Le Chevalier D'Eon Historical Notes - Volume 1
At the beginning of the first episode, the elderly D'Eon tells us that it "was the time of the King Louis XV's reign." Louis XV ascended the throne of France in 1715 and died in 1774. However, the Marquise de Pompadour, who appears in the show, did not become Louis' mistress until 1745, so this gives us a "hard date" for the events in the show, if they had actually occurred, of sometime between 1745 and 1774. Further, since Auguste's parents never appear, it can be inferred that they are already deceased and hence, the date can be no earlier than 1765.
This time period in French history was particularly turbulent with events culminating in the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). Members of the House of Bourbon had ruled France since the 16th century and by the 18th century the house also had members on the thrones of Spain, Sicily, Naples and Parma. Louis XIV had ascended the throne of France at the age of five and gone on to become one of its strongest and longest-lived kings. Unfortunately, the wars he waged nearly bankrupted the country and the policies of his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, did little to repair the damage to French finances.
Added to the financial woes of the country were high unemployment rates in the cities and growing unrest among the Third Estate concerning the traditional privileges granted to the First (Aristocracy) and Second Estates (Clergy). The seeds of the French Revolution had been sown and were nearing fruition.
D'Eon de Beaumont (Dec. 5, 1728 - May 2, 1810)
Born in Tonnerre, France in 1728, D'Eon's full name was Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste Andrè Timothèe D'Eon de Beaumont - quite a mouthful. His father was a lawyer and his mother a member of the French nobility. In 1749, at the age of 21, he graduated from the Collège Mazarin in Paris and became a secretary in the fiscal department.
Then in 1756, he joined Louis XV's Secret du Roi and began his life as a spy. D'Eon was sent to Russia and the court of the Empress Elizabeth, where it is commonly said he presented himself as a woman, Lia de Beaumont. There he worked in secret with the pro-French faction in Russia to raise sentiment against the German Habsburg monarchy.
In 1761 near the end of the Seven Years' War (which pitted Austria and France against Prussia and Great Britain), D'Eon returned to Paris and was made a captain of dragoons under Marshal Broglie. There he was wounded and subsequently awarded the Cross of Saint Louis and the title of chevalier.
At the end of the war in 1763, the new chevalier was sent to London as plenipotentiary minister. There he continued his work for Louis XV, collecting information about the English nobility, countryside and fortification in anticipation of a future invasion. During his stay in London, rumors abounded that D'Eon was actually a woman, and there was even a betting pool as to his real sex on the London Stock Exchange. When Louis XV sent a new minister to London, D'Eon objected and complained that the new minister had tried to poison him. Louis granted him a sizable yearly annuity, but D'Eon remained in London until the king's death in 1774.
When he returned to Paris, he claimed that he was physically female, and demanded that the court recognize him as such, which the new king Louis XVI did. Nevertheless, when the French began supporting the American revolutionaries, D'Eon asked to be allowed to join the French troops in America. Instead of being allowed to do so, he was jailed in Dijon for nineteen days. After his release, he spent the next six years in Tonnerre with his mother then returned to England in 1785.
In 1792, during the height of the French Revolution, D'Eon sent a letter to the French National Assembly offering to lead a division of female troops against the Habsburg monarchy. His offer was, perhaps unsurprisingly, rejected. D'Eon spent the last years of his life living with an English widow named Mrs. Cole and participating in fencing tournaments. After his death in 1810, his body was examined and found to be anatomically male.
Louis XV - The Well-Beloved (Feb. 15, 1710 - May, 10, 1774)
Louis XV was the great-grandson of Louis XIV. His father, Louis Duc de Bourgogne, his mother, Marie-Adèlaïde of Savoy, and his last surviving brother all died of small pox in 1712, leaving him the sole surviving direct heir to the French throne. Then in 1715, Louis XIV died, and Louis became King of France at the age of five.
Philippe II Duc d'Orlèans acted as regent during the king's early years, and in 1721, he betrothed Louis to the Infanta Mariana, daughter of Philip V of Spain, who was also a grandson of Louis XIV and thus had a claim to the French throne. Four months after Louis XV reached his majority in 1723, d'Orlèans died and Louis appointed Louis Henri Duc de Bourbon-Condè as his first advisor. The betrothal with Mariana was cancelled and in 1725, Louis married Marie Leszczy?ska, daughter of the deposed Stanislaw I of Poland. In 1726, Louis fired Bourbon-Condè and made Bishop (later Cardinal) Fleury his first minister.
When Cardinal Fleury died in 1744, Louis decided that he would rule on his own. Unfortunately, Louis proved to be rather indolent and was lacking in self-confidence and his government rapidly degenerated into a handful of factions supporting feuding ministers.
Louis had many mistresses during his reign, several of which enjoyed considerable political influence. The most famous of these was Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour. She was Louis' "mâitresse en titre", or official mistress, from 1774 to 1779 and even after their sexual involvement ended she remained a close friend, confidante and advisor of the king.
In 1748, Louis formed Le Secret du Roi, a group of secret agents that were sent throughout Europe to spy and support political agendas that were often diametrically opposed to the publicly announced policies. Though France was involved in several wars during his reign, none of them were terribly successful and they mostly served to further exacerbate the already depleted state of the national treasury.
Louis XV's reign was marked by a decline in the crown's moral and political authority brought about primarily by his reverses in military and foreign affairs. Nevertheless, Louis did make an attempt to strengthen the crown late in his reign by limiting the fourteen Parlements (which traditionally had the right to make laws, enforce the laws and decrees of the king, levy taxes and try legal cases) to strictly judicial functions and by abolishing the sale of judicial offices. Though there was some initial opposition to this, it might have succeeded and perhaps even saved the monarchy except that after Louis' death in 1774, Louis XVI abandoned the reforms.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (Dec. 29, 1721 - April 15, 1764)
Though not of the aristocracy, Jeanne-Antoinette's parents were well-to-do financial speculators. However, her father François was involved in a black market scandal in 1725 and was forced to flee the country, leaving Jeanne-Antoinette's education to a family friend named Le Normant de Tournehem. She was educated, as were most aspiring young ladies of the time, to be the wife of a rich man, and was well-versed in both the arts and literature. She became friends with many of the leading intellectuals of the time, including Voltaire.
Le Normant de Tournehem arranged for Jeanne-Antoinette to marry his nephew, Charles-Guillaume le Normant d'Étioles, and they had a daughter named Alexandrine. Then in 1774, Louis XV's mistress the Duchesse de Châteauroux died suddenly, and the king's eye fell on Jeanne-Antoinette. An official separation from her husband was arranged and she became the king's mistress and was given the title Marquise de Pompadour.
Jeanne-Antoinette spent the next five years in a small suite of rooms under the eaves at the palace of Versailles. She worked to make herself agreeable to everyone at court, and largely succeeded. In 1779, she was moved downstairs to a larger, more regal apartment. It was around this same time that the king began to see other mistresses, but her influence both with the king and the court at large remained intact.
An ardent supporter of the arts, Jeanne-Antoinette convinced the king to appoint her brother director of the king's buildings and together they were responsible for planning and overseeing the construction of many of France's renowned buildings, including the École Militaire and the Palace Louis XV (now known as the Palace de la Concorde). It was under Louis' auspices, at the Marquise's urging, that the famed porcelain factory at Sèvres was founded.
Unfortunately, the King and the Marquise proved less successful at military ventures. It was largely at Jeanne-Antoinette's prompting that Louis involved France in the Seven Years' War, which allied France with Austria against Prussia and Great Britain. Because of his commitments to Austria on the European continent, Louis was unable to deploy a significant number of troops to the colonial frontier and by the end of the war France had lost most of its colonial possessions to Great Britain.
The Marquise de Pompadour passed away at Versailles on April 15 in 1764, probably from lung cancer. She retained her friendship with Louis, and thus her influence at court, until the end.
Comte de Saint-Germain (c 1710 - Feb. 2, 1784)
Saint-Germain was an 18th century adventurer as known as "de Wundermann", or "the Wonderman". Little is known of his origins, but he is thought to have been of Portuguese descent. He was fluent in most European languages, was a musical composer and expert violinist, had an extensive knowledge of history and was an accomplished chemist.
The Comte is mentioned in a letter of Horace Walpole (Member of Parliament and son of then British Prime Minister Robert Walpole) as having been arrested in London in 1743 as a Jacobite spy. Saint-Germain is also known to have been employed on secret missions for Louis XV. In 1762, Saint-Germain was in St. Petersburg and is said to have played an important part in the plot that deposed Tsar Peter III from the throne of Russia and replaced him with Catherine II.
Sometime after this, Saint-Germain found his way to Germany, where, according to the Mèmoires Authentiques of the Count di Cagliostro, he founded freemasonry and initiated Cagliostro into its secrets. The Comte returned to Paris from 1770 to 1774, and later took up residence in Schleswig-Holstein where he pursued the study of the "secret" sciences.
Saint-Germain probably died in Schleswig in 1784, though there have been reports of his presence throughout the years since. He was reportedly seen in Paris in 1784 and 1835, in Milan in 1867, and in Egypt during Napoleon's campaigns.
Many legends, rumors and myths surround the Comte de Saint-Germain, both before and after his death. His was said to have had an affair with the Marquise de Pompadour. He himself claimed to have a method for removing flaws from diamonds and transmuting base metals into gold. It has been said that he was immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the elixir of life.
Such rumors make the Comte Saint-Germain a perfect subject for writers of fantasy, horror and other tales. He has appeared in works by Umberto Eco (Foucault's Pendulum), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (more then two dozen books) and Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) among many others. He has also appeared in many anime and games such as Cyberteam in Akihabara, Gravion, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and Animamundi: Dark Alchemist.
Philippe II Duc D'Orlèans (Aug. 2, 1674 - Dec. 2, 1723)
Although in history Philippe died well before the events in Le Chevalier D'Eon, given the personality of the Duc D'Orlèans, there can be little doubt that Philippe II was the primary basis for the character.
Philippe was the son of Philippe I and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. When he was old enough, he served in the army but he was not given the high military rank he felt he deserved by Louis XIV. In retaliation, he studiously ignored his wife, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, the favorite legitimized daughter of Louis.
By the time he inherited his father's title in 1701, he had a reputation for being irreverent and habitually drunk. Nevertheless, Louis XIV finally gave him the high military command he desired in 1706, and on the death of Louis in 1715, he became regent for the new, five-year-old king, Louis XV. Despite Philippe's new rank as regent, the effective power in France rested in the hands of two of Louis XIV's legitimized sons, both secretaries of state.
While regent, Philippe concluded a treaty with Great Britain that led to a war between the two countries and Spain in 1719. The war ended in 1721 with Philip V of Spain renouncing any claim to the French throne (he was a grandson of Louis XIV) and the betrothal of his daughter, the Infanta Mariana to Louis XV.
Philippe certainly had dynastic ambitions of his own, which was his probably his primary motivation in provoking the war with Spain. With Philip V having renounced his claim to the French throne, had anything happened to Louis XV, Philippe would have become King of France.
Pick up your copy of Volume 1 to read the rest of the Historical Notes for Le Chevalier D'Eon!
Historical Notes Compiled by Janice Williams for ADV Films Sources: New Encyclopedia Britannica 15th Edition © Encyclopedia Britannica Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (http://www.en.wikipedia.org)
