On 30th June 1995, the japanese Shiromizusha Publishings Co. releases "JOSOU NO KENSHI CHEVALIER D'EON NO SHOUGAI" (LIFE OF THE KNIGH OF EON, A SWORDSMAN DRASSING LIKE A WOMAN) by Hanya Kubota. The book introduces to the japanese public the life of an historical figure about which many books have been written in France: Charles-Genevieve-Louis-Auguste-Andre-Timothee Eon de Beaumont, best known as LE CHEVALIER D'EON (the Knight of Eon). He was born on 5th Oct 1728 in Tonnerre and died on 21st May 1810 in London. He was educated as a lawyer and became a French diplomat and spy into the spy-net of Luis XVI called "Le Secret du Roi" (operating under the Reign of Luis XV and suppressed after). He spent his life while travelling from France to various european countries, to Russia. In 1761 he returned back in France. In 1762 he became Captain of Dragoons and fighted into the War of Seven Years, when he was wounded so to receive the Cross of Saint Luis (the rank of Chevalier).
In 1766, Luis XV solved him from any income and granted him a pension; but he had to live in political exile to London. In London, he went on acting mainly as a spy.

But the main thing for which the figure of D'Eon is so interesting is his sexual behaviour: during his most important mission for Luis XV, in Russia, voices tell that he was able to get the favors of the Empress Elisabeth of Russia because he dressed like a woman and so he was able to enter the rooms of the empress as a pansy called LIA DE BEAUMONT. After, under the reign of Luis XVI, even he was used to always dress the uniform of the Dragons, rumors circulated about the fact that he/she was a woman, in reality. Many of these voices were confirmed by D'Eon himself, who told that he grown up as a boy because his father could only rescue an inherit after having a son. So he was forced to grow as a man (he was telling around...).
After the death of Luis XV, from London he praid Luis XVI to allow his return to France but not only, he was asking the king to recognize him as a woman: he got to enter France again and he was even more happy after the King granted him extra funds to provide to a brand-new feminine wardrobe! So in 1777 comes back in France, wearing as a woman and he was formally recognized to be a woman (both in France and in England).
In 1779 Eon published an autobiography signing it with a false name (La Forteille): the title was "La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d'Eon"!
In 1785 he is London again and with the fall of the Monarchy, he loses his pension so that he tries to play up to the National Assembly by promising to send a troop of english women-soldiers to fight in the name of the Revolution! His offer was refused, unfortunately :-).
He had to spend in London the rest of his life; used to challenge as swordsman, he was wounded harder in 1796 and he arrived near to die. In 1805 he signed a contract for writing an autobiography: the book was completed but never published. He was living as a woman, in the same house with a widow. He died in London. The doctors who composed his body after death, they saw he was physically and unambiguously male.

As about understanding the complexity of his sexual consciusness, we can note that he wrote his biography, telling of a woman who spent half of her life, living like a man. Facts will discover that he was instead a man, who lived half of his life, living like a woman.