Born: 5 October 1728, France
Died: 21 May 1810
Country most active: France, International
Also known as: Charles d’Éon de Beaumont
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
The story of the Chevalier d’Eon is much less clear-cut, as is their own autobiography, for that matter. The diplomat, soldier, and spy was notorious and scandalous long before they began presenting permanently as a woman in 1777 (around age 49). At this point, their gender was already a matter of significant speculation. As an example of the chevalier as unreliable narrator of their own story, they claimed in their unpublished autobiography The Interests of the Chevalier d’Éon de Beaumont, to have been born female but raised male “by a father desperate for a son,” but their autopsy confirmed clearly masculine genitalia. There are also questions around political and religious factors at play. But although we can never know the truth of the Chevalier d’Eon’s inner life, they certainly earned a place in queer history.