began literary work as a contributor to Fréron’s Année littéraire, 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 François, 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 Superseded by count de Guerchy, d’Eon showed his irritation by denying the genuineness of the letter of appointment, and by raising an action against Guerchy for an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).
EÖTVÖS, JÓZSEF, Baron (1813–1871), Hungarian writer and
statesman, the son of Baron Ignacz Eötvös and the baroness
Lilian, was born at Buda on the 13th of September 1813. After
an excellent education he entered the civil service as a vice-notary,
and was early introduced to political life by his father.
He also spent many years in western Europe, assimilating the
new ideas both literary and political, and making the acquaintance
of the leaders of the Romantic school. On his return to
Hungary he wrote his first political work, Prison Reform; and
at the diet of 1839–1840 he made a great impression by his
eloquence and learning. One of his first speeches (published,
with additional matter, in 1841) warmly advocated Jewish
emancipation. Subsequently, in the columns of the Pesti Hirlap,
Eötvös disseminated his progressive ideas farther afield, his
standpoint being that the necessary reforms could only be
carried out administratively by a responsible and purely national
government. The same sentiments pervade his novel The
Village Notary (1844–1846), one of the classics of the Magyar
literature, as well as in the less notable romance Hungary in
1514, and the comedy Long live Equality! In 1842 he married
Anna Rosty, but his happy domestic life did not interfere with
his public career. He was now generally regarded as one of the
leading writers and politicians of Hungary, while the charm
of his oratory was such that, whenever the archduke palatine
Joseph desired to have a full attendance in the House of Magnates,
he called upon Eötvös to address it. The February
revolution of 1848 was the complete triumph of Eötvös’ ideas,
and he held the portfolio of public worship and instruction in the
first responsible Hungarian ministry. But his influence extended
far beyond his own department. Eötvös, Deák and Szechényi
represented the pacific, moderating influence in the council of
ministers, but when the premier, Batthyány, resigned, Eötvös,
in despair, retired for a time to Munich. Yet, though withdrawn
from the tempests of the War of Independence, he continued to
serve his country with his pen. His Influence of the Ruling Ideas
of the 19th Century on the State (Pest, 1851–1854, German editions
at Vienna and Leipzig the same year) profoundly influenced
literature and public opinion in Hungary. On his return home,
in 1851, he kept resolutely aloof from all political movements.
In 1859 he published The Guarantees of the Power and Unity of
Austria (Ger. ed. Leipzig, same year), in which he tried to arrive
at a compromise between personal union and ministerial responsibility
on the one hand and centralization on the other. After the
Italian war, however, such a halting-place was regarded as inadequate
by the majority of the nation. In the diet of 1861
Eötvös was one of the most loyal followers of Deák, and his
speech in favour of the “Address” (see Deák, Francis) made
a great impression at Vienna. The enforced calm which prevailed
during the next few years enabled him to devote himself once
more to literature, and, in 1866, he was elected president of the
Hungarian academy. In the diets of 1865 and 1867 he fought
zealously by the side of Deák, with whose policy he now completely
associated himself. On the formation of the Andrássy
cabinet (Feb. 1867) he once more accepted the portfolio of public
worship and education, being the only one of the ministers of
1848 who thus returned to office. He had now, at last, the
opportunity of realizing the ideals of a lifetime. That very year
the diet passed his bill for the emancipation of the Jews; though
his further efforts in the direction of religious liberty were less
successful, owing to the opposition of the Catholics. But his
greatest achievement was the National Schools Act, the most
complete system of education provided for Hungary since the
days of Maria Theresa. Good Catholic though he was (in matters
of religion he had been the friend and was the disciple of Montalembert),
Eötvös looked with disfavour on the dogma of papal
infallibility, promulgated in 1870, and when the bishop of
- ↑ But see Lang’s Historical Mysteries, pp. 241–242, where this traditional account is discussed and rejected.
