity. But she was soon destitute\u2014with the outbreak of the French Revolution, her pension from the French crown disappeared. To make ends meet, she sold off her possessions.<\/p>\n By 1791, d\u2019Eon was in her 60s and had run out of things to sell, but she needed a way to make money. And, because she found it impossible to ever be a boring person, she made the rent by putting on sword fighting exhibitions until 1796, when a tournament injury ended her career.<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n D\u2019Eon continued on, living to the golden age of 81. For years, the mystery had endured on both sides of the English Channel: had d\u2019Eon been born a girl, and perhaps been forced into life as a man by her father? Or had d\u2019Eon been born a boy, and transitioned to living as female, either out of personal preference, shrewd necessity, or some combination of the two?<\/p>\nLet\u2019s Start from the Beginning of Chevalier d’Eon<\/h3>\n
Chevalier d’Eon: Ambassador to Russia<\/h3>\n
Chevalier d’Eon: The Seven Years\u2019 War, Knighthood, and a New Mission for Le Secret<\/h3>\n
So How\u2019d That Go for Chevalier d’Eon?<\/h3>\n
Chevalier D\u2019Eon Pulls an Ed Snowden<\/h3>\n
Chevalier D’Eon’s Official Declaration, and a Bad Time in France<\/h3>\n
Chevalier D’Eon: The End of the Enigma<\/h3>\n