Charles Genevieve d'Eon de Beaumont. (Chevalier d'Eon) 1728-1810

French Spy for King Louis XV. Part One.

D’Eon a French nobleman whose mother named him Genevieve because she wanted a daughter and dressed the child as girl from the age of four until seven! This obviously had long term effects on the boy as throughout his life he would alternate form dressing as female or male, in fact he was able to pass as a very good woman, he had narrow shoulders, a petite build and was unable to grow a beard!

However spending half his life dressed as a woman did not mean that he was a wimp, in fact he became very good at the male occupation of fencing and studied law. He wrote a thesis on the finances of Louis XIV and it was this that got him noticed by King Louis XV, but when the king discovered that the young nobleman had a fancy to dress as a woman, this gave the king an idea, d’Eon would make the perfect spy and was recruited into the service of the king and France.

Europe was in turmoil at the time, Hanover was undefended and France and Prussia wanted to invade it, but England’s George II came from there and was willing to pay a mercenary army from the Russian Empress Elizabeth to keep the French and Prussians out. The English had done such a good job in convincing Elizabeth that she would not even see the French envoys sent to speak with her.

This is where d’Eon came in, his plan was to travel to Russia as the companion of a fur trader, and he travelled to St. Petersburg as Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont. Having spent some time in the court of Elizabeth, d’Eon eventually persuaded Elizabeth to grant him a private audience, as soon as they were alone d’Eon took of his disguise and revealed himself as Chevalier d’Eon envoy of Louis XV and handed over a letter from the king, which contained a secret agreement.

Elizabeth was so impressed with d’Eon that she carefully considered the proposal and eventually signed a secret agreement with Louis XV and not George II, this neutralised Hanover, and d’Eon had succeeded where others had failed.

King Louis XV thought that the strange nobleman would be able to do a good job for France had paid off, and was so pleased with d’Eon’s work that he bestowed upon him a large annuity and a commission in the Royal Dragoons.

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