[1]
Bartonien from Barton, England.
Lutetien " Lutetia = Paris.
Ypresien " Ypres, Flanders.
Landenien " Landen, Belgium.
Thanetien " The Isle of Thanet.
Sparnacien " Sparnacum = Epernay.
Laekenien " Laeken, Belgium.
Bruxellien " Brussels.
Paniselien " Mont Panisel, near Mons.
Other names that have been applied to subdivisions of the Eocene not
included in the table are Parisien and Suessonien (Soissons); Ludien
(Ludes in the Paris basin) and Priabonien (Priabona in the Vicentine
Alps); Heersien (Heer near Maastricht) and Wemmelien (Wemmel,
Belgium); very many more might be mentioned.
EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES GENEVIEVE LOUISE AUGUSTE ANDRE TIMOTHEE D'
(1728-1810), commonly known as the CHEVALIER D'EON, French political
adventurer, famous for the supposed mystery of his sex, was born near
Tonnerre in Burgundy, on the 7th of October 1728. He was the son of an
advocate of good position, and after a distinguished course of study at
the College Mazarin he became a doctor of law by special dispensation
before the usual age, and adopted his father's profession. He began
literary work as a contributor to Freron's _Annee litteraire_, and
attracted notice as a political writer by two works on financial and
administrative questions, which he published in his twenty-fifth year.
His reputation increased so rapidly that in 1755 he was, on the
recommendation of Louis Francois, prince of Conti, entrusted by Louis
XV. (who had originally started his "secret" foreign policy--i.e. by
undisclosed agents behind the backs of his ministers--in favour of the
prince of Conti's ambition to be king of Poland) with a secret mission
to the court of Russia. It was on this occasion that he is said for the
first time to have assumed the dress of a woman, with the connivance, it
is supposed, of the French court.[1] In this disguise he obtained the
appointment of reader to the empress Elizabeth, and won her over
entirely to the views of his royal master, with whom he maintained a
secret correspondence during the whole of his diplomatic career. After a
year's absence he returned to Paris to be immediately charged with a
second mission to St Petersburg, in which he figured in his true sex,
and as brother of the reader who had been at the Russian court the year
before. He played an important part in the negotiations between the
courts of Russia, Austria and France during the Seven Years' War. For
these diplomatic services he was rewarded with the decoration of the
grand cross of St Louis. In 1759 he served with the French army on the
Rhine as aide-de-camp to the marshal de Broglie, and was wounded during
the campaign. He had held for some years previously a commission in a
regiment of dragoons, and was distinguished for his skill in military
exercises, particularly in fencing. In 1762, on the return of the duc de
Nivernais, d'Eon, who had been secretary to his embassy, was appointed
his successor, first as resident agent and then as minister
plenipotentiary at the court of Great Britain. He had not been long in
this position when he lost the favour of his sovereign, chiefly,
according to his own account, through the adverse influence of Madame de
Pompadour, who was jealous of him as a secret correspondent of the king.
Superseded by count de Guerchy, d'Eon showed his irritation by denying
the genuineness of the letter of appointment, and by raising an action
against Guerchy for an attempt to poison him. Guerchy, on the other
hand, had previously commenced an action against d'Eon for libel,
founded on the publication by the latter of certain state documents of
which he had possession in his official capacity. Both parties succeeded
in so far as a true bill was found against Guerchy for the attempt to
murder, though by pleading his privilege as ambassador he escaped a
trial, and d'Eon was found guilty of the libel. Failing to come up for
judgment when called on, he was outlawed. For some years afterwards he
lived in obscurity, appearing in public chiefly at fencing matches.
During this period rumours as to the sex of d'Eon, originating probably
in the story of his first residence at St Petersburg as a female, began
to excite public interest. In 1774 he published at Amsterdam a book
called _Les Loisirs du Chevalier d'Eon_, which stimulated gossip. Bets
were frequently laid on the subject, and an action raised before Lord
Mansfield in 1777 for the recovery of one of these bets brought the
question to a judicial decision, by which d'Eon was declared a female. A
month after the trial he returned to France, having received permission
to do so as the result of negotiations in which Beaumarchais was
employed as agent. The conditions were that he was to deliver up certain
state documents in his possession, and to wear the dress of a female.
The reason for the latter of these stipulations has never been clearly
explained, but he complied with it to the close of his life. In 1784 he
received permission to visit London for the purpose of bringing back his
library and other property. He did not, however, return to France,
though after the Revolution he sent a letter, using the name of Madame
d'Eon, in which he offered to serve in the republican army. He continued
to dress as a lady, and took part in fencing matches with success,
though at last in 1796 he was badly hurt in one. He died in London on
the 22nd of May 1810. During the closing years of his life he is said to
have enjoyed a small pension from George III. A post-mortem examination
of the body conclusively established the fact that d'Eon was a man.
The best modern accounts are in the duc de Broglie's _Le Secret du
roi_ (1888); Captain J. Buchan Telfer's _Strange Career of the
Chevalier d'Eon_ (1888); Octave Homberg and Fernand Jousselin, _Le
Chevalier d'Eon_ (1904); and A. Lang's _Historical Mysteries_ (1904).