Saturday, September 01, 2018

Julie d'Aubigny - Swordswoman & Opera Singer

Posted: 9/1/2018

Trigger

Just watched this very interesting documentary about the history of dueling on YouTube.
Did you know there were also women who would duel each other?
Did you know there were women who dueled men?

Mademoiselle Maupin

Was I stunned to learn in the above video there was even a woman, i.e. Julie d’Aubigny (1670/1673–1707), who dueled in disguise three man at the same time and she prevailed victorious. What a story! Unfortunately, the above video only mentions her name briefly as La Maupin. Not much background about this woman, who was  apparently famous in her time for her “tumultuous career and flamboyant life” is given. It took me a little while to figure out who she was (see my sources below).

She is also renowned for her very beautiful voice as an opera singer in Paris.

Here is a salient excerpt about her upbringing: “..., his [father] views on the proper education of women was not. He raised his daughter in much the ways that the royal pages were trained in the household of the Comte d'Armagnac. She was instructed in writing, dancing, grammar, and drawing, and d'Aubigny [her father] himself trained her in the art of the sword. He seems to have thought that training with rapier and foil was the only way that one could be safe upon the streets of Paris, and determined to see his child safe, regardless of her sex.” (Source 3; emphasis added)
Behind many accomplished women you find men who supported them.

Wish, I had more time to do research about the life of this woman.

Motto: Women, who dared succeeded!

Sources:

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