Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty four, an unprecedented scandal rocked the French court.
Speaker 1: Someone close to King Louis the fifteenth had become a whistleblower.
Speaker 1: This former spy published a series of letters detailing correspondence
Speaker 1: with the French king during and after the Seven Years War.
Speaker 1: The spy in question was a member of a secret
Speaker 1: circle of spies for King Louis, who interfaced with both
Speaker 1: England and Russia on behalf of France. The individual who
Speaker 1: had leaked these conversations was already a figure of great interest,
Speaker 1: a dashing thirty six year old war hero named Charles
Speaker 1: de Beaumont, or the Chevalier Dion. The child of relatively
Speaker 1: poor French nobility, Dion was well liked among the courts,
Speaker 1: a charming, strikingly handsome individual who was quite renowned as
Speaker 1: offencer in fact, the title chevalier was the French equivalent
Speaker 1: of knight and had been bestowed upon Dion the year
Speaker 1: before for helping to draft a peace treaty that ended
Speaker 1: the Seven Years War, and yet things seemed to have
Speaker 1: soured between the young noble and the French monarch. After
Speaker 1: a swashbuckling career that involved fighting the English, negotiating in Russia,
Speaker 1: and successfully dressing as a woman to accomplish secret missions,
Speaker 1: Dion was usurped by the subsequent ambassador to England and
Speaker 1: demoted an absolute insult to someone with Dion's qualifications. Rather
Speaker 1: than taking this line down, Dion had retaliated, which brings
Speaker 1: us to that series of letters published in seventeen sixty four.
Speaker 1: They were alarming to King Louis the fifteenth, but what
Speaker 1: was even more alarming is that Dion held back. Louis
Speaker 1: had corresponded with Dion for years about a potential French
Speaker 1: invasion of England. These letters were not among the published documents.
Speaker 1: It seemed that Dion was holding those back as insurance,
Speaker 1: and ultimately King Louis granted Dion a generous pension, which
Speaker 1: many theorized was a payout to ensure the Chevalier's silence.
Speaker 1: No longer welcome in the French court, the Chevalier settled
Speaker 1: in London for the time, being a stranger in a
Speaker 1: strange land. Dion developed a curious reputation among the British.
Speaker 1: Everyone knew that this was a French ex pat, but
Speaker 1: something about the Chevaler drew their attention. Dion's facial appearance
Speaker 1: was actually quite androgynous, leading many to speculate that Dion
Speaker 1: was hiding a secret under a signature dragoon's uniform. A
Speaker 1: betting pool started in the London Stock Exchange. Was this
Speaker 1: former spy a man or a woman? The Chevalier, upon
Speaker 1: hearing these rumors, declined to comment, offering only that submitting
Speaker 1: to an examination would rightly so be beneath anyone's dignity.
Speaker 1: The betting pool, as a result, fizzled out, and Dion
Speaker 1: continued to make friends in British high society, but was
Speaker 1: growing homesick along the way. Following the death of King
Speaker 1: Louis the fifteenth the Chevalier was permitted to return to France. However,
Speaker 1: there was some negotiation in this process. As part of
Speaker 1: the arrangement to let Dion back into the country, they
Speaker 1: had to turn in the correspondence withheld from publication and
Speaker 1: conduct themselves properly as a woman. This is where historical
Speaker 1: opinion about the Chevalier Dion sharply splits. What we know
Speaker 1: is that from the mid seventeen seventies onward, the Chevalier
Speaker 1: Dion wore dresses and was legally declared a woman by
Speaker 1: the French government, who even paid for the aforementionable wardrobe change.
Speaker 1: What we don't know is whether this was a social
Speaker 1: role forced upon the Chevalier or one that Dion freely chose.
Speaker 1: The story told about the Chevalier is that she was
Speaker 1: born a female, forced into the role of a man
Speaker 1: by a father who wanted a son. Whichever is the case,
Speaker 1: though Dion did not accept that role of a quiet,
Speaker 1: demure woman, Becoming a celebrity in France, much to the
Speaker 1: chagrin of the French government. Now known as Charlotte de Beaumont,
Speaker 1: Dion gained a reputation as a modern Amazon, a woman
Speaker 1: who had fought for her country and now earned a
Speaker 1: military pension. When the French supported the American War for Independence,
Speaker 1: Charlotte volunteered to return to military service, but was refused
Speaker 1: once again. Growing weary with France, Charlotte returned to England
Speaker 1: and made a career as a fencer. Paintings of the
Speaker 1: era depict the Chevalier crossing blades with famous duellists while
Speaker 1: dressed in layers of petticoats. Writings of the era remarked
Speaker 1: upon Dion's skill in swordsmanship, even while encumbered by a
Speaker 1: heavy gown. The Chevalier died in eighteen ten at the
Speaker 1: age of eighty one. Dion had lived forty eight years
Speaker 1: as a man and thirty three as a woman. Naturally,
Speaker 1: much of Dion's reputation became obscured by tall tales. Even today,
Speaker 1: it's difficult to ascertain where the line sits between honest
Speaker 1: truth and fanciful fiction. Whether as Charles or Charlotte, this
Speaker 1: was a singular individual, one whose primary ambition was to
Speaker 1: live a life of adventure. He lived a life of
Speaker 1: excitement so that she could retire and fence in skirts.
Speaker 1: What other historical figure can make such a curious claim.
Speaker 1: Turn on the cable news or spend a few minutes
Speaker 1: on social media, and you'll soon come to the conclusion
Speaker 1: that humanity is in dire straits. Whether it's due to
Speaker 1: natural disasters, the latest epidemic, international wars, global warming, or
Speaker 1: dropping fertility rates. There is no shortage of problems that
Speaker 1: we could worry about in times like please, it is
Speaker 1: worth remembering that as bad as things may seem, they
Speaker 1: can always get worse. Unless, that is, you were alive
Speaker 1: in five point thirty six CE, the year pinpointed by
Speaker 1: some experts as the worst year in human history. To
Speaker 1: understand what made this particular year so bleak, put yourselves
Speaker 1: in the uncomfortable shoes of an everyday peasant living in well,
Speaker 1: let's just say western France. Your days are full of
Speaker 1: backbreaking work, either on your own dismal plot of land,
Speaker 1: or more likely, on your vassal's estate. At night, you
Speaker 1: sleep side by side with the livestock and burn manure
Speaker 1: chips for warmth. The smell is so bad it's all
Speaker 1: you can do just to fall asleep. Then one day
Speaker 1: you're out in the fields, toiling away like always, when
Speaker 1: you look up and see dark clouds rolling across the sky.
Speaker 1: It looks like a storm is about to break, but
Speaker 1: the rain never comes. That night, the moon is eerily faint,
Speaker 1: and the next morning the sky is still dark. You
Speaker 1: can see the sun through the clouds if you really
Speaker 1: look for it, but its rays are a week pale blue,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't give off the usual heat. The sky
Speaker 1: smells of sulfur, and every now and then, yellow flakes
Speaker 1: of ash rain down from the sky like snow. It's
Speaker 1: the same thing the next day and the next. After
Speaker 1: a few weeks of darkness, the crops start to wither
Speaker 1: and die. You hear that the harvests been postponed, which
Speaker 1: means no work and no money to feed your family.
Speaker 1: Even if you were working, there's nothing worth buying at
Speaker 1: the market. Pretty soon, violent crime skyrockets as everyone fights
Speaker 1: over the dwindling resources. When your neighbors start to drop
Speaker 1: from starvation, their rotting corpses lead to pestilence outbreaks. The
Speaker 1: next thing you know, you're being invaded by people who
Speaker 1: are even hungrier than you. And in the face of
Speaker 1: all this misery, you might wonder if you've been abandoned
Speaker 1: by God or conclude that you're living through the end
Speaker 1: of the world. Either way, you'll eventually realize this might
Speaker 1: finally be as bad as it gets. While people living
Speaker 1: in five point thirty six had no way of knowing
Speaker 1: what had gone wrong. We now have a pretty good idea.
Speaker 1: A volcanic eruption in the Northern Hemisphere spat ash and
Speaker 1: toxic gas into the atmosphere, darkening the sky and triggering
Speaker 1: volcanic winter. As a result, temperatures dropped around the globe,
Speaker 1: wreaking havoc on the seasons. In parts of China, it
Speaker 1: snowed during the late summer, while in the Middle East
Speaker 1: and Europe, a thick, dry heat rolled across the land,
Speaker 1: choking crops and livestock. The darkness didn't lift for roughly
Speaker 1: eighteen months, and even when the sun finally returned, the
Speaker 1: after effects continued. The widespread drought led to the collapse
Speaker 1: of multiple civilizations, hastening the decline of the collapsing Roman Empire,
Speaker 1: and may have even triggered the world's first pandemic. According
Speaker 1: to Michael McCormick, a Harvard University archaeologist and historian, it
Speaker 1: took over one hundred years for the global economy to recover.
Speaker 1: That means at least five generations were impacted by the
Speaker 1: volcanic winter, while millions of people spent their entire lives
Speaker 1: under its shroud of darkness. So the next time you're
Speaker 1: feeling down about the state of things, consider going outside
Speaker 1: for a walk. As long as the sun is still
Speaker 1: shining in the sky, it's safe to say that things
Speaker 1: could be worse, at least by five point thirty six
Speaker 1: CE standards, which means we've all got a lot to
Speaker 1: still be thankful for until the next volcanic winter hits,
Speaker 1: that is, and then all bets are off. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldolore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.