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111. Chevaliere d'Eon - The 18th Century French Trans Spy · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave media podcast. Hello delicious friends,
0:19
Speaker 1: and welcome to whod What Now? The history podcast That's
0:23
Speaker 1: not your history class with me your host Katie Charlwood,
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Speaker 1: History Harlotte and reader of books. Hi, everybody, I've got
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Speaker 1: a secret. Well, technically I've got two secrets. I mean,
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Speaker 1: I feel like technically I have more than two secrets,
0:41
Speaker 1: but like I have two official secrets, which feels like enough. Frankly,
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Speaker 1: one of which I have been embargoed on. I've been embargoed,
0:52
Speaker 1: Like I think that's when you know you're making it
0:54
Speaker 1: in the world, when you get embargoed by stuff. And
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Speaker 1: I've just got like things happening behind the scenes that
1:03
Speaker 1: very exciting and I really want to talk about but
1:05
Speaker 1: obviously I'm not allowed to. So there's that. And so
1:11
Speaker 1: there's stuff happening, and I'm really bad at giving people
1:14
Speaker 1: informed of stuff. So I've decided, well I said decided.
1:18
Speaker 1: I was convinced, pigoled, perhaps coerced into starting a newsletter,
1:26
Speaker 1: and so that is happening. You're welcome. It's going to
1:29
Speaker 1: be monthly. Let's not get ahead of ourselves like it's monthly,
1:33
Speaker 1: because I'm not going to do any more than that.
1:34
Speaker 1: Am I absolutely not not a hope in hell, because
1:38
Speaker 1: I'm already too busy, you know what I mean, I'm
1:41
Speaker 1: already struggling because I can't help but bite off more
1:45
Speaker 1: than I can chew. It's been. It's been a busy weekend,
1:49
Speaker 1: like as it was my week girl's birthday, and so
1:51
Speaker 1: we had like a big birthday party, and then we
1:52
Speaker 1: went to like a big cinema thing and then the
1:55
Speaker 1: funfair and there was just a lot. There was a
1:59
Speaker 1: lot in the midfoot all practice and you got picked
2:01
Speaker 1: for like some team because of course she did, because
2:05
Speaker 1: apparently we cannot do anything by halves in this family.
2:08
Speaker 1: So here we are, and yeah, this is this is
2:10
Speaker 1: the situation I found myself in. So yes, it's been.
2:15
Speaker 1: It's been a bit much, and I have so many
2:17
Speaker 1: things to get on board with and so many things
2:23
Speaker 1: to just like finish. But the good thing is because
2:26
Speaker 1: someone with ADHD, I thrive under pressure, you know, like diamonds,
2:34
Speaker 1: cole becomes diamonds and other such things. I mean, it
2:37
Speaker 1: goes from being something really useful to being something really pretty.
2:39
Speaker 1: So I feel like the opposite of that. That's a
2:45
Speaker 1: weird one. But yeah, it's been such an interesting, wild
2:49
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. It's going to be good to like
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Speaker 1: share stuff with you. And I am, by the way,
2:55
Speaker 1: I am working on trying to get a billfast gig happening.
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Speaker 1: I know people been asking me for it and go
3:02
Speaker 1: on about it, and I'm working on it. I'm working
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Speaker 1: on it because I have so much going on in
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Speaker 1: the second half of the year that I'm that I'm trying.
3:11
Speaker 1: That I'm trying, and I've got shit to hit and
3:14
Speaker 1: stuff to do. But anyway, I know what you're thinking.
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Speaker 1: You're thinking quite your jibbil Java and fact me in
3:21
Speaker 1: fact you I will. But first we've got to get
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Speaker 1: our source on. Our sources are Famous Impostors by Brams Stoker, Blackmail,
3:34
Speaker 1: Scandal and Revolution by Simon Burrows, The Sword of the
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Speaker 1: Chevalier by Guy Adams, The Strange Case of the Chevalier Deal,
3:45
Speaker 1: de Beaumont by John Bucan, Telfer Nursieur Dion is a Woman,
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Speaker 1: A tale of political intrigue and sexual masquerade by Gary
3:55
Speaker 1: Kats And we have basic unfinished memoirs. We've got unfinished
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Speaker 1: memoirs of the Chevalier Deal. So we've got memoirs letters, correspondence,
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Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff that got translated, and nevertheless our
4:13
Speaker 1: favorite history dot com and biography dot com. I was
4:20
Speaker 1: it in comfortably good. Then let's begin. So you may
4:26
Speaker 1: be thinking to yourself, Katie, I know it's Pride months,
4:28
Speaker 1: but are you seriously working through the lgbtqia in no
4:30
Speaker 1: particular order? It appears so motherfuckers. It wasn't my intention
4:37
Speaker 1: to like go through everybody, but there are so many
4:39
Speaker 1: interesting people from history that we don't discuss. And I
4:44
Speaker 1: had a list, and then I noticed that people on
4:47
Speaker 1: my list happened to, you know, correlate with particular letters
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Speaker 1: in the alphabet mafia, and I thought, well why not?
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Speaker 1: So last week we had Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton,
5:01
Speaker 1: who shows you, you know, you really can do a
5:04
Speaker 1: lot and achieve so many things when you're not too
5:06
Speaker 1: busy thinking about shagging. So that was like the most
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Speaker 1: famous asexual in history to my knowledge. I have to
5:13
Speaker 1: look it up, but I think so. And so this
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Speaker 1: week I wanted to talk about the Chevalier Dillon. I
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Speaker 1: would like to apologize for the horrific butchering of French
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Speaker 1: that's going to happen throughout this episode, but Dion was
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Speaker 1: a trans spy. It's very complicated, which I will tell you.
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Speaker 1: But they don't transition until much later in life, and
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Speaker 1: it becomes very much a complicated situation. But I am
5:46
Speaker 1: going to refer to them as they throughout this story
5:50
Speaker 1: for the most part, just because because they took so
5:54
Speaker 1: long to transition in life. If I were to use
5:58
Speaker 1: he instead of she, and it just feels not only incorrect,
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Speaker 1: but like very misgenderly and very rude, So I'm not
6:08
Speaker 1: going to do that. I'm going to use them because
6:11
Speaker 1: it just feels more respectful. And again, when I apologize
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Speaker 1: for my absolute just awful friends, you're going to hear.
6:20
Speaker 1: So let's start from the beginning. Shatway Deal was born
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Speaker 1: Charles Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre Timothe Deon de Beaumont. Because
6:32
Speaker 1: French people have to have all of the names, too
6:34
Speaker 1: many names. Some might say names that will not fit
6:37
Speaker 1: on a little box on a birth certificate, but it
6:39
Speaker 1: doesn't matter because they probably didn't have one anyway. So
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Speaker 1: they were born on the fifth of October seventeen twenty
6:46
Speaker 1: eight anton Burgundi in France, to Louis Deon de Beaumont.
6:50
Speaker 1: It was a lawyer later a mayor and Francoise de Charonto,
6:56
Speaker 1: so Francoise she was the daughter of the Commissioner General
6:59
Speaker 1: to the Army of Wars to Spain and Italy. So
7:04
Speaker 1: you know, they're minor rural nobility. So here's the thing.
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Speaker 1: Wealth is relative, so they're rich to like regular people,
7:17
Speaker 1: so like we would see them as rich, but to
7:20
Speaker 1: the nobility they would be seen as poor. So being noble,
7:26
Speaker 1: they have a fairly decent sort of way of life.
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Speaker 1: And Deale manages to get a pretty good education. They
7:35
Speaker 1: end up studying in Paris. They're pretty good at languages,
7:38
Speaker 1: and it's noted that they're good at memorizing stuff, which
7:42
Speaker 1: seems appropriate because that's a study is most of the time,
7:46
Speaker 1: which just memorizing stuff. And so Deone graduates from the
7:52
Speaker 1: College Mazarin and Law, so they've got a law degree
7:57
Speaker 1: in both civil law and canon law. And they do
8:00
Speaker 1: this at the age of twenty one. So they know
8:03
Speaker 1: about church law and they know about just like regular
8:06
Speaker 1: laws like both separation of church and state and ish.
8:13
Speaker 1: So they dont gets a job in public service at
8:16
Speaker 1: the Eli cavran Fons Len litter and writes a book
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Speaker 1: on French government finance, which is all very exciting. So
8:29
Speaker 1: they become secretary to the Intendent of Paris. See I've
8:33
Speaker 1: done it already. I'm still slipping into French. I have
8:36
Speaker 1: the Intendent of Paris, Berdier de Sauvigni, and they work
8:41
Speaker 1: in the Fiscal department and becomes a royal censor at
8:45
Speaker 1: the age of thirty. Basically they got a job as
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Speaker 1: a censor, which is really nothing to do with law technically,
8:57
Speaker 1: So the French go they're like super particular about what
9:02
Speaker 1: books can be published, and they're very intense about it.
9:08
Speaker 1: They have very stringent views about what can and cannot
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Speaker 1: be published, so there's a lot of censoring going on.
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Speaker 1: So dion Kit's this really pushy job working for the
9:17
Speaker 1: French government. They're living in Paris and they're basically reading
9:21
Speaker 1: books for a living. But because of the nature of
9:24
Speaker 1: the job, they're reading books, but they also get like
9:28
Speaker 1: loads of time off to kind of pursue what they want.
9:31
Speaker 1: Like they're they're having a pretty good time of it,
9:34
Speaker 1: to be honest. You see, Franz is currently ruled by
9:39
Speaker 1: Louis the fifteenth, who was not by any definition a
9:42
Speaker 1: super great king. So before him you had Louis the fourteenth.
9:47
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Louise right, but just too many,
9:50
Speaker 1: some might say, this song king. And so he had
9:54
Speaker 1: France as the major leading European power. See, there's a
9:59
Speaker 1: reason that for most of history, I say most of
10:02
Speaker 1: the history, most of modern history, French was the international
10:06
Speaker 1: language of business. It might still be, but like it
10:09
Speaker 1: was traditionally like the language of business because of how
10:16
Speaker 1: prominent France was and sort of expansion and rule and
10:19
Speaker 1: everything else. So the son king reigned and ruled, he
10:25
Speaker 1: was loved by the people, France was prosperous, and under
10:29
Speaker 1: Louis the fifteenth it was not. I mean, in his defense,
10:34
Speaker 1: Louay the fifteenth became king at like five years old.
10:37
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to blame them for any original
10:39
Speaker 1: issues because you know, I believe if you don't have
10:42
Speaker 1: the emotional maturity for losing a crayon, you really shouldn't
10:45
Speaker 1: be blamed for government decisions in your name. Just you know,
10:50
Speaker 1: that's no reason to elect people who have the emotional
10:54
Speaker 1: maturity or don't have the emotional maturity to losing a crayon.
10:59
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the British government right now, Really, what
11:01
Speaker 1: were you doing? Like, seriously, seriously, stop putting these agypts
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Speaker 1: in charge, Like what's wrong with you anyway? Spoiler alert.
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Speaker 1: By the end of Louis the fifteenth rating sort of
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Speaker 1: seventeen seventies, France has lost its power, its territories, Its
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Speaker 1: military is weak to say the least, and the treasury
11:23
Speaker 1: is considerably drained. Effectively, there's a cost of loving crisis
11:28
Speaker 1: going on, and the country is prime for revolution. Now
11:37
Speaker 1: let's get back to the seventeen fifties for a wee bit.
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Speaker 1: So France is trying to expand and regain its glory
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Speaker 1: and power, and Louis the fifteen thousand is grubbyy hands
11:48
Speaker 1: reaching out for Poland we see Polish nobles would vote
11:52
Speaker 1: in a king, and I've been doing this for a
11:53
Speaker 1: long time, but it had been taken by the Saxons
11:57
Speaker 1: in the late seventeenth century. Napoland at this point is
12:02
Speaker 1: absolutely massive, and all the neighboring states are eyeing it
12:06
Speaker 1: up and a bunch of obos. They want Louis's cousin,
12:10
Speaker 1: Prince de Conti, to be king. That being said, Louis
12:16
Speaker 1: cannot support this officially in any capacity because France is
12:21
Speaker 1: allied with Saxony, and so they can rely on each
12:26
Speaker 1: other a wee bit, and so officially he's like supporting Saxony,
12:32
Speaker 1: but unofficially the King wants his cousin in, so he
12:36
Speaker 1: wants to eat his cake and have it too low.
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Speaker 1: So he sets up the Secret, which is the King's Secret,
12:44
Speaker 1: a spy network that answers directly to him. So it
12:51
Speaker 1: despies that he ends up collecting. They already have sort
12:55
Speaker 1: of positions or high ranking positions, like within governments, so
13:00
Speaker 1: they're going to basically work for him, but use their
13:04
Speaker 1: official cover as well, get their official job as a cover.
13:09
Speaker 1: So it starts small, and then by the time Louie
13:11
Speaker 1: actually dies, there's like twenty fellows in this, you know,
13:15
Speaker 1: twenty people all together. So, as I said, the spies
13:20
Speaker 1: are already in like relatively prominent positions, so a lot
13:23
Speaker 1: of the time they would receive orders from the government
13:27
Speaker 1: or from the ministers, and this would to redly contradict
13:33
Speaker 1: orders from the king. So it's it's kind of complicated.
13:37
Speaker 1: So you're kind of walking a very fine line, and
13:42
Speaker 1: this is going to cause issues because like you've got
13:44
Speaker 1: these spies who are in these positions of power and
13:47
Speaker 1: they're undermining government authority, so for them, the rules don't
13:51
Speaker 1: really apply. And it kind of also shows that the
13:55
Speaker 1: King doesn't really have as much power or authority as
14:01
Speaker 1: he did or he should have or wants to have.
14:06
Speaker 1: So basically, in order to make the Polish plan happen,
14:10
Speaker 1: they had just strengthen their bonds with Russia, and so
14:16
Speaker 1: the King sends Chevalier Andrew Peter McKenzie Douglas. You might
14:23
Speaker 1: be thinking that doesn't sound like the French list of names,
14:26
Speaker 1: and you would be correct, because he is a Scottish
14:29
Speaker 1: Jacobite working in France. It's not that complicated. Loads of
14:34
Speaker 1: Scottish people ended up working in France, like they all
14:37
Speaker 1: just kind of went off there and they all learned
14:40
Speaker 1: French because why not, they were already multi lingual at
14:43
Speaker 1: this point, may as well add another one to the list.
14:47
Speaker 1: So he goes off and dayone accompanies him. Now, the
14:51
Speaker 1: official excuse slash reason is to convince Russia not to
14:55
Speaker 1: ally with England in the war that's on the horizon.
15:00
Speaker 1: The unofficial is to promote content. So the plan is
15:07
Speaker 1: to go in and sort of bribe a bunch of
15:11
Speaker 1: officials to effectively work together to get Conte promoted and
15:16
Speaker 1: that's the plan. So effectively, there's this war that's on
15:23
Speaker 1: the horizon and Prussia because like this is before Germany
15:30
Speaker 1: is Germany. It's got all these different states, so you've
15:32
Speaker 1: got the Hanover, Prussia, Saxony, et cetera. So Prussia ends
15:37
Speaker 1: up allying with England and it invades Saxony, who is
15:41
Speaker 1: allied with France, and it basically starts the Seven Years' War.
15:47
Speaker 1: So on one side context you have England, Hanover, Prussia, Portugal, Hessey,
15:54
Speaker 1: Castle Brunswick and yeah, that's one side. And on the
16:00
Speaker 1: other side you have France, Austria, Saxony, Hesse Darmstrat, Spain,
16:05
Speaker 1: and Sweden. So Russia is on the side of France
16:13
Speaker 1: like initially and then and then it's not, I'll explain.
16:18
Speaker 1: So Dale ends up being like an official secretary to
16:24
Speaker 1: the embassy in Saint Petersburg, and you know they have
16:31
Speaker 1: to travel like between Saint Petersburg and Versailles quite regularly
16:36
Speaker 1: on horseback because you know you've got oriyan Airdale's there.
16:40
Speaker 1: It's not a quite cops cup and a jump, Nope.
16:44
Speaker 1: So Empress Elizabeth of Russia and Louis the fifteenth are
16:49
Speaker 1: basically pen pals, and they're trying to build relations, and
16:53
Speaker 1: so they're sending these letters back and forth, and they're
16:56
Speaker 1: hidden in a secret compartment in Montesque's of the Laws,
17:02
Speaker 1: which is just like we're sneakly heading in a secret
17:05
Speaker 1: compartment in his book, like spy stuff. And this works
17:11
Speaker 1: because this gets the Empress to sign a treaty with
17:14
Speaker 1: France supporting it and its allies against Prussia. So when
17:19
Speaker 1: the Empress like signs this treaty, Dale rushes back to
17:23
Speaker 1: France like so fast, like they are just hell for leather.
17:27
Speaker 1: Did they end up breaking their leg? Don't ask me
17:31
Speaker 1: how exactly they break their leg. Did they fall off
17:34
Speaker 1: a horse, Did they trip out of a carriage where
17:37
Speaker 1: they attacked by some angry geese? We don't know. All
17:41
Speaker 1: we know is they broke their leg. So Deal is
17:48
Speaker 1: recognized as an expert on Russian politics, which is handy.
17:51
Speaker 1: When the Empress dies in seventeen sixty two and the
17:56
Speaker 1: king literally goes to them and asks like what to
17:59
Speaker 1: do politically, like that shows you how revered Dale is
18:04
Speaker 1: in this position at this point. Now, now this is
18:07
Speaker 1: this is also handa because after the Empress Elizabeth's death,
18:13
Speaker 1: Russia ends up switching sides and joins allies with England
18:18
Speaker 1: in Prussia instead of France. Dalon does end up fighting
18:24
Speaker 1: in the Seven Years' War as a captain of the dragoons,
18:29
Speaker 1: which are basically like the fansy soldiers. And the thing
18:31
Speaker 1: about being a dragoon is you are dragoon for life.
18:36
Speaker 1: Like that is, It's just a thing. And luckily Dale
18:41
Speaker 1: wasn't at it for very long, and because you see,
18:46
Speaker 1: Prussia was doing very well for itself. However, France was not.
18:51
Speaker 1: It was losing battles, he was losing territory. And this
18:54
Speaker 1: leads to a few good prominent people being exiled, banished, banished.
19:04
Speaker 1: There's a movie where someone goes banished, and that's in
19:07
Speaker 1: my head every time mustay banished? So day on, like
19:12
Speaker 1: their superiors are exiled, day on, somehow keeps on landing
19:17
Speaker 1: and shit and coming out smelling roses. They end up
19:20
Speaker 1: with a promotion. They're appointed the secretary to the Duke
19:23
Speaker 1: de Nivine, who just happens to be a brokeren peace
19:27
Speaker 1: with England. Now the Duke points out, like how hard
19:33
Speaker 1: of a worker day is? Like they start writing about
19:36
Speaker 1: how they are working from like morning to night. They're
19:39
Speaker 1: seriously they're taking the job. They're basically not fucking around. Right.
19:44
Speaker 1: They land in England in September and by November they
19:48
Speaker 1: have this trete knocked out and this basically ends the
19:52
Speaker 1: seven years' wark is like they've got this treaty. However,
19:57
Speaker 1: the Duke himself bloody hates England and so they recommend
20:02
Speaker 1: that Dale is left in charge until a new ambassador
20:06
Speaker 1: can be put there. So they're like, let me get
20:07
Speaker 1: the heck at a dodge. I don't want to be here,
20:10
Speaker 1: and let's leave Dale in charge because they know the people,
20:13
Speaker 1: they know what they're doing, and let's get to it.
20:16
Speaker 1: And so they end up being put in as this
20:18
Speaker 1: interim ambassador and they have effectively unlimited ambassadorial power for
20:28
Speaker 1: a year, like it takes a year to get in
20:30
Speaker 1: an ambassador sent there, and so they have all this
20:33
Speaker 1: power and it's kind of unchecked, like they kind of
20:38
Speaker 1: have a cart blanche to do whatever the fuck they like. Meanwhile, Conte,
20:45
Speaker 1: the prince who you know, Louis was trying to make
20:48
Speaker 1: king of Poland, attempts a coup which is which was
20:53
Speaker 1: a terrible terrible idea, and Louis just like, nah, Paul,
20:59
Speaker 1: you're right. So the King's Secret they don't do what
21:03
Speaker 1: they will set out to do, which was put Conti
21:05
Speaker 1: on the Polish throne. Instead, the King's Secret get moved
21:11
Speaker 1: to a new plan, which is, I should you not
21:15
Speaker 1: invade England. They've just signed a damn peace treaty and
21:19
Speaker 1: already they're like, this is a good idea. So they
21:23
Speaker 1: end up sending a military officer to go work until
21:26
Speaker 1: day on and like map out the coast and figure
21:28
Speaker 1: out the best points to invade from. And the idea
21:32
Speaker 1: is they will write back in like super secret spy
21:35
Speaker 1: code and bribe a bunch of people like they did
21:37
Speaker 1: in Russia to basically do all this. And Louis the
21:45
Speaker 1: fifteenth literally writes this down. I feel like they're mis
21:50
Speaker 1: understanding the concept of cloak and dagger here. It's not
21:54
Speaker 1: the smartest of choices to write down. You know, you're
21:59
Speaker 1: so for secret invasion plans to the country that you've
22:02
Speaker 1: signed a treaty with. So Dion has an actual document
22:07
Speaker 1: from Louis the fifteenth like you can spy for me,
22:11
Speaker 1: the King of France, so that France can invade England,
22:15
Speaker 1: the country with which we have signed a treaty, and
22:17
Speaker 1: you are staying in So again at this point there's
22:25
Speaker 1: two contradictory orders. Like Dion is supposed to be building
22:28
Speaker 1: alliances and sort of bonds with England as a French
22:33
Speaker 1: ambassador ish and so there's no ambassador, so they're supposed
22:41
Speaker 1: to be doing all of this sneaky sneaky spy shit
22:44
Speaker 1: in order to aid the French invasion of England. So
22:50
Speaker 1: at this point, Dion goes back to Paris to receive
22:54
Speaker 1: the Cross of Saint Louis. It's a metal given by
22:58
Speaker 1: the king to those who showed unusual or exemplary heroism
23:01
Speaker 1: in war. So effectively they get, you know, a medal
23:06
Speaker 1: for being involved in the Seven Years' War. Like on
23:10
Speaker 1: the side it's secretly for being like doing the span shit,
23:13
Speaker 1: but like officially it's out there for doing general like
23:19
Speaker 1: dragoon stuff. And this is where they are named the
23:23
Speaker 1: Chevalier Dale. So chevalier basically means a night. But yeah,
23:29
Speaker 1: so Deon goes back to London with the shiny new
23:32
Speaker 1: medal and they're negotiating with England while working against England
23:37
Speaker 1: and writing about French and British political affairs, and they're
23:42
Speaker 1: also socializing a lot in England, Dolen out wine, gifting
23:46
Speaker 1: lots and lots of wine, which is which is which
23:51
Speaker 1: is an interesting thing to do, considering France is not
23:54
Speaker 1: doing well financially and Dion is just spending money on wine.
23:59
Speaker 1: The French foreign minister ends up criticizing Dion, saying they're
24:02
Speaker 1: just spending too much money, and Deon's just like, how
24:07
Speaker 1: rude of you to treat me like this. Finally, an
24:11
Speaker 1: ambassador is being sent to England and Dion finds out
24:15
Speaker 1: that they're getting demoted back into secretary, which results in
24:20
Speaker 1: Dalone sending some very angry letters back to France and
24:25
Speaker 1: they're just like causing such a stink that members of
24:29
Speaker 1: the Secret, like their like comrades are going just like,
24:33
Speaker 1: don't cause a scene, you know, like don't make don't
24:37
Speaker 1: make a big fuss about this, and Deyon is like,
24:40
Speaker 1: fuck this for a game of soldiers, and they double down.
24:45
Speaker 1: They're demoted their members of the King's Secret, but they
24:48
Speaker 1: are very important people, like they're the rules don't apply
24:54
Speaker 1: or remember, so they're so used to having honor and
24:57
Speaker 1: power and then to have this taken from them. They're
24:59
Speaker 1: just just simply not happy about this situation. So Deon
25:05
Speaker 1: is stirring the pot and very much causing a scene.
25:11
Speaker 1: But yeah, like again, members of the Secret, the King's Secret,
25:16
Speaker 1: like they go against the foreign minister so much that
25:21
Speaker 1: this is very much part of the power for them.
25:25
Speaker 1: So when the new ambassador Girlshet when he arrives, Dion
25:30
Speaker 1: just refuses to leave, going only the King appointed me.
25:33
Speaker 1: Only the King can remove me. And then the King
25:36
Speaker 1: goes You're removed, like he agrees with his ministers, and
25:42
Speaker 1: he's publicly being like, Dion, get the fuck out of
25:45
Speaker 1: their mate, what are you doing? So the government sides
25:50
Speaker 1: with the King, the King's side to the government, and
25:53
Speaker 1: they try to recall Deon, and Dion is like, h no,
26:01
Speaker 1: see Diayon is really mad because gershe is notoriously mediocre.
26:05
Speaker 1: So they don't understand why this mediocre, incompetent person is
26:09
Speaker 1: being put in charge. And so Louis under like advice
26:19
Speaker 1: from the head of the secret is planning to like
26:22
Speaker 1: officially strip Deon of titles but like continue paying them
26:26
Speaker 1: on the sly to stay in London as a spy.
26:30
Speaker 1: But Deyon doesn't know this isn't aware of this plan
26:35
Speaker 1: and basically wants to like show them their hand, and
26:41
Speaker 1: so in seventeen sixty four they publish Secrets, not the
26:46
Speaker 1: King Secret, but it's like a two hundred page document
26:49
Speaker 1: with correspondence and other info and it's basically this massive scandal.
26:54
Speaker 1: So the French government charge Dayon with libel and they
27:00
Speaker 1: try to like extra write them, like they try and
27:03
Speaker 1: like get them, but England, England just goes, no, he
27:15
Speaker 1: hasn't broken any laws, he hasn't done anything, so like
27:19
Speaker 1: we're not getting rid of them, Like that's not happening.
27:22
Speaker 1: Because remember Deon still has the documents, the official documents
27:30
Speaker 1: signed by the King of France basically saying spy for
27:34
Speaker 1: me in England, so we can invade them, and the
27:36
Speaker 1: King wants that back. Now Deon hasn't like produced that yet,
27:42
Speaker 1: but they know that they can. So while Dion is
27:50
Speaker 1: charged with libel, there is straight up a plan to
27:54
Speaker 1: kidnap him. And this guy comes forward and says that
27:57
Speaker 1: one of girl she's met and that he is one
27:59
Speaker 1: a girl she's men and that he's part of this
28:02
Speaker 1: plot to kill Daon by the Foreign Minister and Gerlshet.
28:07
Speaker 1: So the plan is to drug them, kidnap them, and
28:11
Speaker 1: then murder them. Like that is the plan. It is
28:15
Speaker 1: very messy because this comes forward and everybody is just shamed.
28:20
Speaker 1: So basically Dayon gets this pretty sweet deal where they
28:24
Speaker 1: get a pension from the King of France where they
28:27
Speaker 1: also get to like secretly spy for France and England.
28:31
Speaker 1: But the deal is they cannot return to France, and
28:36
Speaker 1: so they're kind of banished but with pity, and so
28:42
Speaker 1: they stay in England. They stay in London, and it's
28:46
Speaker 1: not the most exciting of times for them. Meanwhile, in
28:52
Speaker 1: paid exle, the day On publishes thirteen volumes thirteen thirteen
28:59
Speaker 1: volumes on government, finance, policy and taxation. Clearly they had
29:04
Speaker 1: a lot of time in their hands. They also amassed
29:07
Speaker 1: a collection of like over six thousand books. Like I
29:12
Speaker 1: like reading too, but I feel like six thousand feels
29:14
Speaker 1: a bit excessive, Like could I read six thousand books?
29:18
Speaker 1: Maybe it does feel like a bit much. I mean
29:20
Speaker 1: I could, I could? I No, I don't have time
29:25
Speaker 1: so not right now anyway. So by the time seventeen
29:29
Speaker 1: seventy rolls around the new sort of ambassador French ambassador
29:34
Speaker 1: in England, he is convinced that Dale is a lady
29:39
Speaker 1: and they bring this like to the king. So you've
29:42
Speaker 1: got Horace Walpole, who's England's notorious gossip who has hung
29:46
Speaker 1: out with Dane a couple of times. They've drank wine
29:49
Speaker 1: and whatever. Like they and their associates are like, yeah,
29:53
Speaker 1: Dale's a chick, we're talking about So how this rumor started?
30:01
Speaker 1: We're not entirely sure. However, there is a theory that
30:04
Speaker 1: Dale started at themselves. That being said, it's not easy
30:11
Speaker 1: for dyone once this rumor goes around because it swirls
30:15
Speaker 1: and turns out so much that bankers and businessmen and
30:20
Speaker 1: like everyone in between are literally betting on which gender
30:24
Speaker 1: Dion is, and they gets so dangerous that Dion is
30:28
Speaker 1: like mobbed in the street with people trying to figure
30:30
Speaker 1: out like grab their clothes and figure out, like you
30:33
Speaker 1: know what genitals they have, that they are not safe
30:38
Speaker 1: in London, and one day they just fucking disappear and
30:42
Speaker 1: their friends are convinced they've been kidnapped or killed. They
30:48
Speaker 1: do return six week laster. They're just like, Oh, I
30:50
Speaker 1: was in Germany. I went to Germany for a bit
30:53
Speaker 1: because I was worried for my safety. And then I
30:56
Speaker 1: heard that you'll thought I was missing, so I came back.
30:59
Speaker 1: And they do admit they had considered going to Ireland,
31:03
Speaker 1: the most tolerant of states, and they had considered going
31:06
Speaker 1: to Ireland because nobody knew them there, but they could
31:08
Speaker 1: have gotten away with it. So London is just a
31:14
Speaker 1: bit much by the time they come back and they
31:16
Speaker 1: are they're closeted at home. They're closeted at home because
31:24
Speaker 1: at this point they're still wearing their dragoon uniform, like
31:27
Speaker 1: that's what they wear because that's again, you're appointed for
31:30
Speaker 1: life if you're a dragoon. So they're constantly walking around
31:34
Speaker 1: like this and people are like man handling them to
31:37
Speaker 1: try and find out, you know, is there a payer
31:40
Speaker 1: revey that's gone on down there, And so most of
31:43
Speaker 1: the time they just kind of shut in and don't
31:46
Speaker 1: leave the house. And then one of their pals offers
31:48
Speaker 1: to let them stay in their country, stay for a
31:50
Speaker 1: couple of months, and they accept because obviously it's safer
31:54
Speaker 1: for them. Now, the King's advisors send as secretary over
32:01
Speaker 1: to England to find out Dion's gender, to which they say, yes, yes,
32:09
Speaker 1: Dayon is definitely a woman. I assessed the situation. I
32:14
Speaker 1: inspected them and they saw that they were women, and
32:18
Speaker 1: the King of France is like okay. Meanwhile, with all
32:25
Speaker 1: this going on, Dion is asking for the exile to
32:30
Speaker 1: be lifted, but of course they want to keep dayon
32:36
Speaker 1: in England for spy work and also because like being
32:40
Speaker 1: in France is going to cause some issues because everyone
32:42
Speaker 1: knows who they are. Luckily every day on though. In
32:47
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty four, King Louis the fifteenth dies and the
32:51
Speaker 1: twenty year old Larry the sixteenth is now King of France.
32:56
Speaker 1: So Louis the sixteenth is told about the king's secret
32:59
Speaker 1: and he's like, what the fuck? Shut it down? What
33:02
Speaker 1: is this? Like he is of the opinion that, like
33:06
Speaker 1: the king shouldn't be doing this weird cook and dagger shit,
33:09
Speaker 1: and so he's like no, no, no, no, no, no,
33:10
Speaker 1: like done now. Lewis is also informed that Dale is
33:16
Speaker 1: a woman, and there he's like, cool, let's give them protection,
33:20
Speaker 1: a pension, remove the eggs al but also in exchange
33:24
Speaker 1: for those documents for invading England, because I feel like
33:26
Speaker 1: we shouldn't have those out and about you know what
33:28
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, maybe let's not have that happening and
33:33
Speaker 1: and the negotiation it takes a while. It takes a
33:37
Speaker 1: while because there are some very strong personalities in this
33:41
Speaker 1: and they have they have again very strong opinions. See
33:47
Speaker 1: Dyon wants it known that Gershie tried to kill them,
33:50
Speaker 1: and they also want to be fully recognized, like officially
33:53
Speaker 1: recognized as a woman. And the King is like, fine,
33:58
Speaker 1: I guess, but you have to live as a woman,
34:01
Speaker 1: so like you have to wear women's clothing, not men's clothing,
34:06
Speaker 1: because like in France as well, at this point, it
34:09
Speaker 1: was illegal for women to wear trousers. So it was
34:12
Speaker 1: a whole situation that being said, dressing as a man
34:17
Speaker 1: when you were a woman, it wasn't seen as unusual
34:24
Speaker 1: because it happened like quite a few times, like it
34:25
Speaker 1: was a known like thing that happened, so people weren't
34:29
Speaker 1: too surprised by it. So Dayon is like, Okay, if
34:34
Speaker 1: I'm wearing women's clothing, then I should be like to
34:38
Speaker 1: wear like my dragoon uniform because like I've always worn it.
34:41
Speaker 1: And also women's clothing.
34:43
Speaker 2: Is really uncomfortable, and and they're just kind of going
34:48
Speaker 2: back and forth over this, and eventually Dye is like, fine,
34:51
Speaker 2: but you're going to pay for my new wardrobe, and
34:53
Speaker 2: the King's like.
34:55
Speaker 1: Grand, let's do this. So meanwhile in England, people are
35:01
Speaker 1: betting so much on gender, right on the gender of Dale,
35:06
Speaker 1: and it gets to a point where like judges, a judge,
35:10
Speaker 1: an official judge declares it illegal to bet on someone's gender,
35:15
Speaker 1: and I think it might still be illegal today, but
35:16
Speaker 1: like they make it illegal, so you can't do that.
35:21
Speaker 1: So by seventeen seventy seven, so like three years after
35:24
Speaker 1: Louis becomes King, Deon manages to leave England for France
35:30
Speaker 1: and they're still in uniform and again and you've got
35:33
Speaker 1: these gender dressing laws and so they're told they have
35:36
Speaker 1: to change or get arrested. So like initially they end
35:40
Speaker 1: up in this convent and they're like change into women's
35:43
Speaker 1: clothes in the life. M No, So they end of
35:46
Speaker 1: gotte to a monastery and staying in this sort of
35:50
Speaker 1: areel where like the female relatives of the monks would
35:54
Speaker 1: stay if they were visiting. But again they're still in
35:57
Speaker 1: their fucking uniform. Now there's this whole thing about women's clothing,
36:03
Speaker 1: and Dayon isn't super into this concept of femininity because
36:08
Speaker 1: like it's not just about the clothes. It's about control,
36:13
Speaker 1: it's about being a woman, is not about the clothes
36:16
Speaker 1: you wear. Like we always talk about breaking down gender roles,
36:19
Speaker 1: and then this is my thing about turfs, right, I
36:21
Speaker 1: fucking hate turfs, and I'll shout it from the rooftops,
36:23
Speaker 1: right like women have fought for years to not be
36:27
Speaker 1: conditioned and forced into these predetermined gender roles. And then
36:33
Speaker 1: you get angry for trans women not like falling within
36:38
Speaker 1: traditional gender roles, like for not adhering to these pretend
36:44
Speaker 1: made up rules, like fuck this for a game of soldiers,
36:49
Speaker 1: Like what the fuck are you talking about? It's stupid.
36:51
Speaker 1: It's just stupid, you know what I think? Now it
36:56
Speaker 1: was a good time to go for a message from
36:59
Speaker 1: our responsor good luck, and we are back. So where
37:09
Speaker 1: we're we? That's right, ranting about women's clothing. So basically
37:14
Speaker 1: Dale is fully aware that it's not the clothing itself,
37:17
Speaker 1: but it's what the clothing represents, because clothing represents character,
37:22
Speaker 1: and in the eyes of the French law, the French
37:25
Speaker 1: government and sort of the general populace, by forcing female
37:30
Speaker 1: regalia onto Dale, it would in a way subdue them,
37:36
Speaker 1: Like that is the point. It's subdue the person. It
37:38
Speaker 1: is to make them less vocal. It's to reduce their power.
37:43
Speaker 1: And female clothing, especially typical female attire, like throughout history,
37:50
Speaker 1: is done in such a way to restrict movement. Like
37:55
Speaker 1: course it I mean, of course it was shapeware, so
37:57
Speaker 1: like that's it much. But like the giant hoop skirts
38:01
Speaker 1: or like wiggle skirts when they came in, like throughout history,
38:06
Speaker 1: you have there's not normal. Course its corsets are underwear,
38:09
Speaker 1: like it's a support device, but like there were so
38:11
Speaker 1: many items of clothing that exist. Like the reason the
38:16
Speaker 1: reticule became like that way tiny teeny tiny handbag situation
38:22
Speaker 1: was because pockets were removed from women's clothing. And one
38:25
Speaker 1: of the reasons pockets were removed from women's clothing is
38:28
Speaker 1: because of the French Revolution. So they were worried that
38:32
Speaker 1: people would have pamphlets and because they would have these
38:35
Speaker 1: massive sort of pockets underneath their skirts, and they didn't
38:39
Speaker 1: want women carrying pamphlets, you know, and it's a whole
38:43
Speaker 1: situation anyway, The idea of feminine clothing is that it's
38:49
Speaker 1: going to make deal docile, and like not everyone is
38:55
Speaker 1: like happy with this idea of forcing them into women's
38:59
Speaker 1: clothing even though they're identifying as a woman. So the
39:03
Speaker 1: dragoons are well mad about it, because as far as
39:07
Speaker 1: they're concerned, I mean, they're not pushing for female soldiers
39:09
Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination, but as far as
39:12
Speaker 1: they're concerned, dragoons are like, it's a lifetime appointment. You
39:20
Speaker 1: are a dragoon for life, and so they're well mad
39:23
Speaker 1: about it because you're basically seeing that you can take
39:26
Speaker 1: that from them even though it's supposed to be a
39:28
Speaker 1: lifetime thing, like it's an issue. And then you've got
39:31
Speaker 1: women who are fighting for this because they're going, well,
39:35
Speaker 1: you shouldn't force them into this, because just because women are,
39:40
Speaker 1: you know whatever, they shouldn't be pushed into wearing skirts,
39:43
Speaker 1: and there's this whole movement behind it. Eventually, Dale concedes
39:51
Speaker 1: and Marie Antoinette's wardrobe director is charged with giving them
39:56
Speaker 1: their attire, and the king is paying for it, because
40:02
Speaker 1: of course, of course they do, because the king is
40:06
Speaker 1: paying for it, because Dion's like, you're paying me, and
40:08
Speaker 1: so they're getting the best dresser in the fucking country,
40:12
Speaker 1: like Marie Antoinette's personal wardrobe, Like this is like all
40:18
Speaker 1: going to be handmade, it's going to be the best
40:20
Speaker 1: of stuff. And the government, i mean effectively, they're trying
40:24
Speaker 1: to restrict Done's access to the public's fear, they're trying
40:29
Speaker 1: to reduce their power. But Dyon is not going to
40:32
Speaker 1: go away like slowly, Like that's not happening. So at
40:37
Speaker 1: the age of forty nine, Dale starts wearing female attire.
40:43
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy seven, they are presented to court and
40:48
Speaker 1: they like and they're like hanging out with Marie Antoinette,
40:51
Speaker 1: like they're very accepted by Louis, like they're they're doing
40:58
Speaker 1: pretty well for themselves. They're kind of really accepted in court,
41:02
Speaker 1: and it sort of rebuilds their public standing because remember
41:07
Speaker 1: they were a disgraced spy and now they were French heroine,
41:11
Speaker 1: like they've moved through the ranks. And they also change
41:15
Speaker 1: it from chevalier to chevalier, so chevalier de Leon or Dion, sorry,
41:22
Speaker 1: chevalier Deon, which is heard about this. It's basically you
41:28
Speaker 1: could have been chevalier. It was already a title, but
41:31
Speaker 1: it would be like the wife of a chevalier, you know.
41:35
Speaker 1: So the nobility's opinion of them, it raises, and the
41:37
Speaker 1: kind of become like, you know, hot stuff, and they're
41:42
Speaker 1: getting invited to like parties. They're kind of going around.
41:45
Speaker 1: They're going to soirees. The newspapers are writing about them,
41:49
Speaker 1: Like if there's a gossip column, they're in it, you
41:51
Speaker 1: know what I mean. The pamphlets, they're in the pamphlets.
41:55
Speaker 1: So what's interesting about them is like they don't change
41:59
Speaker 1: their manner as to conform to the concept of femininity
42:02
Speaker 1: in womanhood. So they're fencing at parties, they're like speaking openly,
42:07
Speaker 1: they're giving opinions, and they poured coffee for the ladies.
42:11
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. Men are supposed to pour the coffee.
42:14
Speaker 1: Women are not supposed to pour their own coffee. It's
42:16
Speaker 1: a rule in Rococo fans. Don't judge me. I'm just
42:19
Speaker 1: telling you how it is. But they're like, I'm going
42:22
Speaker 1: to pour my coffee. I'm not going to like force
42:24
Speaker 1: myself into this traditional feminine role regardless of whether I'm
42:30
Speaker 1: a woman or not, Like it doesn't matter, because gender
42:34
Speaker 1: roles are bullshit. So Dale actually ends up meeting Benjamin Franklin,
42:40
Speaker 1: who's get support for the American War of Independence. So
42:43
Speaker 1: they're like dining together. They're hanging out and Dale wants
42:47
Speaker 1: to help out in the war. Like they want to
42:49
Speaker 1: be like, I want to support you, I want to
42:51
Speaker 1: help you fight England, like Benny buddy, like let's get
42:55
Speaker 1: to this. And so they go to the government and
42:58
Speaker 1: the Government's like, no, can you join a nunnery instead,
43:03
Speaker 1: Like because they're so openly out there and doing this,
43:07
Speaker 1: they really want to start pushing them under the rug.
43:09
Speaker 1: And so they are like trying to force them to
43:13
Speaker 1: go to a nunnery. And they does consider this, like
43:17
Speaker 1: they visit some convents, but they don't really vibe with
43:20
Speaker 1: the whole thing because there's not a lot to do
43:22
Speaker 1: in a nunnery, Like it's boring, Like they pray, maybe
43:28
Speaker 1: read a Bible or two, like and then that's it.
43:31
Speaker 1: So when they're like convincing, like fucking convince dyone write
43:39
Speaker 1: to everybody they know to try and convince them to
43:42
Speaker 1: let them join and aid in the War of Independence,
43:46
Speaker 1: like they are trying. Eventually everyone's like just go back
43:52
Speaker 1: to Burgunday. The King's like come on, like go back
43:56
Speaker 1: to bargun Day, chill out away, bit have some time
43:59
Speaker 1: to your self. And I'd like to imagine that Dale
44:06
Speaker 1: like just puts a hand up to their forehead as
44:08
Speaker 1: if about to faint, and it's like, I am to
44:11
Speaker 1: ail if I'm being bored, like they're just I am
44:16
Speaker 1: too Sidentally, Basically, the idea is that they've been sitting
44:19
Speaker 1: about and doing nothing for so long that like they're
44:22
Speaker 1: just too sick to go, like I'm wasting away, Like
44:25
Speaker 1: they just have nothing else to do, so they're too
44:28
Speaker 1: ill to like travel to Burgundy. And it gets to
44:32
Speaker 1: the point where Louis is just so pissed off he
44:36
Speaker 1: has Dale arrested and imprisoned for nineteen days. So Dale
44:44
Speaker 1: compares this to Joan of Arcarc. It's like, oh, I
44:48
Speaker 1: am so being treated like Joan of Arc, who was
44:50
Speaker 1: also punished for wanting to fight in a war and
44:53
Speaker 1: wearing men's clothing, which is which is true, which is
44:57
Speaker 1: actually that's actually why Joan of Arc was arrested. She
45:01
Speaker 1: was arrested because she was wearing men's clothing, not for
45:05
Speaker 1: like witchcraft, like they were like they caught her on it,
45:07
Speaker 1: and they did it sneakily. It was a sneaky thing
45:09
Speaker 1: they did. But that's not here nor there. So after
45:13
Speaker 1: nineteen days, you know, Dayon comes out and is like, fine,
45:19
Speaker 1: I will go to Burgunday and I won't wear trousers,
45:23
Speaker 1: And so they go and stay with their mum and
45:26
Speaker 1: they're there in Burgundy with their mum for the next
45:29
Speaker 1: six years. Now. I don't know how their mom felt
45:32
Speaker 1: about the scenario, but I feel like it was not
45:34
Speaker 1: a positive experience for anybody, to be honest. So they
45:40
Speaker 1: do try and leave for England. Dayon's like, hey, let
45:44
Speaker 1: me get passage to England, because like, I'm just chilling
45:47
Speaker 1: here in Burgundy and I've got nothing to do, and
45:49
Speaker 1: like it would just be a fun little trip for me.
45:53
Speaker 1: And Franz is like, no, you did try and sell
45:58
Speaker 1: our secrets to them, and I feel like, probably not
46:02
Speaker 1: the best idea because they don't know if they've amassed
46:05
Speaker 1: extra spy stuff, like they don't know what's happening. They
46:07
Speaker 1: don't want to run that risk. And so seventeen eighty five, though,
46:14
Speaker 1: they do end up going and they go ahead to
46:16
Speaker 1: England and there for a couple of years, four issuers,
46:19
Speaker 1: I think, and then Dale goes back to France and
46:25
Speaker 1: when they get there, they are in full support of
46:28
Speaker 1: the French Revolution, even though they're themselves are members of
46:32
Speaker 1: the aristocracy mean, I mean, in fairness, they had been
46:36
Speaker 1: dealt a shift hand by the government and they just
46:40
Speaker 1: kind of really saw like power to the people as
46:43
Speaker 1: like this really good movement, and they were like super
46:45
Speaker 1: into it, and they ended up writing a letter to
46:50
Speaker 1: the National Assembly asking to be reinstated into the army
46:54
Speaker 1: and given a regiment of women to lead into battle
46:57
Speaker 1: for France. Now the Assembly are like laughing awful little bit,
47:03
Speaker 1: but also like applauding, so they're kind of supporting it,
47:06
Speaker 1: but also they're they're not gonna do that. They think
47:09
Speaker 1: it's a silly idea, but like they appreciate like the
47:12
Speaker 1: idea of it, like you know what I mean, But
47:15
Speaker 1: it's one of those things we're like yes, but no,
47:19
Speaker 1: so the government are just like no, no, no, no no.
47:22
Speaker 1: The nationals ampth like that'sn't happening. So Dione originally super
47:28
Speaker 1: supporter of like the French Revolution because they're like, I
47:31
Speaker 1: don't think they really understood where it was gonna go,
47:36
Speaker 1: so think again, big supporter. And then you know, the
47:43
Speaker 1: aristocracy started being gaging.
47:47
Speaker 2: Like.
47:49
Speaker 1: Louis loses the head, and once Louis loses his head,
47:54
Speaker 1: dyone loses the pension. So you know, not really good
47:58
Speaker 1: for them, like fiscal and also remembering that they are
48:02
Speaker 1: also a member of the aristocracy and they don't want
48:05
Speaker 1: to lose their head. Needless to say, they return to
48:10
Speaker 1: London and at this point there they're not exactly a
48:12
Speaker 1: spring chicken. At this point. Dayon is pretty she's pretty
48:16
Speaker 1: old at this point, and so she returns to London
48:20
Speaker 1: and ends up signing a deal for like a ten
48:24
Speaker 1: volume memoir. Like this is the thing about like back
48:28
Speaker 1: in the day, people would pay by the volume, Like
48:34
Speaker 1: it was just something you did. You paid by the volume.
48:36
Speaker 1: You didn't pay by you know, the page to the word.
48:40
Speaker 1: It was by the volume. And so they're gonna get
48:42
Speaker 1: like a ten volume memoir about their life. They're going
48:45
Speaker 1: to like work with like their letters and correspondence. And
48:49
Speaker 1: so they start writing it. Now they write, they don't
48:55
Speaker 1: finish it, but they do write. And the thing about
48:59
Speaker 1: it is as well, is that a lot of this
49:01
Speaker 1: is uh hit about this gently fictionalized. One they had
49:09
Speaker 1: a reputation to uphold, and two again paid by the volume.
49:15
Speaker 1: So they start discussing their life in a sort of
49:22
Speaker 1: twisted way. So they say that they were when they
49:27
Speaker 1: were born that their dad demanded, Remember Louis Debomont, Louis
49:32
Speaker 1: de Beaumont demanded his son. And as such, when Dale
49:37
Speaker 1: was born, like they instead of dressing their daughter in
49:43
Speaker 1: girl's clothing, they dressed their son, their girl in boys
49:47
Speaker 1: clothing and raised them as a boy. Like that, that's
49:50
Speaker 1: the story that Dale is going with. But here's the thing.
49:57
Speaker 1: We know that Dale was assigned mail at birth because
50:01
Speaker 1: of genitalia. Like that is that is something that we
50:04
Speaker 1: we know. So the way that they tell their life,
50:10
Speaker 1: they teach they teach it, and they don't teach it,
50:12
Speaker 1: they share it in such a way that you know,
50:16
Speaker 1: they're describing it as Oh, I was told that I
50:21
Speaker 1: was a boy and I was forced to live my
50:23
Speaker 1: life as a boy. I mean technically they were told that,
50:26
Speaker 1: But the point is the story, as the story goes,
50:31
Speaker 1: they were born assigned female at birth, but we're forced
50:34
Speaker 1: to dress as a boy and love as a boy
50:36
Speaker 1: their whole life in order to like get their dad's
50:41
Speaker 1: a state or whatever and room and get an education
50:45
Speaker 1: and be a man instead of I don't know, their
50:48
Speaker 1: dad just shagging more and having more kids, don't I
50:52
Speaker 1: don't know anyway, like just try for more like it's
50:55
Speaker 1: that's kind of what you do, isn't it. Yeah, no, anyway,
51:00
Speaker 1: So and that they had to have this like life
51:04
Speaker 1: as a man until they had the option to like
51:09
Speaker 1: live as a woman. And so that's the theory, that's
51:12
Speaker 1: the story. But we know that they were saying mail
51:14
Speaker 1: at birth and that they you know, realized over time
51:18
Speaker 1: that they were a woman and you know, put themselves
51:22
Speaker 1: into a position that almost like ended their life, Like
51:26
Speaker 1: it made their life a very difficult one to live
51:30
Speaker 1: and to any point, at any point, like having the
51:34
Speaker 1: money they did and the skills that they did, the
51:37
Speaker 1: Chevalierdale could have easily just switched, like if they were
51:45
Speaker 1: not trans like if they were like a man, they
51:48
Speaker 1: could have basically just gone back to doing that. And
51:50
Speaker 1: like again like living in Ireland or somewhere they weren't
51:52
Speaker 1: known and they could have started a new life, but
51:55
Speaker 1: they chose not to do that. They chose to continue
51:58
Speaker 1: living the life lived like And we have portraits of them,
52:02
Speaker 1: and the portraits of them are in sort of the
52:04
Speaker 1: big wigs and the gowns and they're like they were
52:07
Speaker 1: you know, the cross, the medal and also the revolution ribbons,
52:11
Speaker 1: like they are doing all this stuff. So they're writing
52:19
Speaker 1: their memoirs, but they're not doing well financially at like
52:25
Speaker 1: at one point they end up in a debtors' prison,
52:29
Speaker 1: like because they're just running out of money because again
52:31
Speaker 1: they've lost their pension which they were getting from France
52:34
Speaker 1: and no longer have. So they're in their seventies. Who
52:40
Speaker 1: is like, oh, you're in their seventies. Let's let's get
52:43
Speaker 1: you to write a ten volume memoir. That's going to
52:46
Speaker 1: work out, like chronologically, it's gonna work fine. So they
52:51
Speaker 1: end up selling off their like six thousand book collection.
52:55
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fair like sad. They sell off their books,
52:58
Speaker 1: and they're fencing until like physically they cannot fence anymore.
53:05
Speaker 1: Like they're in their seventies and they're fencing, and it
53:08
Speaker 1: gets to the point where they just stop doing that
53:11
Speaker 1: because you know, there is physically not capable anymore. And
53:15
Speaker 1: at one point she ends up falling down the stairs
53:21
Speaker 1: and becomes like paralyzed for about the last four years
53:25
Speaker 1: of her life, but for the last fourteen years of
53:29
Speaker 1: her life, so she'd been living with missus McColl, who
53:32
Speaker 1: was the widow of a naval officer. So her and
53:34
Speaker 1: missus McCall were sharing an apartment in London, and so
53:38
Speaker 1: for the first ten years, you know, just general living together,
53:42
Speaker 1: and then for the last four years Dion ends up
53:46
Speaker 1: bedridden because of this fall and her health. It's not great,
53:55
Speaker 1: like they're not doing too well and sort of they're
54:00
Speaker 1: they're suffering really like to be honest, they're suffering their
54:04
Speaker 1: sort of in their late seventies, early eighties. It's not
54:09
Speaker 1: an easy life in you know, London, and so with
54:17
Speaker 1: the way their health is going, it's no surprise that
54:21
Speaker 1: on the twenty first of May eighteen ten, the Chevalier
54:26
Speaker 1: deal passes away at the age of eighty one in
54:31
Speaker 1: her apartment in London. Now Missus McCole, who lives with her,
54:37
Speaker 1: the widow, is like, she is like, this is her housemate.
54:41
Speaker 1: She wants to get everything ready for her. She wants
54:42
Speaker 1: to make sure she's sorted for burial, and so she
54:46
Speaker 1: wants to get the body ready and so she's removing
54:49
Speaker 1: the chemise and she's unbuttoning all the stuff and she
54:52
Speaker 1: gets a shock because as she's unbttoned it, she's like, OMG,
54:56
Speaker 1: that's a penis. And so she goes to get advice
54:59
Speaker 1: from her friends, because as far as she's aware, she's
55:01
Speaker 1: been living with us women for fourteen years. Now. I'm
55:07
Speaker 1: thinking that, No, they said paralyzed, but I'm thinking the
55:11
Speaker 1: Chevalier couldn't have been too bedridden because they didn't need
55:16
Speaker 1: help paying, so they couldn't have been too bad. I
55:20
Speaker 1: mean they're bad, yeah, but I feel like they managed
55:23
Speaker 1: to hide that, you know what I mean. They weren't
55:26
Speaker 1: getting like chamber pot help, were they. No, they couldn't
55:30
Speaker 1: have been. They couldn't have been because missus mccule would
55:32
Speaker 1: have noticed the penis by now, then, wouldn't she. Yeah,
55:36
Speaker 1: So missus mccull goes to get invested with more friends
55:39
Speaker 1: and they tell her to call on the professionals, and
55:42
Speaker 1: so she does, and approximately ten to twelve men show
55:46
Speaker 1: up to assess the body, which frankly seems to me
55:49
Speaker 1: like too many men. So we've got a surgeon, a lawyer,
55:53
Speaker 1: a professor of anatomy, a reporter, and apparently a bunch
55:57
Speaker 1: of other fellows who have the appropriate expertise for gandering
56:00
Speaker 1: at Genitalia maybe somewhere there for fun, which I hope
56:04
Speaker 1: not because that's creepy. And so one of them states
56:11
Speaker 1: like they write an official report in the corner is like, yes,
56:15
Speaker 1: that's definitely a penis. But also the body has round
56:20
Speaker 1: limbs and remarkably full breasts. I feel like maybe they
56:25
Speaker 1: just gained weight and their old age. I mean, yeah,
56:31
Speaker 1: probably probably probably. Yeah. Like I've dated men who have
56:40
Speaker 1: busts that are sometimes larger than mantain. Like it happens,
56:44
Speaker 1: you get over it, but i mean sometimes they look
56:48
Speaker 1: better my braws and I do, like I'm just saying,
56:50
Speaker 1: but anyway, but they're like, definitely a dude. Definitely, I
56:56
Speaker 1: do definitely a dude that's a penis. So I'm going
57:00
Speaker 1: with our years saying that the Chevalier de Leon or
57:04
Speaker 1: Chevalier deal sorry, was a trans woman, and I think
57:09
Speaker 1: we just report how cool that person is considering they
57:13
Speaker 1: had to transition so late in life as well, Like
57:15
Speaker 1: major respect for Dion. So here's the thing. Deal is
57:23
Speaker 1: buried at the Saint Pancras Old Church in eighteen thirteen.
57:27
Speaker 1: That means their body was not buried for three years,
57:31
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what were they doing with that body
57:33
Speaker 1: for three years? I don't appreciate what they were doing.
57:37
Speaker 1: I don't actually really want to know what they were doing.
57:38
Speaker 1: Because I don't trust anybody with a corpse to be honest.
57:42
Speaker 1: But so ends a story of the transgender spy for
57:48
Speaker 1: France and member of the King's secret the Chevalier Dion.
57:54
Speaker 1: If you liked my retelling of this story, you feel
57:56
Speaker 1: free to write and review five stars. If there's an echo.
58:00
Speaker 1: I did my best to get it out, So we're
58:02
Speaker 1: just gonna have to suck it up this week. Don't forget.
58:05
Speaker 1: You can follow me on all the socials sting up
58:07
Speaker 1: for my newsletter. It's gonna be a great time. There's
58:09
Speaker 1: going to be updates. I have I look good things
58:11
Speaker 1: I need to update to like Patreon as well, like
58:14
Speaker 1: I have them here ready to go, I just haven't
58:15
Speaker 1: uploaded them yet, like an absolute urse. But that's that.
58:19
Speaker 1: But of course we have a recommendation time. So for reading,
58:24
Speaker 1: I am actually gonna suggest the Tip in the Velvet,
58:31
Speaker 1: Tip of the Velvet by Sarah Waters. I just rebought
58:34
Speaker 1: a copy of it again. So did I recommend that
58:36
Speaker 1: last week? Did I? I don't care. I'm recommending it again.
58:40
Speaker 1: For listening, I'm in a sodast am I gonna recommend
58:46
Speaker 1: for listening? What have I been listening to this week?
58:49
Speaker 1: I haven't been listening to anything this week. Oh God,
58:52
Speaker 1: what I like? You know what, Let's go for some nostalgia. Then,
58:57
Speaker 1: I think everybody should listen to you Spin Me Around
59:03
Speaker 1: by Dead or Alive. It's a good fun song, it is.
59:05
Speaker 1: It really pumps you up. We should go listen to it.
59:07
Speaker 1: And if you're not gonna listen to it, at least
59:09
Speaker 1: watch the uh the Paul Rudd version. It's very funny
59:13
Speaker 1: and for watching. Okay, we all know Bridgeton's coming out
59:18
Speaker 1: this week, and I am gonna have a Bridgeton kind
59:22
Speaker 1: of themed special episode coming out later in the week,
59:24
Speaker 1: and I think you're gonna like it. It's got a
59:28
Speaker 1: bisexual mess, because it's got our favorite bisexual mess, a
59:32
Speaker 1: very particular lord, a Lord Byron, who is just the
59:38
Speaker 1: definition of bisexual panic. I swear to God anyway with that,
59:43
Speaker 1: I shall bid you adieu adios of where is it?
59:47
Speaker 1: My friends? Bibby