unspeakablevice:

—Chevalière d’Éon when asked which wardrobe she preferred— male or female. (x)

d’Éon was assigned male at birth. She presented as a man for forty-nine years, mostly going by the more masculine title Chevalier d’Éon. During this time d’Éon worked as a spy in King Louis XV’s Secret du Roi espionage network, became a dragoon captain during the Seven Years’ War, wrote a thirteen-volume book on public administration, and even lived in London in political exile. In London considerable rumors and debates concerning her sex circulated.

From 1777 onward— for thirty-three years— d’Éon presented as a woman, and demanded that the government recognize her as female. Her demand was granted by King Louis XVI and his court.  Chevalière d’Éon presented as a woman for for the remaining thirty-three years of her life. During 1779 d’Éon wrote a memoir entitled ‘La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d’Éon’. She survived the French Revolution and lived until 1810. She was eighty-two years old.

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