The Chevalier d'Eon, media manipulation and the making of an eighteenth-century celebrity

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

    Abstract

    1he Chevalier d'Eon first honed his skills of media manipulation in his quarrel with the French ambassador to London, the Comte de Guerchy, in 1763-1764. He did so with such success that, by the end of their spat, d'Eon had become a household name among Europe's elite, while his allegations that Guerchy had conspired to kidnap and murder him were widely accepted by the British public and had given rise to a criminal prosecution against the ambassador. During the course of the dispute and his vitriolic press campaign against Guerchy, d'Eon learned to fabricate evidence and to mould his public identity. Thus the Guerchy affair laid the groundwork for d'Eon's later celebrity and manipulation of perceptions of his gender. It also provides a case study in the construction of celebrity status in the later eighteenth century.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationThe Chevalier d'Eon and his Worlds: Gender, Espionage and Politics in the Eighteenth Century
    EditorsSimon Burrows, Jonathan Conlin, Russell Goulbourne, Valerie Mainz
    Place of PublicationU.K.
    PublisherContinuum
    Pages13-23
    Number of pages11
    ISBN (Print)9780826422781
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Keywords

    • British history
    • history of journalism
    • French history
    • celebrity
    • eighteenth century

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The Chevalier d'Eon, media manipulation and the making of an eighteenth-century celebrity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this