You’re not going to believe the full name(s) of the person born today in 1728: Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont OR Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Augusta-Andréa-Timothéa d’Éon de Beaumont. Ze is usually known as either the Chevalier d’Éon or the Chevalière d’Éon. It’s a pretty good story.
d’Éon was born in a hotel in France into a poor family. At least so we think — most of what we know about zem is from an essay by Bram Stoker in his book Famous Imposters. But zir later life is well documented. Ze was evidently an excellent student and graduated with a law degree when ze was 21. Ze became a secretary to an important government official, and in 1756, when ze was 28, joined the Secret du Roi, a secret network of spies managed directly by King Louis XV — the rest of the French government didn’t even know about it.
At the time, France and England were arguing about something or other, and both nations were trying to get Russia to be their ally. Russia at the time was ruled by Empress Elizabeth, and Louis XV sent d’Éon along with two or three other spies to Russia to meet secretly with the Empress and secure her support. d’Éon did pretty well — disguised as a woman, ze became maid of honor to the Empress herself. Ze apparently stayed in that post until one of the other spies, Chevalier Douglas, was named the French Ambassador to Russia, and d’Éon became secretary to the French Embassy in Saint Petersburg — abandoning the disguise (as far as we know, nobody ever noticed).
d’Éon returned to France four years later, joined the army as an officer, and was wounded in battle. Next ze was sent to London to help draft a peace treaty to end the same war — and around that time was awarded the title chevalier, the French equivalent of a knight in England.
d’Éon remained in London for several years, serving as an ambassador, and secretly continuing to operate as a spy. They established connections with English nobles with gifts of wine produced at a vineyard ze’d bought with a large award given by the French king. In the mid-1760s d’Éon was caught politically between two factions in France and ordered to return, where they probably expected to be imprisoned or killed (one of the factions had labeled them an outlaw). But thanks to being a spy, d’Éon had possession of secret documents from the French government, some detailing plans for invading England. Those documents turned out to be zir insurance policy — ze stayed in England, and even secured a large pension from Louis XV — probably to ensure their silence.
d’Éon threw in with the English, and began a somewhat more private life, writing a 13-volume treatise on public administration. Ze was still well known in London, though, and rumors started to circulate that ze was actually a woman — a betting pool was even established in the London Stock Exchange. The whole thing fizzled when d’Éon declared that ze wasn’t going to prove it one way or the other.
When Louis XV died in 1774, d’Éon negotiated a deal enabling zem to return to France in exchange for turning over all zir secret evidence. The deal was written as a 20-page treaty, and d’Éon ended zir exile — but back in France, demanded that the French government recognize zem as a woman. Rather than the Chevalier d’Éon, they would be the Chevalière d’Éon. The government shrugged and said sure why not, making d’Éon possibly the earliest recipient of legal recognition of gender transition.
The French Revolution was not kind to d’Éon; zir royal pension ended and most of zir property was confiscated. Zir last four years were spent bedridden, after ze was paralyzed in a fall. But the term “eonism” entered the language for a while; it used to refer to transgender behavior. And the Beaumont Society, an organization for transgender people, is named after d’Éon. You can also find d’Éon and characters based on zem all over the place in literature, film, comics, and at least one video game.
