A piece of martial arts history that is pure awesomnes

[Gil-Galadh]

I just stumbled on this little story about Julie D'Aubigny, or La Maupin.
Seems like she was a master of the rapier, who won quite a lot of duels, an opera singer, and did things that one could only find on the pages of a swashbuckling novel
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/lamaupin.html

A little excerpt from the article:
"Of course, this chick was a lover as well as a fighter, and sometimes she was actually both at the same time. Like, one time a trio of drunk assholes were giving Julie shit while she was performing her songs in a rowdy tavern, so the star of the Paris Opera took all three of them out into the grassy courtyard, and when they all jumped her at the same time with their swords she drew her blade and made sure every single one of them was suffering from multiple stab wounds before she went back to the tavern. The next day she felt kind of bad about stabbing the f*cking ass out of one of the dudes, so she went to his room to see how he was doing, and then ended up seducing him and getting busy with him relentlessly for like three weeks straight. You know you're a f*cking baller chick when you can shank a dude through the abdomen with a rapier and then still get it on with him. I mean, guys are easy, but they ain't that easy."

"On another occasion, La Maupin was at a Royal Ball in the palace of King Louis XIV, attending as the guest of Louis' brother, Prince Philippe of France. She showed up to the party dressed as a man in a scarlet tunic and immediately started dancing with all the hot bitches, showing up all the young dudes looking for hot young wives. This was fine and all, but when La Maupin had the audacity to tongue-kiss a particularly fine-looking blonde marquise right in front of the entire Royal family, three jackass noblemen got a little bent out of shape about it and told Maupin she needed to start acting like a lady and stop macking on all the hot babes. La Maupin offered to take it outside, defeated all three men in three consecutive duels, then came back to the party while the trio of poseurs were still lying bleeding in the street like dogs. "

[Dave B]

You know you're a f*cking baller chick when you can shank a dude through the abdomen with a rapier and then still get it on with him. I mean, guys are easy, but they ain't that easy.

Yes they are.

[Ulrich von L...n]

Viktor,

This is really an exciting story, but it might happen that the whole thing about deadly duels, killed men etc. is more or less fiction.

Check one important source:
Parfaict Dictionnaire (1767) (1)
http://cesar.org.uk/cesar2/books/parfai ... &index=350

A lot of details about her life, theater carrier, appearance, but nothing on duels, just a short remark:
"La passion que Mlle Maupin avoit pour les exercises des armes et l'abitude fréquente oú elle étoit de s'habiller en homme, ont donné lieu a plusiers histoires vrais ou fausses qu'on raconte d'elle, mais comme elles sont la plupart dans un gout romanesque et peu necessaire a notre sujet , nous ne jugeons pas a propos de les rapporter."

"The passion that Ms Maupin had for exercises of arms, and frequent occasions where she was to dress as a man, gave rise to true or false stories about her, but since they are mostly a little bit too romantic in taste, and not needed to our subject, we don't judge necessary to report them". Not a very perfect translation, but it generally conveys the meaning of French text, which was written about 60 years after her death.

In order to compensate for this disappointment: read about the bout between "black Mozart" (Chevalier de Saint-George) and Chevalier d'Eon.

(1) The Cesar Project:
CESAR is a dynamic resource at the service of all those with an interest in the French theatre of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — students, researchers, scholars, enthusiasts.

[Gil-Galadh]

Ulrich, thank you for your answer. Even if there is fiction in the story, it is interesting that a woman at that time might have a "passion for exercises of arms" or even supposedly be a master in the field. Which probably is not unique, given that there is a woman in I.33 also.

Wow, I am currently reading about Chevalier d'Eon on wikipedia. Very interesting indeed. Her entire story also seems awesome...

[Ulrich von L...n]

I have found an interesting downloadable book about La Maupin:

La Maupin, 1670-1707, sa vie, ses duels, ses aventures, written by Gabriel G. Letainturier-Fradin (1904)

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24245405 ... _aventures

The same author wrote about Chevalier d'Eon, and also the history of stage fencing (Le Théâtre Héroïque) published in 1914.