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Direction de Tonnerre, 1779 Chevalier d'Eon Payment Document in French

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Paper Money - World Currency Start Price:180.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 450.00 USD
Direction de Tonnerre, 1779 Chevalier d'Eon Payment Document in French
SOLD
325.00USDto a*******s+ buyer's premium
This item SOLD at 2021 Apr 23 @ 15:38UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Paris, France, 1779. Typeset and handwritten document in French. Black stamp on back. Fine-VF condition. Document from the town of Tonnerre, in which the Chevalier d'€on provided a payment owed. The Chevalier d'€on mentioned in the document is Charles-Genevive-Louis-Auguste-Andr_-Timoth_e d'Eon de Beaumont (5 October 1728 _ 21 May 1810), a French diplomat, spy, and soldier. He was born in Tonnerre into a minor aristocratic family, and later fought in the Seven Years' War. In 1756, he joined the secret network of spies called the Secret du Roi (King's Secret) employed by King Louis XV without the knowledge of his government, and dêEon worked as a spy while in Russia and England. According to contemporary accounts, dêEon had androgynous physical characteristics and natural abilities as a mimic and a spy. D'Eon appeared publicly as a man and pursued masculine occupations for 49 years, although during that time he supposedly infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman (an anecdote that is likely apocryphal). After a stint as a Captain in the French Dragoons, he was sent to London as a diplomat. He embraced London life and continued to spy for the King before falling out with a superior. DêEon refused to return to France, and afterward claimed that Louis XV had instructed him to disguise himself as a woman and to hide in the city. There had long been rumors in both Britain and France that the Chevalier was a woman, which subsequently developed into intrusive public interest. Bookmakers in London even took odds on whether he was a woman or a man. Eventually, in need of money, he told a French diplomat, Pierre Beaumarchais, in 1775 that he was really a woman. Believing this, Beaumarchais managed to get him a pension, but d'Eon was ordered to return to France wearing womenês dress. From 1777 on, the Chevalier began to permanently present as a woman. She spent some time at her family estate in Tonnerre due to a forced retirement, and she later returned to London in 1785. In 1792 her family's properties in Tonnerre were confiscated by the French revolutionary government. Despite her famous and remarkable life, d'Eon died in poverty in 1810 at the age of 81. D'Eon's body was buried in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church, and any remaining possessions were sold by Christie's in 1813. D'Eon's grave is listed on the Burdett-Coutts Memorial there as one of the important graves lost. Fascinating piece of history from a groundbreaking figure.