Family Name: D'Eon de Beaumont
First Name: Charles
Birth Date: Sun, Oct 03, 1728
Birth Place: Tonnerre
Death Date: Sat, May 19, 1810
Death Place: London
Main places of activity:
Place From To
London 1770 1775
Place From To
London 1783 1808
Personal info:
Education

Studied law at the Collège des Quatre-Nations in Paris.
Career

Was practicing as a lawyer in the parlement from the age of 19. D'Eon's primary career was as a soldier and diplomat. Prior to his first visit to Britain he had spent time on a diplomatic mission in Russia (1756-60). He then fought in the Seven Years War. He travelled to Britain in 1762 to assist the duc de Nivernais in the peace negotiations that would bring an end to the Seven Years War, though he was also involved with Louis XV's Secret du roi. D'Eon was recalled to France in October 1763, but refused to go and used diplomatic papers in his possession to threaten the French government. In 1765 he was given permission to remain in Britain. While in London d'Eon became associated with John Wilkes and his associates, but he also became caught up in  rumours concerning his sex. Following a betting frenzy the Court of King's Bench concluded (wrongly) in 1777 that he was female and he was subsequently ordered to dress in female clothes by the French government. He was still dressing as a woman when he returned to London in 1785 and it was only on his death that his true sex was revealed.
Financial Situation

D'Eon's main career was as a diplomat.

In 1760 he was granted a pension of 2000 lives by Louis XV.

In 1765 he was granted permission to remain in England and a pension of 12,000 lives by Louis XV.

He suffered financially from the French Revolution and had to sell many possessions, despite a public subscription in the City of London providing him with £475.
Translations Other Works

secondary bibliography references

G. Kates, Monsieur d'Eon is a woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade, New York, Basic Books, 1995.

S. F. Burrows, J. Conlin and V. Mainz, eds., The Chevalier d'Eon and his Worlds: Gender, Espionage and Politics in the Eighteenth Century, London, Continuum, 2010.

J. M. J. Rogister, D'Éon de Beaumont, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée, Chevalier D'Éon in the French nobility, in Oxford Dictionary of National BIography, 2004.

R. Hammersley, The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France: Between the Ancients and the Moderns, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2010, pp. 110-122.

Translations

  • The Excellencie of a Free State

  • Translation Title: Les Loisirs du chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont
  • Original Author: Machamont Nedham
  • Original title: The Excellencie of a Free State
  • Publ. Year From: 1655 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    The work was based on editorials that Nedham had originally published in the weekly newspaper Mercurius politicus in 1651-1652.
  • Title: The Excellencie of a Free State
  • Publisher: A. Millar
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Year: 1766
  • Lang: English
  • Note:

    It was probably this edition, produced by Richard Baron, that Mandar used.

  • Translation: Les Loisirs du chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont
  • Publisher: Unknown
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Date: 1773
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    The translation of Nedham's work was just one item in this multi-volume work published by d'Eon with the intention of advising France's rulers on matters of policy.

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By:

  • Rachel Hammersley