The Spy Who Became a Lady 🗡️ The Chevalier d'Éon (1728–1810) | LGBTQ+ History Sleep Story

Drift off to sleep learning about the Chevalier d'Éon, the French spy and cavalry officer who lived 49 years as a man and 33 years as a woman, and never once looked back. A soldier, a diplomat, a fencing legend in a black silk gown. Told gently, twice, for sleep. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome & settling in Charles-Geneviève d'Éon de Beaumont was born October 5, 1728, in Tonnerre, Burgundy, and studied law at the Collège Mazarin in Paris. In 1756 d'Éon joined the Secret du Roi, King Louis XV's private spy network, and carried secret letters to the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. The famous story that d'Éon did so disguised as a maid of honor named Lia de Beaumont comes mostly from d'Éon's own later memoirs, and historian Gary Kates argues it was invented after the fact. In 1761 d'Éon became a captain of dragoons and was wounded in the Seven Years' War, then helped negotiate the 1763 Treaty of Paris in London and received the Cross of Saint Louis, becoming the Chevalier d'Éon. As interim ambassador, d'Éon quarreled with the Comte de Guerchy and refused to return to France, keeping Louis XV's secret invasion plans as insurance. From 1771 London's Stock Exchange and coffee houses wagered an estimated £200,000 on whether the chevalier was a man or a woman, and in July 1777 Lord Mansfield's court in Hayes v. Jacques found for the bettor who said "woman." Meanwhile Louis XVI sent the playwright Beaumarchais to recover the papers, and the resulting 1775 agreement, the Transaction, required d'Éon to surrender the documents and live as a woman for life. Dressed by Marie Antoinette's own dressmaker, Rose Bertin, Mademoiselle d'Éon was presented at Versailles on November 23, 1777, reportedly telling Bertin, "I do not yet know what I need." She returned to London in 1785, lost her pension in the French Revolution, offered in 1792 to lead a regiment of women, and fenced for a living in a black gown, most famously against the Chevalier de Saint-Georges at Carlton House on April 9, 1787, before the Prince of Wales. She spent her last years with the widow Mary Cole in Millman Street, Holborn, survived debtors' prison in 1804, and died May 21, 1810, aged 81. She is buried at St Pancras Old Church. Her 1792 portrait by Thomas Stewart hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. The imagery is a blue-green spring rising from limestone, candlelight on Russian snow, London fog and coffee smoke, silk and pins and powder in a dressmaker's rooms, the ring of steel in a fencing hall, and a warm room in Holborn at the end of a long life. 🌙 Perfect for: LGBTQ+ history sleep stories · Chevalier d'Éon · transgender history · 18th century France · queer history sleep story · bedtime stories for adults · trans women in history · French history · sleep meditation 💜 If this one kept you company, subscribe and tell me in the comments which queer historical figure you'd like to fall asleep to next. 🎧 Also available on your favorite podcast app. Search "Restful Rainbow." 💛 Support the show: https://restful-rainbow.captivate.fm/.... And if not, no need at all. Sleep well either way. Related episodes: Queen Christina of Sweden The Colonel Who Rode with Zapata: Amelio Robles The Middle Place: We'wha of Zuni A Journey Through Transgender History Charlotte Cushman's "Jolly Bachelor Women" "Truthfully, Mademoiselle, I do not yet know what I need." The Chevalier d'Éon to Rose Bertin, 1777, as reported in later accounts #LGBTQhistory #SleepStory #ChevalierdEon #TransHistory #TransgenderHistory #QueerHistory #FrenchHistory #18thCentury #Versailles #MarieAntoinette #Beaumarchais #Fencing #BedtimeStory #SleepMeditation #LGBTQ #CalmNarration #SleepStoriesForAdults #RestfulRainbow #HistoryForSleep #TransWomenInHistory