Women in Germany have had the right to vote for 105 years, they have been allowed to open their own bank accounts for 42 years, rape in marriage has been prohibited for 26 years and four years ago the principle “No means no” against sexual harassment was included in the penal code recorded. Progress? no What sounds progressive is actually a veritable small denominator in a centuries-long struggle. March 8th marks the anniversary of International Women’s Day, or rather Feminist Day of Struggle – and women all over the world still have to fight for their equality and recognition. Gender pay gap, female poverty in old age as well as sexual harassment and abuse are still part of everyday life for most women. And that in 2023!
However, instead of giving in to anger and frustration, the author of this text would like to use the month of the month to call attention to all the pioneering women who changed the world – and yet often do not appear in history books. Welcome to the ME section “FLINTA*, whose art changed the world”. You’ve never heard of FLINTA*? No worries: The term is relatively new and refers to all people read as female who are discriminated against in patriarchy – thus not only heterosexual cis women are included, but also homo- or bisexual, intersex and non-binary women, as well as trans and agender people .
Portrait: Julie d’Aubigny – opera singer, swordswoman, rebel
This week we’re taking a slightly bolder time leap – back to the 17th century. At that time there was a woman living in France who went down in history as an icon due to scandals, border crossings and incredible talent. Even so, not enough has been reported about them to this day. She was one of the best duelists in the country, a critic attested to her having “the most beautiful voice in the world” during her time as an opera singer, she set a monastery on fire to enable her lover to escape and was twice (!) crowned by kings Louis XIV pardoned for their actions. Curtain up on Julie D’Aubigny: the talented swordswoman, opera singer and bisexual icon who turned France on its head with her fearlessness.
Julie is allowed to take part in lessons with the male pages from an early age
Little to no information exists about Julie D’Aubigny’s childhood. Little has been handed down, even her exact date of birth remains a mystery. What is certain, however, is that Julie D’Aubigny was born around 1673, the only daughter of Gaston d’Aubigny, who, as secretary to the equestrian master of King Louis XIV – the noble Louis de Lorraine-Guise, also known as Count d’Armagnac – works at the royal court. Initially, Julie lived with her father in the riding school of the Tuileries Palace in Paris, but in 1682 she moved to the magnificent Palace of Versailles with the entire court. Since her father is also responsible for preparing pages for their time at the royal court, Julie is also allowed to take part in regular lessons from an early age – so she enjoys a high education and practices reading, drawing, dancing, literature and dueling . The latter was to become her specialty. At 14, Julie D’Aubigny began an affair with Count d’Armagnac, her father’s superior. In order to protect her reputation, however, he soon had her married to the Sieur de Maupin, through whom she received her married name Julie-Émilie de Maupin. Shortly after the wedding, her newlywed husband is sent to Toulouse for professional reasons and Julie remains in Paris as the Count’s mistress. However, not for long.
In order to free her lover from the monastery, she forges an incredible escape plan
In 1687 – the same year of her marriage – the young woman falls in love with her fencing teacher Séranne and soon elopes with him to Marseille. In order to stay afloat financially, the couple performs for some time with fencing demonstrations and singing performances on market squares or fairs – with Julie only wearing men’s clothes. Legend has it that during one of her performances, a spectator announced that women couldn’t possibly be as good at dueling as she is, and Julie just silently showed him her breasts. Despite their growing success as itinerant fencing and singing artists, Julie and Séranne’s love quickly died out and the young woman went to Marseille to join the opera troupe of composer Pierre Gaultier. At one of her concerts, she falls in love with a local merchant’s daughter who is in the audience, and the two begin a relationship. When the girl’s parents found out about the love affair, they took their daughter to a convent in Avignon. However, Julie is not deterred by this and begins to devise an ingenious escape plan: Shortly after an elderly nun dies, she infiltrates the convent, places the corpse on her lover’s bed and sets the convent on fire. So the two can secretly steal away. When the National Court uncovers her true identity, Julie D’Aubigny is sentenced to death in absentia on charges of kidnapping, robbery and arson.
The notorious duelist got an engagement at the Paris Opera when she was only 17 years old
After only three months, the relationship between D’Aubigny and her lover ended and the young woman went in search of mentors to improve her singing skills. So she meets an old actor named Maréchal, who gives her singing lessons. However, when his alcoholism got worse, she left him and moved to Paris, where she took the opera singer Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard as a lover. Thévenard is delighted with Julie’s singing and persuades the Paris Opéra to give her an audition. In turn, those in charge of the opera recognized D’Aubigny’s talent immediately and persuaded the king (along with her former lover Count d’Armagnac) to lift the death sentence against her. So it is that the notorious duelist got an engagement at the famous Paris Opéra in 1690 at the age of only 17. In the same year she made her debut in the role of Pallas Athene in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s well-known opera Cadmus et Hermione. Although she had never learned to read music, the red-haired beauty soon became an opera star: for several years she performed at the Opéra under the name “Mademoiselle de Maupin”, first in Paris and later in Brussels. In 1701, the Marquis de Dangeau even described her voice as “the most beautiful in the world”.
She is pardoned a second time by King Louis XIV – due to charm and persuasion
Despite her now high social standing, the singer keeps returning to her favorite pastime – dueling. Her career in Paris is abruptly interrupted when she goes to a ball disguised as a man, kisses a woman there and is asked to a duel by three men, all of whom she quickly defeats. In total, more than ten men are said to have succumbed to their swords in various duels. The state then made short work of her: Julie D’Aubigny was once again sentenced to death. At this time, strict laws exist in France aimed at preventing illegal duels. But although the situation for D’Aubigny seems more than hopeless at this moment, her story is far from over: With her charm and enough persuasion, she manages to receive a second pardon from King Louis XIV – on the grounds that those laws would apply exclusively to men only, since the nation still assumed at the time that women could not possibly fight. The king has to admit defeat to this logic.
At the age of only 33, D’Aubigny died in seclusion in a monastery in Provence
After her release, Julie D’Aubigny goes to the opera in Brussels, where she begins an affair with the Elector of Bavaria. After she rams a dagger into her body during a performance, however, it becomes too much for him and he offers her 40,000 francs if she leaves him alone. Enraged, she moves to Madrid, where she works for a short time as Countess Marino’s maid – according to a story she hated the Countess so much that she smeared radishes in her hair before a big ball. As a result, “La Maupin” worked again at various opera houses, once even singing at the royal court in Versailles and playing in some of the largest and most well-known opera productions of her time. In 1703, Julie D’Aubigny fell in love with the famous and wealthy Madame la Marquise de Florensac, who was considered “the most beautiful woman in France” at the time. The two are said to have had a very harmonious relationship for two years until Florensac died of a fever in 1705. In the same year, “La Maupin” ended her operatic career and retired to a monastery in Provence, where she died in 1707 at the age of only 33.
“Julie was less a product of her time and more a woman who knew how to use the time into which she was born”
Julie D’Aubigny’s biography reads like a legend cobbled together over centuries. And certainly: Much of the information that historians tell about them today cannot be 100% validated. This is primarily due to the fact that D’Aubigny bore many different names throughout her life and she was called Émilie in some letters, Julia or Julie in others. Despite a certain uncertainty as to what is truth and what is nonsense, Julie D’Aubigny’s historical uniqueness cannot be denied. She was a rebellious duelist, an openly bisexual star opera singer who consorted with the country’s highest ranks and cheated death on multiple occasions. Under King Louis XIV’s motto “Art Makes Politics”, France was relatively tolerant when it came to sexual freedoms in the 17th century – but D’Aubigny always defied existing borders. As the history platform Medium puts it: “Julie was less a product of her time and more a woman who knew how to use the time she was born into to be able to be who she really was.”
This text first appeared on musikexpress.de in March 2021 and has now been updated.
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