Chevalier d'Eon

This article is about a historical figure. For the anime series based on the figure, see Le Chevalier D'Eon.

Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (5 October 1728 Tonnerre – 21 May 1810 London), usually known as the Chevalier d'Éon, was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason whose first 49 years were spent as a man, and whose last 33 years were spent as a woman. Upon death, a council of physicians discovered that d'Éon's body was anatomically male.

The Chevalier d'Éon

The Chevalier d'Éon

Early life

D'Éon de Beaumont was born in Tonnerre, Yonne to Louis d'Éon de Beaumont, an attorney and Director of the king's dominions, and Françoise de Charanton, daughter of a Commissioner General to the armies of the Wars of Spain and Italy. Most of what is known about d'Éon's early life comes from a partly ghost-written autobiography, The Interests of the Chevalier d'Éon de Beaumont.^[1]

D'Éon later claimed to have been born female, but to have been raised as a boy because Louis d'Éon de Beaumont could only inherit from his in-laws if he had a son. The title chevalier, 'Knight', refers to the honorary title 'chevalier des ordres du Roi', conferred by the King of France.

D'Éon excelled in school, moving from Tonnerre to Paris in 1743, graduating civil law and canon law from Collège Mazarin, in 1749 at age 21. D'Éon served as a secretary to the administrator of the fiscal department and was a royal censor.^[1]

Life as a spy

In 1756 d'Éon joined the secret network of spies called Le Secret du Roi which worked for King Louis XV personally, without the knowledge of the government, and sometimes against official policies and treaties. Others in this group include Prince de Conti, the Marechal de Noailles, Beaumarchais, and M. de Tercier. The monarch sent d'Éon on a secret mission to Russia in order to meet Empress Elizabeth and intrigue with the pro-French faction against the Habsburg monarchy. Later tales claim that d'Éon disguised himself as a lady Lia de Beaumont to do so, and even became a maid of honour to the Empress. D'Éon's career in Russia is the subject of one of Valentin Pikul's novels, Le chevalier d'Éon et la guerre de Sept ans. D'Éon was secretary to the embassy in St. Petersburg from 1758 to 1760.^[2]

In 1761, d'Éon returned to France. The next year d'Éon became a captain of dragoons under the Marshal de Broglie and fought in the later stages of the Seven Years' War. D'Éon was wounded. In 1762 d'Éon was sent to London to draft the peace treaty which was signed in Paris 10 February 1763. For doing this which d'Éon received the Order of Saint-Louis.^[2]

In 1763, after his successful negotiation with the British government as secretary of the Duke of Nivernais with the title special ambassador, d'Éon became plenipotentiary minister in London - essentially an interim ambassador - and used this position also to spy for the king. D'Éon collected information for a potential invasion - an unfortunate and clumsy initiative of Louis XV, of which Louis's ministers were unaware. D'Éon formed connections with English nobility by sending them the produce of his vineyard and abundantly enjoyed the splendour of this interim embassy.^[2]

Upon the arrival of the new ambassador, the Count of Guerchy, d'Éon was reduced to his former rank as secretary and humiliated by the count. D'Éon complained, and eventually decided to disobey orders to return to France. In his letter to the king, d'Éon claimed that the new ambassador had tried to drug him. In an effort to save his station in London, d'Éon published most of the secret diplomatic correspondence about his recall under the title Lettres, mémoires, et négociations in 1764, disavowing Guerchy and calling him unfit for his job. This breach of diplomatic secret was scandalous to the point of being unheard of, but d'Éon had not yet published everything (he kept the King's secret invasion documents and those relative to the Secret du Roi as "insurance"), and the French government became very cautious in its dealings with d'Éon, even when d'Éon sued Guerchy for attempted murder. With the invasion documents in hand, d'Éon held the king in check.^[3]

In 1766, Louis XV granted him a pension for his services (or as a pay-off for silence) and gave him a 12,000-livre annuity. D'Éon continued to work as a spy, but lived in political exile in London. His possession of the king's secret letters protected him against further actions, but d'Éon could not return to France.^[3]

Life as a woman

Satire of fencing duel between Monsieur de Saint-George et Mademoiselle La chevalière d'Éon de Beaumont Carlton House à le 9. Engraved by Victor Marie Picot based on the original work of Charles Jean Robineau.

Despite d'Éon's wearing a dragoon's uniform all the time, there were rumors that he was actually a woman, and a betting pool was started on the London Stock Exchange about his true sex. D'Éon was invited to join, but declined, saying that an examination would be dishonouring, whatever the result. After a year without progress, the wager was abandoned. In 1774, after the death of Louis XV, d'Éon tried to negotiate a return from exile. The French government's side of the negotiations was handled by the writer Pierre de Beaumarchais. The resulting twenty-page treaty permitted D'Éon to return to France and keep his ministerial pension, but required that d'Éon turn over the secret correspondence about le Secret du Roi.^[3]

D'Éon claimed to be physically not a man, but a woman, and demanded recognition by the government as such. King Louis XVI and his court complied, but demanded that d'Éon dress appropriately and wear women's clothing. D'Éon agreed, especially when the king granted him funds for a new wardrobe. In 1777 after fourteen months of negotiation, d'Éon returned to France, and was exiled to Tonnerre for six years.^[3]

When France began to help the rebels during the American War of Independence, d'Éon asked to join the French troops in America but did not due to his exile.^[3]

In 1779, d'Éon published the memoirs La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d'Éon. They were ghostwritten by a friend named La Fortelle, and are probably embellished.^[2]

D'Éon returned to England in 1785. He lost his pension after the French Revolution and had to sell his library. In 1792, d'Éon sent a letter to the French National Assembly, offering to lead a division of women soldiers against the Habsburgs; the offer was rebuffed. D'Éon participated in fencing tournaments until being seriously wounded in 1796. D'Éon's last years were spent with a widow, Mrs. Cole.^[3] In 1804 d'Éon was imprisoned for debt but released in 1805, upon which a contract was signed for an autobiography. The book was never published due to d'Éon becoming paralyzed following a fall. D'Éon's final four years were spent bedridden, eventually dieing in poverty in London May 21, 1810 at age 82.^[3]

Doctors who examined the body after death discovered that the Chevalier had been anatomically male. However, it is possible that d'Éon had Kallmann syndrome, a hormonal disorder in which a person's body does not go through puberty. This is suggested by the fact that no known portraits of the Chevalier show any facial hair — even the portrait of taken from a death mask, which was cast at the time of death in 1810.^{[citation needed]} It was highly unusual, however, for fashionable European gentlemen of the 18th century to sport any facial hair.

Legacy

• The term eonism was coined by Havelock Ellis to describe similar cases of transgender behavior; it is rarely used now.^[2]
• The Beaumont Society, a long standing society for transgendered people, is named after the Chevalier.
• Le Chevallier D'eon - a series of manga written by Tou Ubukata and illustrated by Kiriko Yumeji. It is published by Del Rey Manga
• Le Chevalier d'Eon - 2006 anime series loosely based on the Chevalier d'Éon.
• Eonnagata, a 2010 theatre piece by Canadian Robert Lepage, combining drama and dance, based on the life of Chevalier d'Éon.
• Some of d'Éon's papers are at the Brotherton Library in Leeds, U.K.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Lever, Evelyne; Maurice Lever (19 February 2009). Le Chevalier d'Éon : Une vie sans queue ni tête. Fayard. pp. 384 pages. ISBN 978-2213616308. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Burrows, Simon; Russell Goulbourne, Jonathan Conlin, and Valerie Mainz (April 23, 2010). The Chevalier d'Éon and his worlds: gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century. Continuum. pp. 272 pages. http://books.google.com/books?id=qfdFSdxS1dkC&. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Burrows, Simon (October 2006). Blackmail, scandal and revolution London's French libellistes, 1758–92. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. 

Further reading

• Philippe Luyt, D'Éon de Tonnerre. Iconographie et histoire, 2007
• Musée municipal de Tonnerre, Catalogue bilingue de l'exposition - Le Chevalier d'Éon: secrets et lumières, 2007 www.tonnerre.fr
• Fernande Gontier, Homme ou femme? La confusion des sexes, Perrin, 2006. chapter 6
• Paul Mourousy, Le Chevalier d'Éon: un travesti malgré lui, Le Rocher, 1998 ISBN 978-2268029177
• D'Éon chevalier et chevalière, sa confession inédite par André Frank en collaboration avec Jean Chaumely, Paris 1953 Éditions Amiot-Dumont.
• O. Homberg et F. Jousselin, Un Aventurier au XVIIIe siècle. Le Chevalier D'Éon (1728-1810); Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1904, 312 p.
• F. Gaillardet (ed.), Mémoires du chevalier d’Éon, Paris, 1836. 2 vols.
• Pikul' Valentin Savvich. Par la plume et l'épée (translation of Пикуль Валентин Саввич, Пером и шпагой). Moscow.
• M. de La Fortelle, La Vie militaire, politique et privée de Demoiselle Charles-Geneviève-Auguste-Andrée-Thimothée Éon ou d'Èon de Beaumont, [... etc.], Paris, Chez Lambert, 1779.
• Gary Kates – Monsieur d'Éon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade (2001) ISBN 0-8018-6731-2, Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN-13: 978-0801867316
• Charles d'Éon De Beaumont - The Maiden of Tonnerre: The Vicissitudes of the Chevalier and the Chevalière d'Éon (2001) Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0801866876
• Michel de Decker - Le Chevalier d'Éon (1987/1998) France-Empire ISBN-13: 978-2704808533
• Jean-Michel Royer - Le Double Je, ou les Mémoires du chevalier d'Éon(1986) Grasset & Fasquelle ISBN-13: 978-2246380016

External links

• An article on the life of the Chevalier d'Éon
• An account by the Beaumont Society
• The Character of Chevalier d'Éon

Persondata
Name	Eon De Beaumont, Chevalier
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 October 1728
Place of birth
Date of death	21 May 1810
Place of death