Famous Trannies In Early Modern Times

by Roberta Perkins

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

Throughout the modern history of western society a number of women and men have successfully changed their gender. This article looks at the most famous of them from the sixteenth century through to the nineteenth century.

Moll Cutpurse and Other 16th Century Trannies

Image of Mary Frith, from the title page of "The Roaring Girl"

The Renaissance period in Europe, which followed the Middle Ages, carried many of the vestiges of Medieval ideologies. With regard to sex, the idea that men were superior beings to women continued. With this rationale the woman who strives to be a man is considered to be aspiring for greater intelligence and social superiority, whilst the man who prefers to be a woman rejects intelligence and the social privileges of masculinity. Thus, the authorities were more likely to punish a man for attempting to change his gender than a woman who acted like a man. The case of the Englishwoman Moll Cutpurse is a good example of this. Born Mary Firth in 1584 she showed early signs of a preference for being a boy. Although she began dressing in male clothes she never tried to hide her biological sex. But, at one stage she claimed she was a hermaphrodite and wore clothes that could be described as androgynous, such as a skirt, sword and jerkin. She was forced to do penance by the Church for persisting with her manly behaviour, which included petty thievery and pick-pocketing (thus, her nickname), but she seems never to have been punished by the civil authorities. In fact, her adventures so caught the public imagination that two plays were written about her in her lifetime in 1611 and 1618.

France's King Henri III, a noted cross-dresser.

Much less fortunate was the Spanish woman Elena de Cespedes (1545 - 88), who grew up a normal girl and even married at 16 and had a child. But her husband deserted her, so she gave away her baby and moved to Granada, where she claimed she suddenly grew a penis. She began wearing male clothing and adopted a masculine identity, calling herself Eleno. Eleno had an affair with his married landlady and to escape the wrath of her husband joined the army, and after several campaigns in which he was wounded, he obtained a discharge and settled in Madrid where he fell in love with a peasant girl and proposed marriage. When seeking a priest to perform the marriage ceremony, his sex came under question. He agreed to a physical examination by surgeons and was passed as a man. After some years of married life Eleno's sex came under suspicion once again and he was forced to undergo another inspection. This time the examiners found no penis but a vagina and declared he was a woman. Dragged before the inquisitional court for false pretences, poor Eleno's marriage was annulled, he was given a public whipping of 200 lashes and sentenced to a 10 year imprisonment. The strange case of Elena / Eleno de Cespedes was the talk of the town for many years and people were puzzled over the disappearing penis. Either he was a true hermaphrodite or a very skilful trannie who used sleight of hand to maintain his male identity.

If men who cross-dressed were treated more severely this was certainly not so for members of the aristocracy. King Henri III of France, who reigned from 1574 to 1589, was a notable cross-dresser, who strutted about court in female attire and attended balls and masques as an Amazon or wearing a ball-gown and feminine make-up and jewellery. Pierre de l'Estoile, the court chronicler, reported that the king often appeared in public gorgeously attired in feminine finery attended by mignons of young men dressed like prostitutes in a bordello. Agrippa d'Aubigne, the Huguenot critic of the French Catholic court accused the King's mother, Catherine de Medici, of corrupting and feminizing her son in order to keep power in her own hands.

The Abbe de Choisy and Other 17th Century Trannies

Francois Timoleon de Choisy

The early 17th century was a time of both political and social chaos in Europe. In 1602 "the French parliament condemned an hermaphrodite to death because he made use of the sex which he had abjured, "wrote Eugene de Savitsch "Hermaphrodites were forbidden to be judges, advocates and university rectors." Fortunately, by mid century such attitudes had softened a great deal, and many even had reversed in France. Otherwise, the likes of Francois Timoleon de Choisy (1644 -­ 1724) would never have been able to "come out" as he did. Better known as the Abbe de Choisy, due to his appointment to the abbacy of St. Seine, he was a member of a very influential family at court, and because of this he may have gotten away with much more than others of lesser station in society. Choisy's life has been well documented by others, as well as his own very detailed memoirs. By all accounts he was the classic transvestite, never attempting to disguise his biological sex, but frequently going about in public in full female attire and expressing a deep regret for not been born a girl. Choisy's mother dressed him as a girl until he reached 18 when he began appearing in public as a man. At least one historian has suggested a political motive behind his cross-dressing: he was deliberately feminised so as never to present a threat to King Louis XIVs throne. Be that as it may, Choisy never seems to have had any political ambitions and seems to have been quite contented with his public outings at the opera, the theatre, balls and other events dressed in the most lavish of female fashions.

Choisy was often visited by young women in his chambers. His fascination with female accoutrements made him something of an expert on women's fashions and prominent society matrons brought their daughters to Choisy for advice. According to his own memoirs he took these young maids to bed before their mother's eyes, but did no more than fondle and kiss them. He did, however, manage to get one woman pregnant, a well known actress called Roselie, whom Choisy enjoyed dressing up as a man, and the pair of them strolling about the streets of Paris with she as the husband and he as her wife. As Choisy aged he continued to dress as a woman less and less and spent his final years reminiscing on his youth when he was admired by fashionable society as the prettiest girl in town.

Few men had as exciting and dangerous a life as Christina Davies, who was born in Dublin in 1667. She came into wealth from a rich aunt while still a teenager and as was required of women in those days she had to seek a husband to look after her estate. She married Richard Welsh and had two children by him. But one day her husband disappeared whilst on an errand. Believing him to have been shanghaied by the army to fight overseas, she decided to seek him out by herself joining up in the English dragoons. She cut her hair, put on her husband's clothes and took the name of Christopher Welch. Christopher was shipped to the front line in Holland during the War of the League of Augsberg between England and France. He was wounded and taken prisoner, but was exchanged for a captured French soldier. After a scrap with his regimental sergeant to save a tavern maid from the sergeant's assaults, he was court-martialled. Although pardoned for striking his superior, Christopher resigned from his regiment and re-enlisted in another, which saw action and defeat at Namurs in 1692.

His regiment was disbanded after this disastrous campaign and he returned to Ireland to make sure his children were taken good care of by his mother: Once assured of their well being, he returned to the dragoons and more fighting in Holland. Christopher was wounded again but the surgeons failed to discover his biological sex. While recovering from this wound Richard Welsh turned up. Christopher made him swear not to give the game away, and they returned to the army as brothers. In 1703 Christopher was badly wounded by a mortar fragment, and this time the surgeons discovered he was a female. Thereafter he returned to being Christina but remained with the army as a nurse and cook. Only when her husband was killed in battle did she finally resign for the first time. She returned to Dublin to live the rest of her life with her children. After her extraordinary life as a soldier she seems to have been contented with the quiet life of a matron, and despite her numerous wounds and privations she managed to live to the ripe old age of 108.

Chevalier d'Eon

The Chevalier d'Eon and Other 18th Century Trannies

Perhaps the best known of all cross-dressers was Charles Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre Timothee d'Eon de Beaumont, more simply referred to simply as the Chevalier d'Eon (1728 - 1810), whose name became synonymous with the psychological condition of transvestism, or eonism. He too enjoyed a remarkable life, full of vigorous adventures. The flamboyant d'Eon was an outstanding soldier and superb swordsman, who was slightly built and quite effeminate in appearance. Like Choisy, he was also born into an upper class family influential in the French court. Thus, he too had the advantage of class privilege and protection enabling him to make his cross-dressing habits public. As a young man d'Eon was given a spying mission to Russia and for the first time he made a public appearance dressed as a woman when he was presented to the Czarina as the niece of the king's envoy. Taken into the Czarina's confidence as her maid-of-honor d'Eon was able to deliver to her secret letters from King Louis XV. D'Eon subsequently made two more diplomatic missions to Russia but on these occasions as the Chevalier. In 1757 he made a dashing ride from Vienna to Paris to bring his king news of an Austrian victory over the Prussians in the Seven Years War. After the war he was granted a life pension by the grateful King Louis and a commission as captain in the king's dragoons. He was also sent to England to begin negotiations on the Peace of Paris treaty between France and England that brought the war to an end.

D'Eon continued his double role as spy and diplomat in England but fell out with the French ambassador in London. On one occasion d'Eon challenged him to a duel, but the ambassador, well aware of his reputation as a swordsman, declined and struck back by an attempt at publicly ridiculing him with the story of d'Eon's episode as a maid-of-honor in the Russian court. When this failed to have the expected impact, the ambassador spread a rumour that d'Eon was really a woman. The English were fascinated and began making bets on his true sex. D'Eon kept the momentum going by sometimes appearing in public as the Chevalier and sometimes dressed as I woman, apparently on the king's orders. He even gave fencing exhibitions dressed as Joan of Arc. Two prominent betters forced d'Eon to prove his sex in court, which ruled in favour of him being a female. When he returned to France following the death of Louis XV, the new king, Louis XVI, ordered d'Eon to dress as a woman as he was convinced that the Chevalier was indeed of the "fair sex". He was the sensation of Paris society, which loved a scandal and the notoriety of anything sexual. Apparently, d'Eon was not happy with the king's decision and occasionally made public appearances redressed as a man. But the threat of losing his pension forced him to continue his masquerade. After the French Revolution poor d'Eon lost his pension anyway, and he died in poverty dependent on the charity of old friends. When he was buried his body was carefully examined and it was revealed that he was a perfectly formed male.

Throughout d'Eon's lifetime other men were being punished for daring to dress as women, even in private. In 1709 London police raided a transvestite club called the Mollies and publicly humiliated its members in court. In 1794 an even greater humiliation was experienced by members of another transvestite club in Clare Market. After it was raided they were dragged through the streets to the pillories, where they were pelted with rotten fruit, rubbish and dung sold as ammunition. The women faired much better, as a rule. Also, it seems more women were gender crossing than men. Between 1761 and 1815 the London annual registrar reported 15 cases of women dressed as men. A number of them sought high adventure on the high seas, such as the pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonnie, who only escaped the gallows due to their sex, or on the highway, like Lady Maude Ferrars, as daring a robber as any highwayman. Another was Mary Ann Talbot (1778 - ­1808), who changed her identity as well as her clothes. Born into a wealthy English family, Mary was raped and beaten by an army officer when she was just 14, and then forced her to accompany him to Santa Domingo, where he deserted her. To survive, she disguised herself as a boy and calling herself John Taylor joined the army as a drummer. In Flanders John was shot with a musket ball and stabbed by a sword-wielding French soldier. To avoid risk of discovery he attended to his own wounds.

He deserted from the army afterwards and joined the navy as an ordinary sailor. But one of his ships was scuttled by pirates and he was taken captive. However, the British navy retaliated and destroyed the pirate ship. John was back in the hands of the navy and once more into the breech. In a naval battle with the French he was wounded again. Miraculously, the surgeons who attended his wounds failed to discover he was a female, and after a period of recovery in hospital John was back at sea, this time as a midshipman. He was captured once again, this time by the French. He was released on a prisoner exchange and immediately joined a merchant ship bound for New York. The American captain was so impressed with his dashing young officer that he took him to his home hoping to make a match with his daughter. The daughter fell in love with John on first sight, and he was forced to flee by going to sea again. In London he was seized by a press gang determined to put him on a ship bound for battle at Trafalgar. He only managed to extricate himself from this dangerous situation by exposing his biological sex. After a discharge from the navy and now identifying as a woman, Mary spent a year fighting the British Navy in court for payment of her war service. She eventually won her case and retired to a quiet life in London. However, her money soon ran out, and she found herself in debt for owing rent. She ended up in jail, and died shortly after her release from the debtors' prison.

These are just a few of the best known trannies out of hundreds who have dotted the pages of history largely unknown.

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