EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES - GENEVIEVE - LOUIS AUGUSTL'-ANDRE-T1MOTE D', generally known as the Chevalier D'Eon, owes his celebrity chiefly to the doubts long entertained of his sex. He was born of a respectable family at Tonnerre in Burgundy, October 17, 1727, received a good education, was called to the bar of the parliament in Paris as an advocate, and obtained some reputation by his literary productions. In 1755 he was introduced to Louis XV., and employed in diplomatic missions to Russia and to Austria; and in 1759 he served in the French army in Germany as a captain of dragoons and aid•de-camp to Marshal Broglio. In 1761 he came to England as secretary of embassy. Dissatisfied at being superseded in the post of minister plenipotentiary, which he lied held for a short interval, ho published Lettres, Memoiree, et Negociations particuMres de Chevalier D'Eon,' exposing the secrets of his own court, and libel ling both foes and friends. For one of these on the Count do Guerchy he was prosecuted in the Court of King's Bench in 1764, and found guilty. In the meantime he pretended to be in dread of being kid napped by agents of the French government, and applied to Lord Mansfield for information as to whether he might not resist, and repel force by force ; and in 1764 presented a bill of indictment against De Guerchy for a conspiracy against his life. He however disappeared just before being called up to receive judgment for the libel, and on the 13th of June 1765 he was outlawed. He probably retired to France.
Notwithstanding his intemperate and discreditable conduct in pub lishing the private papers of the embassy, he received the continued confidence of Louis XV., who, in 1766, settled a pension on him for his services in Russia. In 1769 he returned to England. In 1777 an action was brought in the King's Bench before Lord Mansfield, to recover a wager laid as to the sex of Chevalier D'Eon, when the plain tiff produced witnesses, one of whom, a Burgeon, swore to his being a female; and the plaintiff got a verdict for 700/. It was understood
that many other BUM, to a large amount, depeuded on this suit, but they were not paid, an act of parliament having been passed to restrain such gambling apeculations. •The chevalier now returned to France, wearing the dress of a woman; and coming back to England gave lessone in fencing in his female garb. Matched against professors such as St. George and M. Angelo, he showed himself a master of his art. This occupation he pursued for some years ; but in 1791 he advertised a sale of his effects, the catalogue of which enumerated books, prints, medals, fire-arms, sabres, military uniforms, petticoats, gowns, silks, jewels—articles alike suited for a cavalry officer or a fashionable lady. He was resolved, he says, "to take nothing away but his honour." Again in France, the National Assembly being sitting, he petitioned on May 11, 1792, as Madame D'Eon, to serve in the army. She stated that, though she had worn the dress of a woman for fifteen years, she was desirona of exchanging her cap and petticoats for her old helmet and her sabre. The petition was received with bursts of applause, and was ordered to be honourably mentioned iu the minutes; but as no other result followed, the chevalier once more returned to England, where, in poverty and ill-health, he lingered for a few years, and died on May 21, 1811. After his death his body was examined, and dis sected by Mr. J. Copeland, an eminent surgeon, and no doubt was left as to the petticoat imposture.