History is gayer than you thought: Julie d'Aubigny

Hey there y'all, and welcome to the second instalment of History is gayer than you thought! Originally, HIGTYT was meant to be a weekly thing, but it was way more popular than I thought it would be and I got enough recommendations for biweekly posts. As requested by u/SmaragdineSon, here's Julie d'Aubigny!

Julie d'Aubigny was an opera singer, bisexual woman, sword-fighter, and overall scoundrel (in the best way of course) who lived in 17th century France. Her father, a scoundrel like his daughter and tutor of the King's pages, taught her the basics of sword-fighting with the intent of fighting off suitors. When she was bored of not getting laid, she decided to screw her dad's boss, as he was the only person who he couldn't yell 'fight me' at.

When her dad's boss arranged Julie's marriage to a clerk, she decided to run off with a resident sword fighter and tour around France, singing and fighting to pay her way. She would often dress as a man, something she would do for most of her life, and any question as to her true gender was easily settled by Julie ripping her shirt off.

Now buckle up, kiddies, cuz this is where it gets pretty gay (or bi, if you wanna be pedantic).

Julie (or La Maupin as she was known on stage) got bored of fighting everyone in France, dumped her boyfriend, and seduced a merchant's daughter. The merchant, in a vain effort to keep his daughter away from the Wicked Bisexuals™, put his daughter in a convent. Julie, completely undeterred, also joined the same convent and set it on fire. In the confusion, she and her girlfriend escaped the convent and had a whirlwind three-month romance.

Julie got bored again, dumped the girl back at her parents, and was sentenced to death for it. Nightmare exes, amiright? Anyhoo, Julie got her dad's boss to put in a good word for her with the King, and she got pardoned. She was not yet twenty at this point.

After this, she decided to join the opera, and fought/fucked everyone to climb her way up the theatrical ladder. One lively story of her times in the theatre is when she attended a ball (dressed as a man) and started flirting with a young lady. When she made out with said lady, three disgruntled suitors challenged Julie to a duel. She fought all three outside the palace, beat and possibly killed them, and the King was so impressed that he gave her another pardon.

Nonetheless, she ran off to Brussels for a little bit until the heat died down, seeing as the pardon hadn't been exactly official and anti-duelling laws were a bit stricter at that time. In that time, she got herself another boyfriend, and when they broke up she took revenge by actually stabbing herself onstage. Let it never be said that theatre nerds aren't overly dramatic. When her ex tried to pay her to go away, she kicked him down the stairs and swore at him.

At this point, Julie was getting a bit tired, so she went back to France, settled down with her clerk-husband, and died around the age of 37. While brief, her life was certainly not boring, and if ever there was a human equivalent of (ง'̀-'́)ง it's gotta be her.

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The next episode of HIGTYT will be on Wednesday the 19th of July. So far the upcoming historical figures to be featured are: Alexander Hamilton, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, Edward Gorey, and Isaac Newton (list subject to change/rearrange). If anyone has any recommendations, I will be more than happy to include them! We always need more queer history in the world!