La Maupin

It's been a while since we've looked at history here on Eccentric Spheres, so today we'll be looking back at an amazing person that history has almost forgotten.

Traditionally the realm of sword fighting has been a male dominated area. Men fight duels, men go to war, while women stay home, take care of the children and generally stay feminine.

But the other day I learned of the existence of one remarkable exception, a woman called Julie d'Aubigny also known as Mademoiselle Maupin or la Maupin, 1673-1707.

La Maupin was the daughter of Gaston d'Aubigny the secretary of Louis de Lorraine-Guise, comte d'Armagnac. It was her father job, amongst other things to train courtly pages, and he took the opportunity to train his daughter at the same time. This included lessons in dancing, drawing, reading and fencing. Yup, that's right, she learned to fence despite being a girl very early on, and this while dressed as a boy no less.

When she was fourteen, she had an affair with her fathers employer, the Count, and he in turn married her off to Sieur de Maupin of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Shortly there after her new husband moved to the south of France for his job, but she elected to stay in Paris. It seems that even this early in her life no one told her what to do.

Sometime in 1687, La Maupin started a relationship with an assistant fencing master called Sérannes. He quickly became a wanted wanted man for killing a man in an illegal duel, and the adventurous couple ran away to Marseille. The lovers made their way by giving fencing exhibitions and singing. It was also La Maupin's habit to dress as a man during all this, though she didn't hide the fact that she was a woman. Perhaps it was to uncomfortable to fence in a dress. I don't know, I have never tried.

Once in Marseille she joined an opera company run by Pierre Gaultier, and shortly thereafter she dumped Sérannes for being boring.

Her next great adventure happened when she started a love affair with a young woman. After three months the girls parents locked her away in a convent in Avignon. Not that something as small as that could ever stop La Maupin. She entered the convent as a postulant, i.e. a person who wants to try out convent life before taking holy orders.

Once in the convent, La Maupin stole the body of a dead nun, put the corpse in her girlfriends bed, and set the whole thing on fire. Then they fled.

Their affair lasted three months after that, which is a shame since La Maupin was tried as a man in absentia and convicted of kidnapping, body snatching, arson and failure to appear in court. The sentence was death by fire. Ah, the flames of passion...

At this time, La Maupin traveled and sang. She hooked up with an older singer who tutored her until he pretty much drank himself to death, whereupon she returned to Paris.

Once there, she (dressed as a man) fought a duel over an insult with Louis-Joseph d'Albert Luynes, son of the Duke of Luynes. Despite the duel, which she won when she skewered his shoulder, they became lovers and life long friends.

When her new lover had to return to his regiment, she took up with a singer again, but her previous sentence hung over her. She wanted to join the Paris Opera, but she wasn't too keen on being burned alive. So she contacted her old friend and lover, the comte d'Armagnac, who got the king to grant her a full pardon.

In 1690, after her current lover had gained admittance to the coveted Paris Opera, she finally got her wish and performed with great success, first as a soprano but later as contralto. She became very popular, and the Marquis de Dangeau called her “the most beautiful voice in the world”.

It was at this time she became know as Mademoiselle de Maupin, as opera singers were styled thus whether they were married or not.

This part of her life was quite stormy. She beat up a rude and abusive singer and attempted suicide when she was rejected by a prospective lover, but the high point came when she while dressed as a man kissed a young girl at a society ball. This led her to be challenged to no less than three duels, all of which she won. But this led to trouble with the law again, as the King had forbidden duels in Paris.

Once again she fled, this time to Brussels, where she for a time became the mistress of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. She truly had a knack for making friends in high places.

After singing at the Brussels Opera, she returned to Paris, to again become a star. But trouble followed her when she beat up her landlord.

Despite this, she starred in several highly praised operas until she fell in love and started a torrid romance with Madame la Marquise de Florensac.

With the untimely death of the Marquise, La Maupin's heart finally broke. She retired from the opera and joined a convent (for real this time). She ultimately died in 1707, only 33 years old.

No one knows where she is buried.

I cannot say for sure if La Maupin's story has been embellished with time, but I find her story to be pretty extraordinary. She did what she felt she wanted, flaunted the rules of the day and led a life of romance and tragedy. An amazing woman by any standard.

Until next week, don't fight any illegal duels!