Charles-Genevieve-Louis-Auguste-Andre-Timothee, Chevalier d'Eon (5 October 1728 – 21 May 1810) was a spy of the Kingdom of France, French Republic, and French Empire.
Biography[]
Charles-Genevieve-Louis-Auguste-Andre Timothee d'Eon de Beaumont was born on 5 October 1728 in Tonnerre, Burgundy, Kingdom of France. He excelled in school, and in 1756 he joined King Louis XV of France's Secret du Roi secret spy ring during the Seven Years' War. Along with Chevalier Alexander-Pierre de Mackensie-Douglas (baron of Kildin), he was sent on a mission to talk with the pro-French faction of the Russian Empire, although Great Britain defended the border. D'Eon was forced to dress as a woman when the British refused to allow anyone but women and children to cross the border into Russia; men found on the Russian side would be killed. D'Eon succeeded and was known as "Lea de Beaumont" during his mission. In October 1760 he returned and in May 1761 he became a dragoon captain that fought against the Prussians, Hanoverians, and British in the Battle of Villinghausen. On 30 March 1763, he was made the Chevalier d'Eon, a noble rank, and he aided in the surveying of British shores for a possible invasion. He formed connections with the British embassy, however, and he was demoted to secretary in October 1763. D'Eon secured the sympathy of the British public in the following years, but in July 1766 King Louis XV paid off D'Eon's silence with a 12,000 livre annuity as a pension.
D'Eon was unable to join the French Army during the American Revolutionary War and was exiled in Great Britain, but he was able to become a famous dueller. He fenced for a living, but around this time, he became known as a woman. D'Eon claimed that he was a woman at birth and wore dresses and makeup, and he fenced as a woman until he was injured in 1796 and retired. During his fencing years, he was also defeated by Arno Dorian. After the French Revolution of 1789 he lost his pension and had to sell much of his jewellery and silver.
However, D'Eon was given a job in 1806 under Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of the French Empire at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. He was employed as a spy against the Austrian Empire, Russian Empire, Prussia, Great Britain, and their allies during the Sixth Coalition and the following wars in Europe, and in 1810 he headed to Gibraltar in British-held Spain, where he made local contacts and became an effective spy. However, he died on 21 May at the age of 81.