Julie D'Aubigny was truly a rare one. She could sword fight with the best of them. She could sing opera like a song bird. She wore men's clothing, she wore women's clothing, she wore whatever she wanted. And as a great lover, she'd also steal your girl. There was almost nothing she couldn't do. She also was a shameless outlaw who lived by the sword and nearly died by the executioner's ax. But she was cool with the Sun King, Louis XIV. Basically, she lived, she loved, and her life begs the question: how is there not a major movie about her?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Lizbooz Aaron.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
IM good? I'm good?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You really?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, totally?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
You look like you feel good? Sure, yeah, No, he's
very convincing.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So what are you doing over there? It's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, I'm doing well. How are you?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Now are you all right?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Are you standing in your truth? Right now?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I swear to God?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What's your journey right now?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I got a question for you ahead, was itous?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
I do?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I do? This comes courtesy of Rude Dude Rebecca via Instagram.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
All right, thank you for Rudebeca and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Going to read you the message and then I'm going
to give you a little back story here. One thing
I need to explain to you is this is not
a product mashup. Yes, way to go right. She saved you?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Boom boom, Hello ridiculous crime peeps. It's the end of
the school year in Texas and for the twenty fifth
year in a row, my middle school has not allowed
backpacks on the last day. Why because of a ridiculous crime.
Ye twenty five years ago, a kid brought one thousand
(01:10):
crickets and released them upstairs. In the eighth grade hallway.
Who was that kid? You asked?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Who was that kid?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Glenn Powell. It's become a legend of sorts, but all true.
He even talks about it regularly on talk shows. So
current students being punished for something a now famous person
did twenty five years ago, ridiculous. Thanks for constantly making
me laugh on my walks. Rebecca love this. So I
looked it up because I mean, I believe Rebecca hundred percent.
(01:40):
I'm not like doubting it, but I was like, I
need to know more about this. So Glenn Powell goes
around telling everyone it was three thousand crickets. Yepsi, Okay, Glenn,
I believe Rebecca on this one. So he went around
and he bought him from a bunch of pet stores. So,
according to him, the middle implemented a translucent backpack rule
(02:03):
from then on just to keep that the insect smuggling.
And so he's really famous for talking about it on
the Jennifer Hudson Show, which I know you tape them all.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I love it when when they dance out of the studio,
they have they dance right.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I'm sure that you've heard the story. You're just
not remembering it. So it said that he initially planned
to release the three thousand crickets in a busy funnel
like hallway right before lunch. Before they were released, he
set off a stink bomb in an English teacher's classroom
over a conflict that backfired and landed him in the
(02:38):
principal's office. I kind of got and so while he
was in the principal's office, his friends followed through with
releasing the crickets in the hallway.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh good, And.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Because he was already sitting in the principal's office looking
out the window, he used his confinement as the out.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
He was like the decoy.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I buy Rebecca's story more. I think he's embellishing with
the whole stink bominer ahead an l. But no, you
little weasel. You went up there, you released it, t
then off you ran like a coward.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Do you do anything like that?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No? I didn't, But I was thinking when I saw
it was Glenn Powell, I was like, I don't know
who that is. So I looked it up and I
realized it's the guy that I always ask you who
is that? And you always tell me he's in top
gun Mavericks. And he is the most in my opinion, nondescript,
just random brown haired, white guy. You could show me
(03:31):
his picture and say he's a bunch of different names.
I'm like, yeah, sure, tell.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You he sold you a car back in nineteen eighty, right.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And then the other guy, not Tom Cruise, your favorite,
but the other guy who's in Maverick, he's another one.
I have no idea who he is. Yeah, okay, sure.
And that's the other guy. Who'm like, who is that?
And you're always telling me that they're in Top Gun Maverick.
I call you, I'm like, have you who.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Is looking at this guy? I want to know who
it is?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Just click and oh never mind, I'll figure it out
on my own. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
That is a ridiculous. It is, Elizabeth, I got one
for you that doesn't evolve either of those gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Or Top Gun Maverick.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
No, in this case, no Tom Cruise, nothing. But it's wild, Okay, okay.
I imagine if your two best life skills are singing
opera professionally sure, and sword fighting.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, so it's my life story exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Ridiculous, nutrageous Elizabeth Sarah.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Have I got a fun one you today? Like for real,
for real? Like, have you ever heard of Julie Dubigny. No,
she's French, obviously, if we can tell from my outstanding pronunciation.
I'm gonna be trying my level best throughout this. But
the apologies to anybody who has an francophone and you know,
to my no, this time, I'm really trying. I'm not
(05:21):
making fun of Yeah. No, there'll be no Pepela pew
in this. Okay. Now, I had not heard of Julie Dubigny,
but I can tell you this after reading about her.
She needs a movie or a streaming series. Her story
is crazy good, like oh, it's like girls, stop, come
on now?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Really?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Oh yeah. Interestingly, she did have a modern moment of
recognition on Tumblr back in twenty thirteen. Oh okay, I
found this in my research. According to an article published
in twenty thirteen from The Daily Dot, it ran with
the headline quote, this seventeenth century sword swinging opera singer
will rule the Internet in twenty thirteen. Now that kind
of happened. But well, my girl, Julie Dubignyi, she came
(06:02):
roaring back into cultural memory for a brief time. She
bubbled back up into the zeitgeist, and it was all
due to one single Tumblr post, Gotta Love the Old Internet,
as a Daily Dot reported and I quote, dubig Ye
got some traction on the Internet when she appeared on
the engaging website Badass of the Week last year. That
slight bit of attention was enough to slowly start putting
(06:23):
her on the radar again until suddenly, over the last month,
Dubignyi has popped up everywhere on history blogs, on Pinterest,
on Democratic Underground, on MetaFilter, on Twitter, on donder, on
switson Now. To be fair, her story has been made
into a movie. Okay, this was back in nineteen sixty
six and it was French, and then there was also
(06:45):
a French TV series that aired in two thousand and
four but apparently didn't really make it over the Pond,
and it was more like a based on her life.
It didn't really get into all the details. It wasn't
like a facts retelling, which it makes no sense to
me because without exaggeration. Her life story is nuts. Really
and get this, Elizabeth, she did it her way like Sinatra,
but way back in the sixteen eighties and sixteen nineties
(07:06):
in France. What yes, now, Elizabeth, I know you know
about King Louis the fourteenth Uh huh. You know about
his palace at Versailles, right, and all about him holding
court there is the sun King. And you know how
he was the longest reigning monarch in the history of
the world. I mean, my man, he was the absolute
monarch of France for a record seventy two and a
quarter years on the throne boom. So I won't bore
(07:30):
you by getting into all that for some scene setting,
but I do want you to be picturing that era
of France as I tell you this story. Louis the
fourteenth son King, Opulence, decadence, the whole got it. That's
the backdrop for Julie Dugnet's life. Okay, that's what was
going down. She's doing her thing. Okay. So I say
all this because personally my mind, I want to imagine
the Three Musketeers, Yeah with swords, Yeah, dudes with peacock
(07:53):
feathers and their giant flouncy hats doing swashbuckle and thing,
and that was happening technically under King Louis the fourteenth
reign as a boy child. But that three Musketeer energy
is really it's more about like his father Louis the
thirteenth and his mother Queen. And yeah, because the Musketeers
took place basically in the sixteen twenties and this is
in the sixteen eighties and sixteen nineties. That's how long
(08:15):
King Louis the fourteenth reigned. Nuts. Okay, well, in this time,
there's one big change in the culture and it was
now under King Louis the fourteenth illegal to duel. No
more swashbuckling for you, France. That's good. And I don't
mean like with guns. When I say dueling, like not
like Aaron Burr Alexander Hamilton. I mean like fencing swords, right,
I want to get that a clear stabbins exactly. And
(08:37):
wouldn't you make that illegal like street style swashbuckling. That's
a real loss for the culture.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It is, it's a game changer.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yes, now I bring this all up because sword fighting
and swashbuckling is a big part of this story. Okay,
So let's get into it. Who is Julie Dubignier.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You tell me, well, she's born around sixteen seventy three.
Her father worked for someone who worked for the son king.
His boss was King Louis the fourteenth's master of horse.
Because now he basically under King Louis the fourteenth. That's
when like horse drawn carriages become a thing. People stop
walking and riding horseback everywhere, and now suddenly we have
like the coach. So he's got a master of horse.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Right, so it's a great title.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, he's got a stable that's like built like the
shape of a horseshoe. It's like a whole deal for him. Anyway.
The boss's name is this guy, the Comte de mniec Okay,
and he was the Grand Squire of France. Don't know
what all that means, but anyway, her father, Gaston d'Aubigny,
was a bit of a badass himself. Her father was
part of the royal retinue, a nobleman of the house
(09:38):
of Comte de'onnec. He was like a secretary at arms
for the house. He helped run it like a butler.
But he also trained the royal pages who worked there
because he remember this guy is the Squire of France
or grand Squire, so that he had to train the
royal pages who would work at the court of the king.
And his father also taught fencing. He was like a
bad ass. It was very marshal. So julie childhood was unique.
(10:02):
It was not the life of your average girl in
royal France in the late sixteen seventies early sixteen eighties.
And she's growing up. She gets raised by this master
swordsman and he doesn't know how to raise a daughter,
so he sticks her in boy's clothes and he raises
her as a tomboy.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Sure, why not?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Now in some tellings, I gotta be fair, the idea
of wearing boy's clothes was her idea, not her father's. Okay,
either way, picture a tomboy who's learning fencing next to
the king's future pages.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Well, I mean, you look at your options, and that
probably sounds way cooler.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh totally. And by the way, she's also kicking all
their little asses like she's incredibly good with the fencing
sword in her hand. And because as I said, her
father master's swordsman, he doesn't want anyone to ever mess
with his child. So he teaches her whatever he teaches
the boys to become royal pages. He's teaching her how
to ride a horse, he's teaching her how to sword fight,
he's teaching her to gamble. You know, he's doing everything
(10:52):
he can. And then also, just like the royal pages,
she also learns from the royal tutors. They teach her
not only grammar, but great literature, culture, the whole bit, right,
So basically, by the time she's a teen, Julie is
one of the most educated people in France, if not
in Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Really.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, So in sixteen seventy seven, Julie d'ubigner is
fourteen years old and for the last two years she's
been kicking all the boys asses at fencing. She can
ride a horse as hard and as fast as anyone.
She can recite great Roman oratory in Latin, just like
the boys can.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So what do you think happens next to Elizabeth?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
A man comes along and derails her progress. Yeah, Julie,
of course, see, because you know he does it because
he's attracted to her, and to make matters worse, it's
her dad's boss, the Comte de Armagnac. Oh, yeah, and
she's fourteen. He's a grown ass married man. But since
she's a teenager and it's the sixteen seventies, that was.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Just what they did.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, No one's enough. Yeah, when he becomes her mistress
and lover, and we've pointed out in other stories it
was a let's just say, it was a different age
of maturity, that's right, right, exactly. I don't mean to
excuse it, but it was just a different idea.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But it was I hate eight it's a different time,
but it was a different time.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, exactly. So anyway, they carry on this affair, and
if you think of like a movie like Dangerous Liaisons,
you get the idea that there's always this intrigue in
the royal corps. Yeah, right about especially about the marriages
of young noble women. The girls are always used for deal making,
score settling, treaty.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Making, I was gonna say, with treaties and joining houses.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yeah, and also they are rarely married for love.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well that happens to Julie because to get some cover
for their affair, the Comte Denac arranges a marriage for
her at fourteen, she used to be betrothed to a
man called moupint sant germain Alis.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Okay, wait, so she really was into the older guy.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, she was her lover. Yeah, okay, she.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
She's having an affair with him, and then I get it. Okay, yeah,
so it wasn't like he was like urman known she.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
No, they both were kind of attracted to the other,
apparently from what I read. And then she gets married
off to this guy who his friends called Jean de Molpint. Okay,
Jean des Mopine was basically a functionary of the royal bookkeeper.
He's like an office clerk. So he's this boring guy,
and it was not meant to be a happy or
successful marriage. So it's just purely cover for the Count
and Julie to carry on their affair right with some
(13:13):
level of plausible deniability. So the Comte de Almajack he
arranges a new job for the clerk husband, Jean de Monpin.
He sends them out to the provinces, out to rural
France to go off and be a clerk there, and
then you know, he's like, yeah, leave your wife here,
my noble property, and blah blah blah, Yeah. So now
you know, she's living it up as a married woman
(13:34):
in Paris, as the lover to the Comte de Mniac,
And she spends her days dropping by local fencing schools
and just mopping up the competition. Right, And I don't
mean like their best student. Julie would beat the fencing
master of the school and then go to another school
and beat their fencing master. That's how she's like spending
her day.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Gotta have hobbies.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Well, this leads to a meet cute. This is how
Julie meets a fencing master named Son. He's from Marseille.
He's a fencing expert, a teacher, a master swordsman, just
like her daddy. And he could appreciate her and what
a badass she was, and he wasn't threatened by her
because he's also a master swordsman. And so these two
sword happy crazy kids fall in love.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh my goodness, that's messy.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, I remember how I was ad a sorrant from
Marseilles was a fencing master. Well, he also acted like one.
He was a proud man. He was also always willing
to accept a challenge to duel, even though it was illegal. Yeah,
and anyway, I guys should give you a one percent warning.
It's not graphic, but it is terminal. Yeah, in sixteen
eighty seven sent the Master Swordsman. He kills a man
(14:38):
in a duel. Now, since that's murder and it's an
illegal duel, that makes it doubly illegal. So this is
bad news for Sorrant and his young lover, Julie, and
they're budding love affair. Because the Lieutenant General of Police,
a man named Nicholas Gabrielle de Laurone, he was the
bulldog about enforcing the anting dueling law. So he's like,
(14:59):
where is san It becomes the whole deal. Yeah, So
there also was a little suspicion that the Comte was
jealous and he was mad that Julie had run off
with a master swordsman, so he kind of leaned on
the Lieutenant General the Police to put the screws to Sorran.
So he's like, you know, his lover would come back
to him. Yeah. Anyway, these two young lovers, they go
on the run. They're like peace and on horseback. They
(15:22):
steal away into the dark of night. They flee Paris
and like the long arm of the law, and they
make this mad dash for the South of France. They
travel back roads. I mean, can you imagine it must
have been just the most charming way to be on
the run, you and a young lover in the South
of France.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know, It's like so there they are living off
the land and living off the countryside, and you know,
I guess they could always get like, you know, buy
on river trout and berries and truffles and mushrooms or whatnot.
But they did need to raise some money for their travels,
so they started putting on shows for a paying crowd.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Stop. That's how they're gonna They're gonna just give meil
razzled as.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Totally jazz hands it up. They would perform sorts in
ship shows for like rural audiences. They'd amaze the country folk,
the villagers with their sword skills. Now as traveling performers,
Julie went back to wearing boys clothes in this case,
well now men's clothes. But she still had really long
blonde hair like these golden curls.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
They were all run around long hair too.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Totally just like the King. Everybody's like, like, I want
curly hair, like you know, fountain hippies so they didn't
exactly look masculines, but it wasn't like she was like
exactly hiding her gender. But you know, don't imagine like
barber strized in and yentle where she's trying to pass.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Don't worry, I will not.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
But she is like rocking this androgynist look.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So at this point, like to put it in terms
you would understand Elizabeth, she was queer maxing in Louis
the fourteenth, France.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay, right, okay, I don't know what that means, but
I get it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So this was a bit confusing.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
She's just not like some like bodacious brick house. Yeah,
she's already sort of live and like, yeah, okay, some
of the.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Good bodie you can kind of like, you know, minimize
the curves.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So she's a This is all like her performance becomes
a bit confusing for the rural folks. Like during one performance,
one of the crowd members they jump up in the
question is this a man? Is just a woman? I
don't get it right, And he's demanding that she must
be a man, Like there's no way he thinks that
it's a woman, but he's no, this must be a
man because she's too good at sword fighting. Right, It's like,
(17:21):
so he's like, this must be a man in female
drag who's now wearing male drag again. He's like double
drag double. So to shut him up.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I'll give the eternal who cares?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, right, who cares? But these are like rural country folks.
They're like I need to know this. Who cares? It's
a bowl or a cow? So to shut up a heckler,
Julie doesn't argue with him. She just tears open her
shirt and flashes him. Okay, that shut him right up. Right,
he sat back down. So while it was confusing for some,
they put on a hell of a show for all right.
(17:56):
And so Julie and her master's swordsman love old Soran
able to make a good living putting on their swordsmanship
demos around the countryside and eventually work their way back
to his hometown of Marseille. And there they put on
a stage show and people are like, oh, we love it.
But they have a lot more money and a lot
more places, so it becomes really successful. Eventually people are like,
you guys should, like, you know, make this a regular thing.
(18:18):
So they start putting on like on the stage performances.
And then to make it more of a show, a
little more razzle dazzle, they add singing. Now they're like
sword fighting, and then they do a quick few musical numbers.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Trying not to be embarrassed for them, but good.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So just imagine sword fight, musical number, musical number, sword fight.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I got a pretty good impression of it, right.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yes, exactly, so I get this. People really like it
when Julie sings, right, They turns out she's actually good.
She has like a professional level voice.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Is there anything this gal can't too?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Stone? So she's encouraged to formally study as an opera singer,
and she's like, okay, she's game. She tries young, she's.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Had plenty of time ahead of her.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And boom, she finds she's good at opera saying just
as good as she is at fencing. So this now
starts a whole new chapter in her life. And after
these messages Elizabeth, we will turn the page and get
into that next chapter.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Elizabeth, back with triple threat. She can sing, she can
sword fight?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You do you call that?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
There?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It is so digging back into the next chapter in
the life of Julie Dubonnier. I remember I said she
was encouraged to formally study as an opera saying, right, Well,
she works with this teacher and trainer named Pierre Gaultier
and he arranges a job for her performing at the
Opera House des Marseilles. She takes on a new stage
name La Monpin, right, just like her old husband Jean Mulpan.
(20:05):
She's like, I am La Monpan.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right, that's the guy that got sent off to the hinter.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Lanes exactly, the book keeper.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You're like, why shout out to him?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Exactly? I'm a married woman. So it's at this point
it's like sixteen eighty nine, right, So that also means
that Julie is sixteen years old.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
To ask how old is this? Sixteen years old? She
have a lot of life at sixteen totally.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And she's a professional opera singer.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So she's been a singing sword fighter. Yes, I want
to know what kind of songs where they like folks songs.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Or I could not fight. I assumed there was some
folks on and then also some like romantic ballads and
then some opera. I think they've mixed it up, okay,
So so as I said, she's her star is rising.
So she breaks up with her old lover, the master
Swordsman's Souran, and around the same time, perhaps the reason
for their breakup, she finds a new lover, and her
(20:56):
name is Cecilia Portigali. She's also a young woman. She's
a young blonde. She's the daughter of her merchant. She
falls hard for Julie, who equally falls hard for her,
and then two enjoy this secret love affair right right
up until her family finds out. Now her family is
in sensed, so they send Cecilia away to a convent,
which is like kind of the practice of the day,
(21:16):
and you get in trouble off to the convent that Yeah,
so they ship her off to Avignon. Yeah, I love
I knew you, That's why I brought it up. So
at this point, it's like sixteen ninety and Julie is
now seventeen years old. So she does what many passionate,
love struck seventeen year olds might do. She chases after
her girl. She follows her to the nunnery. Yeah, so
(21:40):
get this, she joins up as a novice nun know. Yeah,
so now's you got a new career. The two lovers
are reunited at the convent and they resume their love affair,
Julie and Cecilia. They stay together, they're happy together, but
they're like, you know what, this convent life isn't really
for us. So they start planning to run away. But
they'll need a plan to escape. They plan to actually
(22:00):
get away and stay away. Sure, So this moment of
inspiration occurs when an older nun passes away. So the
older nun is buried, and then in the dark of night,
the two young lovers go and disinter the recently deceased none.
They dig her up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Okay, I am having faith that this is going to
have something that will work out. Yes, because if you
want to escape and you're just digging up bodies.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
In the dark, talent, my plan is grave digging, all right,
just stick with me. That's not the whole plan.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So they going romance the dead nun.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
No, they drag her corpse back to the convent. They
put her in Cecilia's bed, and they put like a
cross of Cecilia's around her neck or some other identifier.
Then they light the nun's bedroom on fire and they
flee in the chaos what.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yes, that is psychotic.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The next level the convent.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
She'll just sneak away, Yeah, get.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Steal two horses. Keep it simple.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You desecrated a body.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yes, and the convent.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So this girl, she's passionate. She wears choker necklaces.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh, big choker. So obviously the fire meant to disguise
the corpse, so that the other nuns will think Cecilia
dyed the fire and they'll stop looking and get this.
It works meanwhile, So now we got the two young lovers.
They're on the run. They flee the convent. For the
first few weeks, they get by on love. They eat passion,
they drink excitement to nourish themselves. They're just too crazy
(23:30):
young lovers.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And they're just like weak and their hair is falling.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Out, skins all salow. So the reality of life on
the road is outlaws of love starts to set in
like I pictured them, like I don't know, a tavern
looking at the bill of fare, trying to see what
they can afford to eat, and the only thing they
can afford is like horse meat stew right. And then
they realize that two seventeen year old girls out alone
together in the world in sixteen nineties. France is a
(23:53):
tough go well and.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm wondering if all the like spent discarded lovers of hers,
like her husband and all the guys they're going to
get together and then be like, fellas, did you get
double crossed by her?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I did?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
All right, let's find her.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Well.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
At this point, the city is like, this isn't working
for me anymore. I'm going to go home to my parents.
I don't want to be an outlaw with you anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Right, So she goes probably shocking when she said a
dead body, dead nun. Yeah, She's just like, you know,
this has been fun and.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
This is like France, like where the state religion. So
after three months on the road, ce Celia bounces out.
She goes back home, and she lives in Marseille, so
she goes back there. She has to tell her family
why she's no longer at the convent, so she does.
She doesn't just tell them why she's no longer there,
she tells them the full story, digging up the nun,
setting her room on fire, running off with their mother,
(24:48):
the same one they'd sent her to the convent to
stay away from in the first place. The whole There was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A fire and I got freaked out and I came home.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You're smart, Well yeah, she was like, Mommy them everything right.
Her parents listen to her story and then they freak out.
They demand the police get involved, and I mean, like,
can you blame him? As you pointed out, there's a
dead nun dug up from a grave set on fire
to hide this love affair. It was like, imagine it's
your daughter telling you about grave robbing.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They destroyed the content, yes, displaced.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
These people worried like God's gonna punish the whole family.
You know, these are people at that time. Eventually, a tribunal,
police tribunal like think about like a court hearing or
a trial is convened. Julie is accused of kidnapping the
nun body, snatching her corpse from a grave, and also
arson for burning down the convent, all legitimate charges. Meanwhile,
this is all in absentia because Julie is nowhere near Martill.
(25:45):
She's on the run, right, this doesn't matter for justice
in France. She's convicted and absentia and sentenced to death.
So now she's an official fugitive with a death sentence
hanging over her head. Luckily for Julie, there's no internet,
no TV, no no evening news to broadcast her face
across France, so she's able to lie low and just
keep living on the lamb. And to make money, she
(26:06):
goes back to singing. So she's thefiley. She's an inns
and taverns, little countryside places singing in the town of Poitiers.
She meets a new person who will play a large
role in her life, a man named mal Rachel and
for a living. He's an old drunk.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Oh that's a catch, But he's also the.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Sort of man who recognizes that Julie has real world
class talent as a singer, because turns out he's not
just a guy with a good ear. He's a music
teacher and former professional opera singer in Paris. But he's okay, yeah, so,
but he's willing to teach her what she needs to
know to become the best she can be. So may Roschaw.
He begins to teach her how to make the most
(26:43):
of her God given talents. He prepares her for the
opera of the Paris stage, which is numerous steps higher
than the quality and class that he would find in Marseilles.
So he trains her and trains her and trains her,
and he drinks and he drinks and he drinks, and
eventually the drinking outpaces the training goes off to Paris
without him, and she's like, I'm gonna go make my name.
I'm gonna be the next big thing in opera. So
(27:05):
on the road to Paris, and I mean like the
literal road to Paris, in a place called Ville Paldu
she's traveling through, Julie goes back to her old ways.
She stops in a tavern and perhaps she was singing
for her dinner and drinks. I don't know, but I
do know. She gets into a bar fight, and being Julie,
she doesn't get into any old fight. She gets in
a duel, and being Julie, she doesn't get in any
(27:27):
old duel. She gets in a duel with three men
at the same time, and being Julie, she doesn't get
in any old duel with three men at the same time.
One of the men is Louis Joseph Dubert, the son
of the Duke of Louen, So a royalman, a nobleman, right,
so the story goes, Julie was singing Louis. He heckles her,
(27:47):
he says something rough, something off color, and then challenge
to a duel. There's another version that the son of
the duke says something and then Julie takes issue and
throws her wine in his face and he challenges her
to a duel. We don't know which u This is going.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
To turn into a meat cute though. Do they hook up?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Hold that thought?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Oh boy?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So either way, the tensions rise, someone calls for a duel.
Julie being Julie, she says she'll best all three menute once, right,
you and your two buddies. They all accept, and then
he's the son of a duke, Old Louis Joseph. He
believes he's well trained as a fencer. He believes he's
a damn fine swordsman. But Julie is a world class
master of fencing. So she takes on all three minute
(28:27):
at the same time, and instaid she beats all three
men at the same time, and to end her duel,
she runs her blade through the son of the Duke.
Doesn't kill him, it's not a fatal blow. She drives
her sword through the meat of his shoulder, just through
and through a clean strike, right wow, yeah, like her
fencing foil is like sticking out the other side.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I mean, because that's what I was wondering. Like with
a duel, they're not using like a like a heavy
sword like whatever it is, but it's a sharp So
do you just care you're looking to kill the person?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
You could? Yeah, if you got like neck meat or
he win. Yeah, well no, not necessarily an a duel.
It's just like, you know, you knock their sword out
of their hand, give them to relent by like putting
your sword blade up against their breast like I've got
you dead to rights or their neck, you know, and
you stop short. They're like, okay, you have one, so
there doesn't have to be like traditionally, yes, you often
typically will kill someone because you're both mad at each other,
(29:19):
but in this case it's more like sports. So they're like, oh,
I won. It could have been your heart instead it
with your shoulder. So she then helps the son of
the Duke upstairs to his quarters at the at the tavern,
and then while she's nursing his wounds, she learns that
he is a nobleman Luis Joseph Dia Albert right and
so he's, you know, the son of a duke, and
(29:40):
she's like, huh, that's funny. I'm also a noble. I'm
a lesser noble, but I'm also a noble, so we're
on the same level. So, Elizabeth, you want to guess
what happens next? Yes, they become lovers. It's a temporary
affair though, because they just imagine like two shooting stars
lighting up the same sky.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Then they part ways, and but they do promised we
will see each other again, and they do. They keep
bouncing into each other anyway. Julie keeps it moving. The
fugitive swordmaster, professional opera singer, fugitive for with sentence of
death hanging over her head. Right, yeah, she gets back
to her life on the lamb. She heads to Rule
and this is where she meets another person who plays
a key role in her life, a man named Gabrielle
(30:18):
von Sell. Right. He's a professional singer. He has the
same dream as Julie. He's also headed to Paris to
make it on the best stages in Europe, and he
has the goods too. The kid has pipes just like Julie, right,
So they travel together. There's two kids who want to
make good, right, both looking to go get famous in Perie.
So guess what happens next, Elizabeth? Oh no, that's right.
(30:40):
They become lovers.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Why not? Anyway, Eventually, these two crazy kids they make
it to Paris. They're ready to grab hold of their
dreams of fame and riches, and except Julie still has
that death sentence dangling over her dome. If she's gonna
make her name is la Montin. She you know, she
needs to not be a fugitive from justice. You know
who's sentenced to hang. So the only person who can
(31:02):
pardner is the supreme ruler of the land, King Louis
the fourteenth, Right, So how the hell is he going
to convince the King of France to partner? Great question, Elizabeth.
She goes back to her old lover, the Compte Demne.
She asks him to speak with his homie, the King
and see if his Royal Highness will grant her his
grace and remove her death sentence.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
She's like, I haven't seen you in a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We had that strong thing.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
How I was all about swords. Well, now I sing too.
He doesn't know about her being an opera.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Saying, so the compe is willing to grant his request
to his old lover because he still feels for her.
So the compe he goes to Versailles to speak with
the King and to plead her case. Well, so imagine
like the King is lounging in the shade playing chess
with his courtesans. Is like the pieces on an enormous
garden sized chessboard right in the Comte de Armnac because
he's beseeching the King to annul Julie's death sentence. To
(31:54):
plead his case, he explains that she is dear to him.
She sings like an angel and not like you know,
I don't mean like some faker, Like she's the real deal.
He says, she's far too talented, too beautiful of a
soul to be killed. In the King louis he's amused
by this story of Julie digging up a nun's corpse.
That's why she has everything, That's why she has the
(32:16):
death sentence. So he has to be a race charges.
So then he hears about you know, setting her in
her lover's back.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I thought she was just.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Charges.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Talk about them.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
The King is totally tickled by this romantic tale of
these partners in crime. So he grants her a pardon.
He's like, go in peace right. So with her name
now clear, Julie can throw herself into her dreams of
stardom on the opera stages of Paris. Meanwhile, her current lover,
her fellow want to be opera singer. He arrives in
Paris and his talents are instantly recognized. He is hired
(32:48):
on his first day in the City of Lights. People
are like, really, they are legit, bro. So Julie she
does not get hired as quickly. She's talented. She does
have the voice of an angel, but she's an untrained angel,
so she needs some help onto the stages. She meets
this retired opera singer, this man named Bouvar, and he
introduces her to Jean Nicholas Fransan and he was the
(33:08):
master of the King's household. He's also a major patron
to the opera and she can convince him that she's
a star. He can basically like Citizen Kane, it like
you're now the star. So she has to go audition
for him, and at the audition she sings well, she's
definitely at the professional level, but he's not convinced, so
convinces him no, no, to give her a second audition.
(33:30):
She was nervous, what have you? She gets back for
the second audition. This time, Julie convinces him that her
voice is a fit for the opera houses of Paris.
Yeah so, being as I said, a patron of the opera.
Once he is convinced, he's able to make her dreams
come true. Not only does she get to perform, she
becomes a star.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Did she seduce him too.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'm guessing, yes, guessing. I didn't find any confirmation, but
it's like the second audition, I'm like, okay, first we
didn't try. I think I know what happened when she
used this little talents.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
He was on the fence, and then she's like, what
if I told you that I dug up a nun
and set her body on fire? And he's so.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
One biographical sketch of her life at this point said
that Julie was quote received with rap shows. She's like
a huge star of the opera stage. She becomes known
as Mademoiselle de Montpinpin.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah, So at this point, it's still sixteen ninety, which
means Julie is seventeen years old and is now a
major opera star in Paris. She takes the stage four
nights a week. She's singing an opera with such a
rare skill that there was this very famous French diarist,
Philippe de CROs and he wrote in his diary that
she had quote the most beautiful voice in Zerol. So
(34:47):
apparently it was legit. No, he just was in the
cap not that I know of exactly. So Julie she
would stay a star in the opera stages of Paris
for the next fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
She typically played roles like Medea, Minerva, Dido, strong women, queens, goddesses,
you get the idea. She also had roles written specifically
for her. In seventeen oh one, the opera Tankred was
written specifically for her voice. She had this very rare
mezzo soprano voice, which is like halfway between soprano and contralto. Yeah,
(35:19):
so the opera Tankred was written as an exhibition of
her voice. She played the role of Chlorinde. It's a
fitting role because it's a warrior princess who is a
Saracen who falls in love with her natural rival a
young crusader knight, their enemies on the battlefield, lovers in
the bedroom. All right, So the opera is a huge hit.
It's such a big hit that the show runs in
opera houses in Paris for the next sixty years straight.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Whoa sixty years?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Ye rich specifically for her like cats, Yes, exactly now.
The composer of that opera, Andre Compas, he wrote two
other opera specifically for Julie. Neither of those were as
big of hits as Tankred h But anyway, well was
dazzling the crowds in the opera houses of Paris. She
was still out there in the streets, kicking all kinds
of ass with her sword in illegal duels. What she
(36:09):
can't help it, which means she also has to go
back to the sun King asked Louis fourteen for another pardon.
But before we get into all that, Elizabeth, let's take
another break's some more ads, and when we're back, we'll
catch back up with the sword swinging, swashbuckling opera, singing
badass with the mademoiselle going to steal your girl swagger,
(36:47):
and we're back, Elizabeth. So, how you digging the story
of Julietstic.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You're right. It does need a modern movie.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Totally, and it gets crazier. We haven't reached the peaks yet.
So if you had to guess, what do you think
happens next in the life of Julie.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Okay, so she's doing fight club at night with swords,
opera star, the star during the day.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
With nobility, nobleman, noble women, partying with you know, masquerade.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Is she gonna is there any one percent coming up
in this?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Nope, go the other way. She falls in love.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Oh I found you gonna say she gave birth?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
No, no, no, the other way of like it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Take a life. She makes a line. Yeah, okay, I see.
So she gets she gets down.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
She falls in love with the lead female singer at
the opera, Marie le Rochois, right, and then she turns
around and she falls for the big new, sexy, up
and coming male opera star, Francois Moreau. And he's got
a street name of his own in the opera game.
He's called fan chonp Right, So she's like, I'm in
love with Fanean sorry, Marie. And by this point she's
(37:52):
an established star of the opera houses living her dream
and then they got to this young guy and I
think he kind of played along with her at first
because she's like a you know, star, and he wants
to become one, and he's kind of using her to
get ahead. And then later on he spurns her love
and then he turns her down, and this sends her
into like this wicked tail.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Space the first time she's been turned down that she
just leaves this wreckage behind her.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Yes, I don't think she thought it could happen. So anyway,
this tenor at the opera, this cat named Desmugnier, he
sees Julie all down due to rejection. He thinks this
might be my chance. So this male tenor he steps
up and he starts making advances at Julie, but she's
in no mood for all that, so she turns him
down and then he gets pissed and he calls her
(38:35):
all the bad names in French that he knows, and
then Julie swears vengeance will be hers. So this is
when yet again, she goes back to her old ways.
Julie gets out her men's clothing from the dresser. She
puts on some flouncy musketeer style hat. She straps on
her belt and her her like fencing foil, and she
goes out looking for this male tenor in the streets
and she finds him, and she goes right up to
(38:56):
him and she publicly challenges him to a duel in
the public square, dressed as a man. Yeah, he doesn't
recognize her. Duels are illegal, Yes, duels are totally illegal,
So dees mugne. He's a singer, not a sword fighter,
a lover, you know, not a fighter. So he's also
what you might call a coward. So he refuses her
challenge to duel. She gets pissed. Julie is like, you
can't do that. You must accept my challenge, right, and
(39:18):
he's like, no, refuse. So she takes her walking stick
and she canes him right right there in the public square.
He goes down, his snuff box, pops out, his watch,
comes off his wrist. She bends down, swipes both walks away.
The next day at the opera house, then this same
male tenor dies mugnier. He comes in. He's now got
a lamp. He's looking at it right.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
They work together and she whooped him in front of everybody,
stole his stuff, he has.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Cross Drus tomorrow. No, he doesn't recognize her because remember
she's cross just as the man. So he's looking like
this gang of street tough teens beat him up, right,
is exactly what he makes his story and he tells
everyone in the opera house this is what happened. And
then Julie here's him saying that she's like, huh. And
since she has an audience of like cast members and
(40:04):
singers and whatnot, she plays it up. She gets a
little more revenge. She scoffs at his story that he
was beaten up by these ruffians in the street. Ye,
because one she knows the truth, two she was there,
and three she was the one who handed out the
beat down. She has the restiats, so Julie says, des mougne,
you liad and base kalad. It was I alone who
defeated you. You were afraid to fight, and so I
(40:25):
gave you a sound thrashing as proof. I'll return to
you your miserable watch and your snuffbox. WHOA, Julie still
got it now, I've saved the best for last. Perhaps
her most famous scandal and involved all of her great
love Stord fighting duels and inappropriate places, seducing a beautiful
person some French royalty, and of course showing off for
(40:46):
the folks.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
The year is sixteen ninety seven. Julie is twenty four
years old. The scene is the royal court of the
brother of the Sun King. The affair is this decadent
costume ball, and Julie shows up in men's clothes. She's
back to her old ways again, and she swans around
in drag with that. I'm going to steal your girl energy. Yeah,
but you know what, Elizabeth rather leant me tell you
more about it. I want you to.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
My eyes are close.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
I want you to picture it. You are a young
noble lady who's been invited to a masquerade ball at
the royal residence of Monsieur Philippe, the Duke of Orleans,
otherwise known as the little brother of King Louis the fourteenth.
His palatial home is called Chateau Saint Cleu. When the
(41:31):
faithful night arrived, you were conveyed to the palatial home
and a horse drawn carriage. The large, sumptuous coach is
certainly a luxurious way to get around, and it definitely
beats arriving on horseback. As a carriage pulls up to
Chateau Saint Clu, you are overcome by the grandeur of
the home. A footman steps forward, opens the door of
the carriage. She offers you a hand for you to
step down. Tall gilded candlelabras are festooned with expensive candles.
(41:56):
They light your way to the home. As you draw
closer to the front door, you can hear the gaiety
and the music that awaits you inside. This is your
first masked ball, and you don't know exactly what to expect.
It is like nothing you could have imagined. There are
masked couples dressed in all the latest fashions. The ladies
wear dark silk brocaded gowns decorated with gold and metallic lace,
(42:20):
touches of embroidery, and embellishments of Venetian lace in their hair.
They wear fontages, tall lace headdresses arranged into tears of
scaveolded locks with an architectural complement of lace muslin ribbons.
The gentlemen are also dressed to impress the top of
their heads sit curly wigs like they came. They wear
(42:40):
long buttoned justicoor jackets, that run knee length and cut
to emphasize the waist. They also wear large lace cravats
and matching lace cuffs. It offers a subtle flourish of
soft fabricants. It's the stiffness of the justicor. Together the
men and women dance to the sounds of the royal
musicians of Chateau Saint clu circulate through the decadent crowd,
(43:03):
offering Bordeaux wine, champagnes, fruited brandies, spiced punch, drinking chocolate.
The tables of desserts are fit for a king, which
is fitting since the king is in attendance. There are
brightly colored fruit tarts, animals shaped marzipans, cream topped puff patries,
and a rainbow of candied fruits. Taking in the scene,
(43:23):
you are overwhelmed by the spectacle the opulence before you.
You accept a flute of champagne from a silver tray
and continue to survey the scene. As you sip from
your champagne, you catch the eye of young noble suitors.
Before you know it, you are greeted by three young
men from behind their masks. They each take turns complimenting
you in gracious turns of phrase. Then you hear it.
(43:46):
It sounds like the voice of a woman. But when
you turn you see a masqueraded man wearing the costume
of a man. The mass stranger ask you for your
hand to dance. You quaff your champagne and accept his
kind offer. The fencing foil that the wears on his
hip causes you to have to place your hand high
between the shoulder blades so you don't tear or snag
your dress. And then, moving together, you and the stranger
(44:09):
spin and dance with the other couples to the music
played in the Italian style of the day. When the
song ends, the stranger asks for another You're only happy
to oblige. Your partner dances with the delicate refinement of
a true nobleman. As the musicians play another song for
the masqueraded couple, you feel as if you were in
a dream and might at any moment awaken back home
at bed. But then when the song ends, your partner
(44:32):
asks you for one more dance. The stranger says your
presence is a touch of the divine, and they might
perish if you reject their offer. The compliment works, as
does the charm of their desperate pleading you agree to
a third dance. You two spin and step across the
dance floor with the same ease that birds enjoy the sky.
After the song ends, your dance partner gives you a kiss,
(44:53):
a long, full on, passionate kiss on the lips there
before everyone, including the king. And that's when you know
this gentleman is no gentleman. From the softness of her lips.
You know it's a young woman who is masquerading in
men's costume. When your lips part the young noble woman
in men's clothing bows deeply and thanks you for the dances.
(45:13):
Then he she moves to step away, but is stopped
by the three young suitors who first approached. They demand satisfaction.
They challenge your dance partner to a duel, and your
dance partner is only too happy to oblige. They all
step outside into the gardens of the palatial home. You
and many others crowd the tall windows and doors that
lead out into the gardens. You fear there is no
(45:34):
way for your dance partner to survive a three on
one duel. Not to mention you worry because you suspect
that she is a woman in disguise. Fencing foils are
drawn with a flourish. The three young noblemen circle is
your dance partner. The mass stranger awaits the first rush
in exchange of swords, and then it comes. One of
the young men tries a thrusting attack. Your dance partner
(45:55):
easily parries it. A second young nobleman tries a more
elegant attack, using a faint before striking, and again easily parried.
The third young nobleman tries his luck. He favors a
rather feral strike, pushed by emotion rather than imagination or experience,
and just like the others, this too is parried. Your
dance partner knocks the fencing foil from the hand of
(46:15):
the third man. When the second man and the first
challenger attack at the same time, your dance partner moves
the same grace this showed on the dance floor. The
masqueraded stranger knocks fencing foils from the hands of both
men and then lightly presses their sword tip into the
chest of the first nobleman. It's a wordless way to ask.
If he relents, he nods to indicate he is defeated.
(46:38):
The crowd of nobles cheer at the display of such
sword fighting skill. Your dance partner bows deeply to the crowd,
and then she's their fencing foil. You are beside yourself.
You were worried, but your dance partner just defeated all three.
What a performance. The masqueraded stranger rejoins the partiers inside
the ballroom. You hope that he she will ask you
(46:59):
to dance again, so you can say how impressed you are.
But before they can approach, the crowd parts and the
king himself approaches the masquerrated stranger. The son king seems
to know this stranger and addresses them Ah the jied
l'a monpin. Louis the fourteenth is amused by the display
of swordsmanship, but then reminds the masqueraded stranger that he
(47:21):
has decreed laws against any duels in Paris. Your dance
partner bows deeply to the king, apologizes for the offense.
Monsieur Philippe, Duke of Borleons, steps through the crowd and
calms down the situation. He makes a joke that La
Monpin has disarmed three men in the same time. It
takes the king to finish a flute of champagne, And
what a great show it was for the gathered guests.
(47:41):
The King agrees, and he makes a royal proclamation right
there that his decree about dueling really only applies to
mess so their honored guest La Monpin is exempt. This
saves face for the King and also lets you know
you were right. Your dance partner is a woman dressed
in the costume of a man. You touch your lips
and remember the feel of her soft lips against yours.
(48:03):
You think to yourself, what a memorable first masquerade ball,
What a night, What a beautiful night. Whoa, And there
you go, Elizabeth law Montant, reveling in the full glory
of action and seduction before the sun King.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Amazing. And then she gets the exemption.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Yes, she gets parted right there in the spots. Wow,
she wins the second partner in front of the King. Now,
after making that scene at the Chateau de Sant Claus,
Julie is persuaded that would be a good idea for
her to vacate Paris for a while. The nobility is
a little upset, get a little hot, right, and she's like, okay,
despite the King's royal decree, some nobles start this whisper campaign.
(48:42):
You know, she killed the nun and burned down the content, right, right,
So there's talk of reinstating her previous death sentence. The
King's like, come on, come on, you gotta go. Yeah,
so she bounces out. It's like that old meme. Uh,
you smoke too tough, you swag too different, Your bitch
is too bad. They'll kill you. That was Julie, right,
So she did as he persuaded. She dips out of Paris,
(49:03):
She flees France, she heads to Belgium. There she continues
working as an opera star. And of course she well,
I think you know what happens next to Elizabeth. She
seduces a new lover. Sure, of course, this time it's
the ruler of Bavaria. What the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian
Emmanuel Wow.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
In Brussels, the two become tempestuous lovers, just like all
of her other affairs. It burns hot and then the
passion burns out, and then he takes a new lover.
And since he's the ruler of Bavaria, he doesn't want
to deal with the rejection possible tears. He just wants
to get busy with his new mistress. So what does
he do. He hires the husband of his new mistress,
and he makes that man gives Julie the bad news
(49:42):
that their affair is over.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Oh that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And to cushion the blow, he sends this husband with
forty thousand livres to pay her off to go out
with any hard feelings. Yeah, this is this nuts scene.
The husband of the new mistress is the bag man
for the old mistress. Yeah. Anyway, when she hears the
news from the husband of the new mistress, Julie does
not take it well. She kicks the dude down the stairs,
throws the forty thousand livres at him, the husband, and
(50:06):
doesn't pick it up. He's like, that was a gift
from the electors Saveria. He leaves. Now, perhaps she was
like waiting for her of no cooler heads to prevail.
I don't know, but Julie did come down and collect
the forty thousand livres. She's like, I'm an aatis for
the road now. So at this point she's still an
opera star, right, but she's also kind of back to
being a fugitive in Paris, so she doesn't know what
to do. So she goes back to France to see
(50:27):
if she can swing a final pardon from the king, Like,
can we clear all this up for once and for all?
I mean her story with the nun and the fire
and the convent. It was charming the first time, it
was a long time. Will they work a second time?
Will the king be amused twice?
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Well?
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Lamp? She eventually does go back to Paris. He does
successfully sweet talk the Sun King in giving her a
second or third part and depending on how you count it, Yeah,
And she also then gets all talk of her death
sentence being reinstituted kaibashed right, So once again she's free
to perform in Paris. And so she returns to the stage.
The year is seventeen three, and Elizabeth, do you want
(51:01):
to guess what happens next?
Speaker 2 (51:03):
She seduced everybody?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
She it's right, She falls in love. She seduces a
noble woman by the name of Marie Therris Louis de
Sante de L'Estrange, the Marquis de florent soac now the
Madame La Marquis de florent Sac was famous for her beauty.
She was called the most beautiful woman in France. She
was loyal with her heart, when it came to Julie.
(51:25):
The two women enjoyed this deep and true love affair.
They lived together, they love together. She's the true love
of Julie's life.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Oh really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Unfortunately, of the lovers only stay together for two years
because sadly, the Madame Marquis de Florensac she dies of
a fever in seventeen oh five. So at that point,
at the age of thirty five, Julie retires from the
opera stage. Some believe the passing of Marie Theres the
Marquis de Florensac, was too much for Julie's heart to bear,
and so in the years it follow she begins to
(51:54):
get her affairs in order. She reconnects with old lovers
like her husband and the Comte, and then she retires
to a convent. Ironically, whoa, That's where she follows her
one true love into the great beyond. Julie due Albane
dies in seventeen oh seven, at the ripe old age
of thirty seven. She packed a whole hell of a
full life into those dizzy, defiant thirty seven years.
Speaker 5 (52:16):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Now, if you'd like to read more about La monpainp
you can check the book goddess. It's a work of
fiction by her modern biographer Kelly Gardner. That's Gardner with
an Eye. Or you can check the Tumble or archives
if you're into that kind of thing. But I got
to ask you, Elizabeth, what's that ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 4 (52:32):
Man?
Speaker 2 (52:33):
I you know, I like you're saying, there's so much
life packed in the thirty seven years good Gravy. I
can't imagine processing so much of that. Yeah, and you know,
before the age of twenty, My god.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
And she's like, how many times is she hanging out
with King Louis the fourteen? I mean she's at the
highest levels of society. She's also hanging out at inns
and taverns performing for the town folks. She like, she
lived not only a rare life, but every levels of
a rare one.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Want to have such talent in so many areas you
know of just like it's mind blowing. What's your takeaway?
Speaker 3 (53:12):
How is this not a movie or a TV show?
I mean, like there we tell each other all these
stories and so often we're like, this should be a movie.
This movie, this one screams to be a movie. If
it was a man, I think there'd be seven movies. Yeah,
I am I wrong.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, that's true that.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
I think that we're still like, what do we do
with this woman? She's just too much people like, they
won't believe this. Let me just tell her life story.
That's all you gotta do. Embellish a thing, right anyway,
that's mine.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
I I like it.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
You the moved for a talkback.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
I am always always in the mood for a talk.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Produce a d What do you got for us? Well,
let me just say, in the words of Dusty Rhodes,
she whined and dined with kings and queens. She also
dined on pork and beans. Yes, nice damn son and
with that, oh.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
My god, helled g.
Speaker 5 (54:10):
His Aaron High Elizabeth was following up from your furry episode.
So I came home today to discover that for Landia
twenty twenty six is occurring right across the.
Speaker 6 (54:19):
Street from me.
Speaker 5 (54:20):
There's about two dozen furries right now, in varying degrees
of furriness, some with heads, some with tails, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Vaping.
Speaker 5 (54:27):
So far, I've seen a pterodactyl wrestle two eighteen cases
of beer from a Toyota yars, and a lizard struggled
to get a Samsonite up an escalator. So that's pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
My soul just left my body. Sweetheart, sweetheart, take notes,
and I wish.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
You pictures right whatever you.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Can rank and the detail of Yaris and the oh
my god, vaping, the vaping, Oh my god, I love it.
I'm excited you saw that. I'm sorry you.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
Saw that, you shared it.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
I love, love, love.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
That you should.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Oh my god, thank you.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
We needed that.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
The looks on her face she went through like the
rainbow shade of emotions. Well as always, you can find
us online at Ridiculous Crime, at Instagram and blue Ski,
so go check those out at Instagram. We got pictures
from all this stuff we talk about, so if you
wanted like to see what some people look like or whatever,
there it is. Yep, you can go listen and watch
the podcast on Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube. We are
(55:30):
not there, but there's some great animations. Hope you enjoy them. Also,
we have a ridiculous website, ridiculous Crime dot com. It
is a great place to go get merch and to
just enjoy an older version of the web.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Exactly better time.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yeah, right, and we'd love your talkback, so Please go
to the iHeart app download it, leave us to talkback.
Maybe you'd like to hear your voice here. We'd love
to hear your voice here, so please do it. Do
it and also we have special ask tell two friends
about this show. Go out there, let them know you
enjoyed the last. Tell a friend, Yeah, that's there, you go.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (56:01):
He also emails if you'd like it Ridiculous Crime at
gmail dot com.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
We love the email, so please keep them coming. Thank
you for listening, and we will catch you next crime.
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Berne, producer,
edited by Monsieur David, the Duke of Hot Lanta. Dave Pustin.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
Our Ridiculous assistant is the loyal right hand of the
song King Terre Maldonado. Fall research is by the Son
King's Masters of Facts and Figures, Mursa Brown and Jabari Davis.
Our theme song is by our house band, Dolph and
the Masqueraded Balls aka Thomas Lee and Travis Duddy. The
host wardrobe provided by Bobby five hundred producer. Dave's wardrobe
(56:47):
provided by Mister Guy of Beverly Hills. Guest Haaren makup
by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are our Man
in Versailles, Ben Bolin and The Cult The Chiv, Noel.
Speaker 6 (56:59):
Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Lizbooz Aaron.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
IM good? I'm good?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You really?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, totally?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
You look like you feel good? Sure, yeah, No, he's
very convincing.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So what are you doing over there? It's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, I'm doing well. How are you?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Now are you all right?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Are you standing in your truth? Right now?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I swear to God?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What's your journey right now?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I got a question for you ahead, was itous?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
I do?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I do? This comes courtesy of Rude Dude Rebecca via Instagram.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
All right, thank you for Rudebeca and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Going to read you the message and then I'm going
to give you a little back story here. One thing
I need to explain to you is this is not
a product mashup. Yes, way to go right. She saved you?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Boom boom, Hello ridiculous crime peeps. It's the end of
the school year in Texas and for the twenty fifth
year in a row, my middle school has not allowed
backpacks on the last day. Why because of a ridiculous crime.
Ye twenty five years ago, a kid brought one thousand
(01:10):
crickets and released them upstairs. In the eighth grade hallway.
Who was that kid? You asked?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Who was that kid?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Glenn Powell. It's become a legend of sorts, but all true.
He even talks about it regularly on talk shows. So
current students being punished for something a now famous person
did twenty five years ago, ridiculous. Thanks for constantly making
me laugh on my walks. Rebecca love this. So I
looked it up because I mean, I believe Rebecca hundred percent.
(01:40):
I'm not like doubting it, but I was like, I
need to know more about this. So Glenn Powell goes
around telling everyone it was three thousand crickets. Yepsi, Okay, Glenn,
I believe Rebecca on this one. So he went around
and he bought him from a bunch of pet stores. So,
according to him, the middle implemented a translucent backpack rule
(02:03):
from then on just to keep that the insect smuggling.
And so he's really famous for talking about it on
the Jennifer Hudson Show, which I know you tape them all.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I love it when when they dance out of the studio,
they have they dance right.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I'm sure that you've heard the story. You're just
not remembering it. So it said that he initially planned
to release the three thousand crickets in a busy funnel
like hallway right before lunch. Before they were released, he
set off a stink bomb in an English teacher's classroom
over a conflict that backfired and landed him in the
(02:38):
principal's office. I kind of got and so while he
was in the principal's office, his friends followed through with
releasing the crickets in the hallway.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh good, And.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Because he was already sitting in the principal's office looking
out the window, he used his confinement as the out.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
He was like the decoy.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I buy Rebecca's story more. I think he's embellishing with
the whole stink bominer ahead an l. But no, you
little weasel. You went up there, you released it, t
then off you ran like a coward.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Do you do anything like that?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No? I didn't, But I was thinking when I saw
it was Glenn Powell, I was like, I don't know
who that is. So I looked it up and I
realized it's the guy that I always ask you who
is that? And you always tell me he's in top
gun Mavericks. And he is the most in my opinion, nondescript,
just random brown haired, white guy. You could show me
(03:31):
his picture and say he's a bunch of different names.
I'm like, yeah, sure, tell.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You he sold you a car back in nineteen eighty, right.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And then the other guy, not Tom Cruise, your favorite,
but the other guy who's in Maverick, he's another one.
I have no idea who he is. Yeah, okay, sure.
And that's the other guy. Who'm like, who is that?
And you're always telling me that they're in Top Gun Maverick.
I call you, I'm like, have you who.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Is looking at this guy? I want to know who
it is?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Just click and oh never mind, I'll figure it out
on my own. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
That is a ridiculous. It is, Elizabeth, I got one
for you that doesn't evolve either of those gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Or Top Gun Maverick.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
No, in this case, no Tom Cruise, nothing. But it's wild, Okay, okay.
I imagine if your two best life skills are singing
opera professionally sure, and sword fighting.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, so it's my life story exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Ridiculous, nutrageous Elizabeth Sarah.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Have I got a fun one you today? Like for real,
for real? Like, have you ever heard of Julie Dubigny. No,
she's French, obviously, if we can tell from my outstanding pronunciation.
I'm gonna be trying my level best throughout this. But
the apologies to anybody who has an francophone and you know,
to my no, this time, I'm really trying. I'm not
(05:21):
making fun of Yeah. No, there'll be no Pepela pew
in this. Okay. Now, I had not heard of Julie Dubigny,
but I can tell you this after reading about her.
She needs a movie or a streaming series. Her story
is crazy good, like oh, it's like girls, stop, come
on now?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Really?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Oh yeah. Interestingly, she did have a modern moment of
recognition on Tumblr back in twenty thirteen. Oh okay, I
found this in my research. According to an article published
in twenty thirteen from The Daily Dot, it ran with
the headline quote, this seventeenth century sword swinging opera singer
will rule the Internet in twenty thirteen. Now that kind
of happened. But well, my girl, Julie Dubignyi, she came
(06:02):
roaring back into cultural memory for a brief time. She
bubbled back up into the zeitgeist, and it was all
due to one single Tumblr post, Gotta Love the Old Internet,
as a Daily Dot reported and I quote, dubig Ye
got some traction on the Internet when she appeared on
the engaging website Badass of the Week last year. That
slight bit of attention was enough to slowly start putting
(06:23):
her on the radar again until suddenly, over the last month,
Dubignyi has popped up everywhere on history blogs, on Pinterest,
on Democratic Underground, on MetaFilter, on Twitter, on donder, on
switson Now. To be fair, her story has been made
into a movie. Okay, this was back in nineteen sixty
six and it was French, and then there was also
(06:45):
a French TV series that aired in two thousand and
four but apparently didn't really make it over the Pond,
and it was more like a based on her life.
It didn't really get into all the details. It wasn't
like a facts retelling, which it makes no sense to
me because without exaggeration. Her life story is nuts. Really
and get this, Elizabeth, she did it her way like Sinatra,
but way back in the sixteen eighties and sixteen nineties
(07:06):
in France. What yes, now, Elizabeth, I know you know
about King Louis the fourteenth Uh huh. You know about
his palace at Versailles, right, and all about him holding
court there is the sun King. And you know how
he was the longest reigning monarch in the history of
the world. I mean, my man, he was the absolute
monarch of France for a record seventy two and a
quarter years on the throne boom. So I won't bore
(07:30):
you by getting into all that for some scene setting,
but I do want you to be picturing that era
of France as I tell you this story. Louis the
fourteenth son King, Opulence, decadence, the whole got it. That's
the backdrop for Julie Dugnet's life. Okay, that's what was
going down. She's doing her thing. Okay. So I say
all this because personally my mind, I want to imagine
the Three Musketeers, Yeah with swords, Yeah, dudes with peacock
(07:53):
feathers and their giant flouncy hats doing swashbuckle and thing,
and that was happening technically under King Louis the fourteenth
reign as a boy child. But that three Musketeer energy
is really it's more about like his father Louis the
thirteenth and his mother Queen. And yeah, because the Musketeers
took place basically in the sixteen twenties and this is
in the sixteen eighties and sixteen nineties. That's how long
(08:15):
King Louis the fourteenth reigned. Nuts. Okay, well, in this time,
there's one big change in the culture and it was
now under King Louis the fourteenth illegal to duel. No
more swashbuckling for you, France. That's good. And I don't
mean like with guns. When I say dueling, like not
like Aaron Burr Alexander Hamilton. I mean like fencing swords, right,
I want to get that a clear stabbins exactly. And
(08:37):
wouldn't you make that illegal like street style swashbuckling. That's
a real loss for the culture.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It is, it's a game changer.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yes, now I bring this all up because sword fighting
and swashbuckling is a big part of this story. Okay,
So let's get into it. Who is Julie Dubignier.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You tell me, well, she's born around sixteen seventy three.
Her father worked for someone who worked for the son king.
His boss was King Louis the fourteenth's master of horse.
Because now he basically under King Louis the fourteenth. That's
when like horse drawn carriages become a thing. People stop
walking and riding horseback everywhere, and now suddenly we have
like the coach. So he's got a master of horse.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Right, so it's a great title.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, he's got a stable that's like built like the
shape of a horseshoe. It's like a whole deal for him. Anyway.
The boss's name is this guy, the Comte de mniec Okay,
and he was the Grand Squire of France. Don't know
what all that means, but anyway, her father, Gaston d'Aubigny,
was a bit of a badass himself. Her father was
part of the royal retinue, a nobleman of the house
(09:38):
of Comte de'onnec. He was like a secretary at arms
for the house. He helped run it like a butler.
But he also trained the royal pages who worked there
because he remember this guy is the Squire of France
or grand Squire, so that he had to train the
royal pages who would work at the court of the king.
And his father also taught fencing. He was like a
bad ass. It was very marshal. So julie childhood was unique.
(10:02):
It was not the life of your average girl in
royal France in the late sixteen seventies early sixteen eighties.
And she's growing up. She gets raised by this master
swordsman and he doesn't know how to raise a daughter,
so he sticks her in boy's clothes and he raises
her as a tomboy.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Sure, why not?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Now in some tellings, I gotta be fair, the idea
of wearing boy's clothes was her idea, not her father's. Okay,
either way, picture a tomboy who's learning fencing next to
the king's future pages.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Well, I mean, you look at your options, and that
probably sounds way cooler.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh totally. And by the way, she's also kicking all
their little asses like she's incredibly good with the fencing
sword in her hand. And because as I said, her
father master's swordsman, he doesn't want anyone to ever mess
with his child. So he teaches her whatever he teaches
the boys to become royal pages. He's teaching her how
to ride a horse, he's teaching her how to sword fight,
he's teaching her to gamble. You know, he's doing everything
(10:52):
he can. And then also, just like the royal pages,
she also learns from the royal tutors. They teach her
not only grammar, but great literature, culture, the whole bit, right,
So basically, by the time she's a teen, Julie is
one of the most educated people in France, if not
in Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Really.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, So in sixteen seventy seven, Julie d'ubigner is
fourteen years old and for the last two years she's
been kicking all the boys asses at fencing. She can
ride a horse as hard and as fast as anyone.
She can recite great Roman oratory in Latin, just like
the boys can.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So what do you think happens next to Elizabeth?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
A man comes along and derails her progress. Yeah, Julie,
of course, see, because you know he does it because
he's attracted to her, and to make matters worse, it's
her dad's boss, the Comte de Armagnac. Oh, yeah, and
she's fourteen. He's a grown ass married man. But since
she's a teenager and it's the sixteen seventies, that was.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Just what they did.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, No one's enough. Yeah, when he becomes her mistress
and lover, and we've pointed out in other stories it
was a let's just say, it was a different age
of maturity, that's right, right, exactly. I don't mean to
excuse it, but it was just a different idea.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But it was I hate eight it's a different time,
but it was a different time.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, exactly. So anyway, they carry on this affair, and
if you think of like a movie like Dangerous Liaisons,
you get the idea that there's always this intrigue in
the royal corps. Yeah, right about especially about the marriages
of young noble women. The girls are always used for deal making,
score settling, treaty.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Making, I was gonna say, with treaties and joining houses.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yeah, and also they are rarely married for love.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well that happens to Julie because to get some cover
for their affair, the Comte Denac arranges a marriage for
her at fourteen, she used to be betrothed to a
man called moupint sant germain Alis.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Okay, wait, so she really was into the older guy.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, she was her lover. Yeah, okay, she.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
She's having an affair with him, and then I get it. Okay, yeah,
so it wasn't like he was like urman known she.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
No, they both were kind of attracted to the other,
apparently from what I read. And then she gets married
off to this guy who his friends called Jean de Molpint. Okay,
Jean des Mopine was basically a functionary of the royal bookkeeper.
He's like an office clerk. So he's this boring guy,
and it was not meant to be a happy or
successful marriage. So it's just purely cover for the Count
and Julie to carry on their affair right with some
(13:13):
level of plausible deniability. So the Comte de Almajack he
arranges a new job for the clerk husband, Jean de Monpin.
He sends them out to the provinces, out to rural
France to go off and be a clerk there, and
then you know, he's like, yeah, leave your wife here,
my noble property, and blah blah blah, Yeah. So now
you know, she's living it up as a married woman
(13:34):
in Paris, as the lover to the Comte de Mniac,
And she spends her days dropping by local fencing schools
and just mopping up the competition. Right, And I don't
mean like their best student. Julie would beat the fencing
master of the school and then go to another school
and beat their fencing master. That's how she's like spending
her day.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Gotta have hobbies.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Well, this leads to a meet cute. This is how
Julie meets a fencing master named Son. He's from Marseille.
He's a fencing expert, a teacher, a master swordsman, just
like her daddy. And he could appreciate her and what
a badass she was, and he wasn't threatened by her
because he's also a master swordsman. And so these two
sword happy crazy kids fall in love.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh my goodness, that's messy.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
No, I remember how I was ad a sorrant from
Marseilles was a fencing master. Well, he also acted like one.
He was a proud man. He was also always willing
to accept a challenge to duel, even though it was illegal. Yeah,
and anyway, I guys should give you a one percent warning.
It's not graphic, but it is terminal. Yeah, in sixteen
eighty seven sent the Master Swordsman. He kills a man
(14:38):
in a duel. Now, since that's murder and it's an
illegal duel, that makes it doubly illegal. So this is
bad news for Sorrant and his young lover, Julie, and
they're budding love affair. Because the Lieutenant General of Police,
a man named Nicholas Gabrielle de Laurone, he was the
bulldog about enforcing the anting dueling law. So he's like,
(14:59):
where is san It becomes the whole deal. Yeah, So
there also was a little suspicion that the Comte was
jealous and he was mad that Julie had run off
with a master swordsman, so he kind of leaned on
the Lieutenant General the Police to put the screws to Sorran.
So he's like, you know, his lover would come back
to him. Yeah. Anyway, these two young lovers, they go
on the run. They're like peace and on horseback. They
(15:22):
steal away into the dark of night. They flee Paris
and like the long arm of the law, and they
make this mad dash for the South of France. They
travel back roads. I mean, can you imagine it must
have been just the most charming way to be on
the run, you and a young lover in the South
of France.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know, It's like so there they are living off
the land and living off the countryside, and you know,
I guess they could always get like, you know, buy
on river trout and berries and truffles and mushrooms or whatnot.
But they did need to raise some money for their travels,
so they started putting on shows for a paying crowd.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Stop. That's how they're gonna They're gonna just give meil
razzled as.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Totally jazz hands it up. They would perform sorts in
ship shows for like rural audiences. They'd amaze the country folk,
the villagers with their sword skills. Now as traveling performers,
Julie went back to wearing boys clothes in this case,
well now men's clothes. But she still had really long
blonde hair like these golden curls.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
They were all run around long hair too.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Totally just like the King. Everybody's like, like, I want
curly hair, like you know, fountain hippies so they didn't
exactly look masculines, but it wasn't like she was like
exactly hiding her gender. But you know, don't imagine like
barber strized in and yentle where she's trying to pass.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Don't worry, I will not.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
But she is like rocking this androgynist look.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So at this point, like to put it in terms
you would understand Elizabeth, she was queer maxing in Louis
the fourteenth, France.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay, right, okay, I don't know what that means, but
I get it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So this was a bit confusing.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
She's just not like some like bodacious brick house. Yeah,
she's already sort of live and like, yeah, okay, some
of the.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Good bodie you can kind of like, you know, minimize
the curves.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So she's a This is all like her performance becomes
a bit confusing for the rural folks. Like during one performance,
one of the crowd members they jump up in the
question is this a man? Is just a woman? I
don't get it right, And he's demanding that she must
be a man, Like there's no way he thinks that
it's a woman, but he's no, this must be a
man because she's too good at sword fighting. Right, It's like,
(17:21):
so he's like, this must be a man in female
drag who's now wearing male drag again. He's like double
drag double. So to shut him up.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I'll give the eternal who cares?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, right, who cares? But these are like rural country folks.
They're like I need to know this. Who cares? It's
a bowl or a cow? So to shut up a heckler,
Julie doesn't argue with him. She just tears open her
shirt and flashes him. Okay, that shut him right up. Right,
he sat back down. So while it was confusing for some,
they put on a hell of a show for all right.
(17:56):
And so Julie and her master's swordsman love old Soran
able to make a good living putting on their swordsmanship
demos around the countryside and eventually work their way back
to his hometown of Marseille. And there they put on
a stage show and people are like, oh, we love it.
But they have a lot more money and a lot
more places, so it becomes really successful. Eventually people are like,
you guys should, like, you know, make this a regular thing.
(18:18):
So they start putting on like on the stage performances.
And then to make it more of a show, a
little more razzle dazzle, they add singing. Now they're like
sword fighting, and then they do a quick few musical numbers.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Trying not to be embarrassed for them, but good.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So just imagine sword fight, musical number, musical number, sword fight.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I got a pretty good impression of it, right.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yes, exactly, so I get this. People really like it
when Julie sings, right, They turns out she's actually good.
She has like a professional level voice.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Is there anything this gal can't too?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Stone? So she's encouraged to formally study as an opera singer,
and she's like, okay, she's game. She tries young, she's.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Had plenty of time ahead of her.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And boom, she finds she's good at opera saying just
as good as she is at fencing. So this now
starts a whole new chapter in her life. And after
these messages Elizabeth, we will turn the page and get
into that next chapter.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Elizabeth, back with triple threat. She can sing, she can
sword fight?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You do you call that?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
There?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It is so digging back into the next chapter in
the life of Julie Dubonnier. I remember I said she
was encouraged to formally study as an opera saying, right, Well,
she works with this teacher and trainer named Pierre Gaultier
and he arranges a job for her performing at the
Opera House des Marseilles. She takes on a new stage
name La Monpin, right, just like her old husband Jean Mulpan.
(20:05):
She's like, I am La Monpan.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right, that's the guy that got sent off to the hinter.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Lanes exactly, the book keeper.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You're like, why shout out to him?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Exactly? I'm a married woman. So it's at this point
it's like sixteen eighty nine, right, So that also means
that Julie is sixteen years old.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
To ask how old is this? Sixteen years old? She
have a lot of life at sixteen totally.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And she's a professional opera singer.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So she's been a singing sword fighter. Yes, I want
to know what kind of songs where they like folks songs.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Or I could not fight. I assumed there was some
folks on and then also some like romantic ballads and
then some opera. I think they've mixed it up, okay,
So so as I said, she's her star is rising.
So she breaks up with her old lover, the master
Swordsman's Souran, and around the same time, perhaps the reason
for their breakup, she finds a new lover, and her
(20:56):
name is Cecilia Portigali. She's also a young woman. She's
a young blonde. She's the daughter of her merchant. She
falls hard for Julie, who equally falls hard for her,
and then two enjoy this secret love affair right right
up until her family finds out. Now her family is
in sensed, so they send Cecilia away to a convent,
which is like kind of the practice of the day,
(21:16):
and you get in trouble off to the convent that Yeah,
so they ship her off to Avignon. Yeah, I love
I knew you, That's why I brought it up. So
at this point, it's like sixteen ninety and Julie is
now seventeen years old. So she does what many passionate,
love struck seventeen year olds might do. She chases after
her girl. She follows her to the nunnery. Yeah, so
(21:40):
get this, she joins up as a novice nun know. Yeah,
so now's you got a new career. The two lovers
are reunited at the convent and they resume their love affair,
Julie and Cecilia. They stay together, they're happy together, but
they're like, you know what, this convent life isn't really
for us. So they start planning to run away. But
they'll need a plan to escape. They plan to actually
(22:00):
get away and stay away. Sure, So this moment of
inspiration occurs when an older nun passes away. So the
older nun is buried, and then in the dark of night,
the two young lovers go and disinter the recently deceased none.
They dig her up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Okay, I am having faith that this is going to
have something that will work out. Yes, because if you
want to escape and you're just digging up bodies.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
In the dark, talent, my plan is grave digging, all right,
just stick with me. That's not the whole plan.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
So they going romance the dead nun.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
No, they drag her corpse back to the convent. They
put her in Cecilia's bed, and they put like a
cross of Cecilia's around her neck or some other identifier.
Then they light the nun's bedroom on fire and they
flee in the chaos what.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yes, that is psychotic.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The next level the convent.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
She'll just sneak away, Yeah, get.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Steal two horses. Keep it simple.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You desecrated a body.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yes, and the convent.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So this girl, she's passionate. She wears choker necklaces.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh, big choker. So obviously the fire meant to disguise
the corpse, so that the other nuns will think Cecilia
dyed the fire and they'll stop looking and get this.
It works meanwhile, So now we got the two young lovers.
They're on the run. They flee the convent. For the
first few weeks, they get by on love. They eat passion,
they drink excitement to nourish themselves. They're just too crazy
(23:30):
young lovers.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And they're just like weak and their hair is falling.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Out, skins all salow. So the reality of life on
the road is outlaws of love starts to set in
like I pictured them, like I don't know, a tavern
looking at the bill of fare, trying to see what
they can afford to eat, and the only thing they
can afford is like horse meat stew right. And then
they realize that two seventeen year old girls out alone
together in the world in sixteen nineties. France is a
(23:53):
tough go well and.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm wondering if all the like spent discarded lovers of hers,
like her husband and all the guys they're going to
get together and then be like, fellas, did you get
double crossed by her?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I did?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
All right, let's find her.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Well.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
At this point, the city is like, this isn't working
for me anymore. I'm going to go home to my parents.
I don't want to be an outlaw with you anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Right, So she goes probably shocking when she said a
dead body, dead nun. Yeah, She's just like, you know,
this has been fun and.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
This is like France, like where the state religion. So
after three months on the road, ce Celia bounces out.
She goes back home, and she lives in Marseille, so
she goes back there. She has to tell her family
why she's no longer at the convent, so she does.
She doesn't just tell them why she's no longer there,
she tells them the full story, digging up the nun,
setting her room on fire, running off with their mother,
(24:48):
the same one they'd sent her to the convent to
stay away from in the first place. The whole There was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A fire and I got freaked out and I came home.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You're smart, Well yeah, she was like, Mommy them everything right.
Her parents listen to her story and then they freak out.
They demand the police get involved, and I mean, like,
can you blame him? As you pointed out, there's a
dead nun dug up from a grave set on fire
to hide this love affair. It was like, imagine it's
your daughter telling you about grave robbing.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They destroyed the content, yes, displaced.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
These people worried like God's gonna punish the whole family.
You know, these are people at that time. Eventually, a tribunal,
police tribunal like think about like a court hearing or
a trial is convened. Julie is accused of kidnapping the
nun body, snatching her corpse from a grave, and also
arson for burning down the convent, all legitimate charges. Meanwhile,
this is all in absentia because Julie is nowhere near Martill.
(25:45):
She's on the run, right, this doesn't matter for justice
in France. She's convicted and absentia and sentenced to death.
So now she's an official fugitive with a death sentence
hanging over her head. Luckily for Julie, there's no internet,
no TV, no no evening news to broadcast her face
across France, so she's able to lie low and just
keep living on the lamb. And to make money, she
(26:06):
goes back to singing. So she's thefiley. She's an inns
and taverns, little countryside places singing in the town of Poitiers.
She meets a new person who will play a large
role in her life, a man named mal Rachel and
for a living. He's an old drunk.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Oh that's a catch, But he's also the.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Sort of man who recognizes that Julie has real world
class talent as a singer, because turns out he's not
just a guy with a good ear. He's a music
teacher and former professional opera singer in Paris. But he's okay, yeah, so,
but he's willing to teach her what she needs to
know to become the best she can be. So may Roschaw.
He begins to teach her how to make the most
(26:43):
of her God given talents. He prepares her for the
opera of the Paris stage, which is numerous steps higher
than the quality and class that he would find in Marseilles.
So he trains her and trains her and trains her,
and he drinks and he drinks and he drinks, and
eventually the drinking outpaces the training goes off to Paris
without him, and she's like, I'm gonna go make my name.
I'm gonna be the next big thing in opera. So
(27:05):
on the road to Paris, and I mean like the
literal road to Paris, in a place called Ville Paldu
she's traveling through, Julie goes back to her old ways.
She stops in a tavern and perhaps she was singing
for her dinner and drinks. I don't know, but I
do know. She gets into a bar fight, and being Julie,
she doesn't get into any old fight. She gets in
a duel, and being Julie, she doesn't get in any
(27:27):
old duel. She gets in a duel with three men
at the same time, and being Julie, she doesn't get
in any old duel with three men at the same time.
One of the men is Louis Joseph Dubert, the son
of the Duke of Louen, So a royalman, a nobleman, right,
so the story goes, Julie was singing Louis. He heckles her,
(27:47):
he says something rough, something off color, and then challenge
to a duel. There's another version that the son of
the duke says something and then Julie takes issue and
throws her wine in his face and he challenges her
to a duel. We don't know which u This is going.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
To turn into a meat cute though. Do they hook up?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Hold that thought?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Oh boy?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So either way, the tensions rise, someone calls for a duel.
Julie being Julie, she says she'll best all three menute once, right,
you and your two buddies. They all accept, and then
he's the son of a duke, Old Louis Joseph. He
believes he's well trained as a fencer. He believes he's
a damn fine swordsman. But Julie is a world class
master of fencing. So she takes on all three minute
(28:27):
at the same time, and instaid she beats all three
men at the same time, and to end her duel,
she runs her blade through the son of the Duke.
Doesn't kill him, it's not a fatal blow. She drives
her sword through the meat of his shoulder, just through
and through a clean strike, right wow, yeah, like her
fencing foil is like sticking out the other side.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I mean, because that's what I was wondering. Like with
a duel, they're not using like a like a heavy
sword like whatever it is, but it's a sharp So
do you just care you're looking to kill the person?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
You could? Yeah, if you got like neck meat or
he win. Yeah, well no, not necessarily an a duel.
It's just like, you know, you knock their sword out
of their hand, give them to relent by like putting
your sword blade up against their breast like I've got
you dead to rights or their neck, you know, and
you stop short. They're like, okay, you have one, so
there doesn't have to be like traditionally, yes, you often
typically will kill someone because you're both mad at each other,
(29:19):
but in this case it's more like sports. So they're like, oh,
I won. It could have been your heart instead it
with your shoulder. So she then helps the son of
the Duke upstairs to his quarters at the at the tavern,
and then while she's nursing his wounds, she learns that
he is a nobleman Luis Joseph Dia Albert right and
so he's, you know, the son of a duke, and
(29:40):
she's like, huh, that's funny. I'm also a noble. I'm
a lesser noble, but I'm also a noble, so we're
on the same level. So, Elizabeth, you want to guess
what happens next? Yes, they become lovers. It's a temporary
affair though, because they just imagine like two shooting stars
lighting up the same sky.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Then they part ways, and but they do promised we
will see each other again, and they do. They keep
bouncing into each other anyway. Julie keeps it moving. The
fugitive swordmaster, professional opera singer, fugitive for with sentence of
death hanging over her head. Right, yeah, she gets back
to her life on the lamb. She heads to Rule
and this is where she meets another person who plays
a key role in her life, a man named Gabrielle
(30:18):
von Sell. Right. He's a professional singer. He has the
same dream as Julie. He's also headed to Paris to
make it on the best stages in Europe, and he
has the goods too. The kid has pipes just like Julie, right,
So they travel together. There's two kids who want to
make good, right, both looking to go get famous in Perie.
So guess what happens next, Elizabeth? Oh no, that's right.
(30:40):
They become lovers.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Why not? Anyway, Eventually, these two crazy kids they make
it to Paris. They're ready to grab hold of their
dreams of fame and riches, and except Julie still has
that death sentence dangling over her dome. If she's gonna
make her name is la Montin. She you know, she
needs to not be a fugitive from justice. You know
who's sentenced to hang. So the only person who can
(31:02):
pardner is the supreme ruler of the land, King Louis
the fourteenth, Right, So how the hell is he going
to convince the King of France to partner? Great question, Elizabeth.
She goes back to her old lover, the Compte Demne.
She asks him to speak with his homie, the King
and see if his Royal Highness will grant her his
grace and remove her death sentence.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
She's like, I haven't seen you in a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We had that strong thing.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
How I was all about swords. Well, now I sing too.
He doesn't know about her being an opera.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Saying, so the compe is willing to grant his request
to his old lover because he still feels for her.
So the compe he goes to Versailles to speak with
the King and to plead her case. Well, so imagine
like the King is lounging in the shade playing chess
with his courtesans. Is like the pieces on an enormous
garden sized chessboard right in the Comte de Armnac because
he's beseeching the King to annul Julie's death sentence. To
(31:54):
plead his case, he explains that she is dear to him.
She sings like an angel and not like you know,
I don't mean like some faker, Like she's the real deal.
He says, she's far too talented, too beautiful of a
soul to be killed. In the King louis he's amused
by this story of Julie digging up a nun's corpse.
That's why she has everything, That's why she has the
(32:16):
death sentence. So he has to be a race charges.
So then he hears about you know, setting her in
her lover's back.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I thought she was just.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Charges.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Talk about them.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
The King is totally tickled by this romantic tale of
these partners in crime. So he grants her a pardon.
He's like, go in peace right. So with her name
now clear, Julie can throw herself into her dreams of
stardom on the opera stages of Paris. Meanwhile, her current lover,
her fellow want to be opera singer. He arrives in
Paris and his talents are instantly recognized. He is hired
(32:48):
on his first day in the City of Lights. People
are like, really, they are legit, bro. So Julie she
does not get hired as quickly. She's talented. She does
have the voice of an angel, but she's an untrained angel,
so she needs some help onto the stages. She meets
this retired opera singer, this man named Bouvar, and he
introduces her to Jean Nicholas Fransan and he was the
(33:08):
master of the King's household. He's also a major patron
to the opera and she can convince him that she's
a star. He can basically like Citizen Kane, it like
you're now the star. So she has to go audition
for him, and at the audition she sings well, she's
definitely at the professional level, but he's not convinced, so
convinces him no, no, to give her a second audition.
(33:30):
She was nervous, what have you? She gets back for
the second audition. This time, Julie convinces him that her
voice is a fit for the opera houses of Paris.
Yeah so, being as I said, a patron of the opera.
Once he is convinced, he's able to make her dreams
come true. Not only does she get to perform, she
becomes a star.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Did she seduce him too.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'm guessing, yes, guessing. I didn't find any confirmation, but
it's like the second audition, I'm like, okay, first we
didn't try. I think I know what happened when she
used this little talents.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
He was on the fence, and then she's like, what
if I told you that I dug up a nun
and set her body on fire? And he's so.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
One biographical sketch of her life at this point said
that Julie was quote received with rap shows. She's like
a huge star of the opera stage. She becomes known
as Mademoiselle de Montpinpin.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Yeah, So at this point, it's still sixteen ninety, which
means Julie is seventeen years old and is now a
major opera star in Paris. She takes the stage four
nights a week. She's singing an opera with such a
rare skill that there was this very famous French diarist,
Philippe de CROs and he wrote in his diary that
she had quote the most beautiful voice in Zerol. So
(34:47):
apparently it was legit. No, he just was in the
cap not that I know of exactly. So Julie she
would stay a star in the opera stages of Paris
for the next fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
She typically played roles like Medea, Minerva, Dido, strong women, queens, goddesses,
you get the idea. She also had roles written specifically
for her. In seventeen oh one, the opera Tankred was
written specifically for her voice. She had this very rare
mezzo soprano voice, which is like halfway between soprano and contralto. Yeah,
(35:19):
so the opera Tankred was written as an exhibition of
her voice. She played the role of Chlorinde. It's a
fitting role because it's a warrior princess who is a
Saracen who falls in love with her natural rival a
young crusader knight, their enemies on the battlefield, lovers in
the bedroom. All right, So the opera is a huge hit.
It's such a big hit that the show runs in
opera houses in Paris for the next sixty years straight.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Whoa sixty years?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Ye rich specifically for her like cats, Yes, exactly now.
The composer of that opera, Andre Compas, he wrote two
other opera specifically for Julie. Neither of those were as
big of hits as Tankred h But anyway, well was
dazzling the crowds in the opera houses of Paris. She
was still out there in the streets, kicking all kinds
of ass with her sword in illegal duels. What she
(36:09):
can't help it, which means she also has to go
back to the sun King asked Louis fourteen for another pardon.
But before we get into all that, Elizabeth, let's take
another break's some more ads, and when we're back, we'll
catch back up with the sword swinging, swashbuckling opera, singing
badass with the mademoiselle going to steal your girl swagger,
(36:47):
and we're back, Elizabeth. So, how you digging the story
of Julietstic.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You're right. It does need a modern movie.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Totally, and it gets crazier. We haven't reached the peaks yet.
So if you had to guess, what do you think
happens next in the life of Julie.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Okay, so she's doing fight club at night with swords,
opera star, the star during the day.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
With nobility, nobleman, noble women, partying with you know, masquerade.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Is she gonna is there any one percent coming up
in this?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Nope, go the other way. She falls in love.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Oh I found you gonna say she gave birth?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
No, no, no, the other way of like it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Take a life. She makes a line. Yeah, okay, I see.
So she gets she gets down.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
She falls in love with the lead female singer at
the opera, Marie le Rochois, right, and then she turns
around and she falls for the big new, sexy, up
and coming male opera star, Francois Moreau. And he's got
a street name of his own in the opera game.
He's called fan chonp Right, So she's like, I'm in
love with Fanean sorry, Marie. And by this point she's
(37:52):
an established star of the opera houses living her dream
and then they got to this young guy and I
think he kind of played along with her at first
because she's like a you know, star, and he wants
to become one, and he's kind of using her to
get ahead. And then later on he spurns her love
and then he turns her down, and this sends her
into like this wicked tail.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Space the first time she's been turned down that she
just leaves this wreckage behind her.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Yes, I don't think she thought it could happen. So anyway,
this tenor at the opera, this cat named Desmugnier, he
sees Julie all down due to rejection. He thinks this
might be my chance. So this male tenor he steps
up and he starts making advances at Julie, but she's
in no mood for all that, so she turns him
down and then he gets pissed and he calls her
(38:35):
all the bad names in French that he knows, and
then Julie swears vengeance will be hers. So this is
when yet again, she goes back to her old ways.
Julie gets out her men's clothing from the dresser. She
puts on some flouncy musketeer style hat. She straps on
her belt and her her like fencing foil, and she
goes out looking for this male tenor in the streets
and she finds him, and she goes right up to
(38:56):
him and she publicly challenges him to a duel in
the public square, dressed as a man. Yeah, he doesn't
recognize her. Duels are illegal, Yes, duels are totally illegal,
So dees mugne. He's a singer, not a sword fighter,
a lover, you know, not a fighter. So he's also
what you might call a coward. So he refuses her
challenge to duel. She gets pissed. Julie is like, you
can't do that. You must accept my challenge, right, and
(39:18):
he's like, no, refuse. So she takes her walking stick
and she canes him right right there in the public square.
He goes down, his snuff box, pops out, his watch,
comes off his wrist. She bends down, swipes both walks away.
The next day at the opera house, then this same
male tenor dies mugnier. He comes in. He's now got
a lamp. He's looking at it right.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
They work together and she whooped him in front of everybody,
stole his stuff, he has.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Cross Drus tomorrow. No, he doesn't recognize her because remember
she's cross just as the man. So he's looking like
this gang of street tough teens beat him up, right,
is exactly what he makes his story and he tells
everyone in the opera house this is what happened. And
then Julie here's him saying that she's like, huh. And
since she has an audience of like cast members and
(40:04):
singers and whatnot, she plays it up. She gets a
little more revenge. She scoffs at his story that he
was beaten up by these ruffians in the street. Ye,
because one she knows the truth, two she was there,
and three she was the one who handed out the
beat down. She has the restiats, so Julie says, des mougne,
you liad and base kalad. It was I alone who
defeated you. You were afraid to fight, and so I
(40:25):
gave you a sound thrashing as proof. I'll return to
you your miserable watch and your snuffbox. WHOA, Julie still
got it now, I've saved the best for last. Perhaps
her most famous scandal and involved all of her great
love Stord fighting duels and inappropriate places, seducing a beautiful
person some French royalty, and of course showing off for
(40:46):
the folks.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
The year is sixteen ninety seven. Julie is twenty four
years old. The scene is the royal court of the
brother of the Sun King. The affair is this decadent
costume ball, and Julie shows up in men's clothes. She's
back to her old ways again, and she swans around
in drag with that. I'm going to steal your girl energy. Yeah,
but you know what, Elizabeth rather leant me tell you
more about it. I want you to.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
My eyes are close.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
I want you to picture it. You are a young
noble lady who's been invited to a masquerade ball at
the royal residence of Monsieur Philippe, the Duke of Orleans,
otherwise known as the little brother of King Louis the fourteenth.
His palatial home is called Chateau Saint Cleu. When the
(41:31):
faithful night arrived, you were conveyed to the palatial home
and a horse drawn carriage. The large, sumptuous coach is
certainly a luxurious way to get around, and it definitely
beats arriving on horseback. As a carriage pulls up to
Chateau Saint Clu, you are overcome by the grandeur of
the home. A footman steps forward, opens the door of
the carriage. She offers you a hand for you to
step down. Tall gilded candlelabras are festooned with expensive candles.
(41:56):
They light your way to the home. As you draw
closer to the front door, you can hear the gaiety
and the music that awaits you inside. This is your
first masked ball, and you don't know exactly what to expect.
It is like nothing you could have imagined. There are
masked couples dressed in all the latest fashions. The ladies
wear dark silk brocaded gowns decorated with gold and metallic lace,
(42:20):
touches of embroidery, and embellishments of Venetian lace in their hair.
They wear fontages, tall lace headdresses arranged into tears of
scaveolded locks with an architectural complement of lace muslin ribbons.
The gentlemen are also dressed to impress the top of
their heads sit curly wigs like they came. They wear
(42:40):
long buttoned justicoor jackets, that run knee length and cut
to emphasize the waist. They also wear large lace cravats
and matching lace cuffs. It offers a subtle flourish of
soft fabricants. It's the stiffness of the justicor. Together the
men and women dance to the sounds of the royal
musicians of Chateau Saint clu circulate through the decadent crowd,
(43:03):
offering Bordeaux wine, champagnes, fruited brandies, spiced punch, drinking chocolate.
The tables of desserts are fit for a king, which
is fitting since the king is in attendance. There are
brightly colored fruit tarts, animals shaped marzipans, cream topped puff patries,
and a rainbow of candied fruits. Taking in the scene,
(43:23):
you are overwhelmed by the spectacle the opulence before you.
You accept a flute of champagne from a silver tray
and continue to survey the scene. As you sip from
your champagne, you catch the eye of young noble suitors.
Before you know it, you are greeted by three young
men from behind their masks. They each take turns complimenting
you in gracious turns of phrase. Then you hear it.
(43:46):
It sounds like the voice of a woman. But when
you turn you see a masqueraded man wearing the costume
of a man. The mass stranger ask you for your
hand to dance. You quaff your champagne and accept his
kind offer. The fencing foil that the wears on his
hip causes you to have to place your hand high
between the shoulder blades so you don't tear or snag
your dress. And then, moving together, you and the stranger
(44:09):
spin and dance with the other couples to the music
played in the Italian style of the day. When the
song ends, the stranger asks for another You're only happy
to oblige. Your partner dances with the delicate refinement of
a true nobleman. As the musicians play another song for
the masqueraded couple, you feel as if you were in
a dream and might at any moment awaken back home
at bed. But then when the song ends, your partner
(44:32):
asks you for one more dance. The stranger says your
presence is a touch of the divine, and they might
perish if you reject their offer. The compliment works, as
does the charm of their desperate pleading you agree to
a third dance. You two spin and step across the
dance floor with the same ease that birds enjoy the sky.
After the song ends, your dance partner gives you a kiss,
(44:53):
a long, full on, passionate kiss on the lips there
before everyone, including the king. And that's when you know
this gentleman is no gentleman. From the softness of her lips.
You know it's a young woman who is masquerading in
men's costume. When your lips part the young noble woman
in men's clothing bows deeply and thanks you for the dances.
(45:13):
Then he she moves to step away, but is stopped
by the three young suitors who first approached. They demand satisfaction.
They challenge your dance partner to a duel, and your
dance partner is only too happy to oblige. They all
step outside into the gardens of the palatial home. You
and many others crowd the tall windows and doors that
lead out into the gardens. You fear there is no
(45:34):
way for your dance partner to survive a three on
one duel. Not to mention you worry because you suspect
that she is a woman in disguise. Fencing foils are
drawn with a flourish. The three young noblemen circle is
your dance partner. The mass stranger awaits the first rush
in exchange of swords, and then it comes. One of
the young men tries a thrusting attack. Your dance partner
(45:55):
easily parries it. A second young nobleman tries a more
elegant attack, using a faint before striking, and again easily parried.
The third young nobleman tries his luck. He favors a
rather feral strike, pushed by emotion rather than imagination or experience,
and just like the others, this too is parried. Your
dance partner knocks the fencing foil from the hand of
(46:15):
the third man. When the second man and the first
challenger attack at the same time, your dance partner moves
the same grace this showed on the dance floor. The
masqueraded stranger knocks fencing foils from the hands of both
men and then lightly presses their sword tip into the
chest of the first nobleman. It's a wordless way to ask.
If he relents, he nods to indicate he is defeated.
(46:38):
The crowd of nobles cheer at the display of such
sword fighting skill. Your dance partner bows deeply to the crowd,
and then she's their fencing foil. You are beside yourself.
You were worried, but your dance partner just defeated all three.
What a performance. The masqueraded stranger rejoins the partiers inside
the ballroom. You hope that he she will ask you
(46:59):
to dance again, so you can say how impressed you are.
But before they can approach, the crowd parts and the
king himself approaches the masquerrated stranger. The son king seems
to know this stranger and addresses them Ah the jied
l'a monpin. Louis the fourteenth is amused by the display
of swordsmanship, but then reminds the masqueraded stranger that he
(47:21):
has decreed laws against any duels in Paris. Your dance
partner bows deeply to the king, apologizes for the offense.
Monsieur Philippe, Duke of Borleons, steps through the crowd and
calms down the situation. He makes a joke that La
Monpin has disarmed three men in the same time. It
takes the king to finish a flute of champagne, And
what a great show it was for the gathered guests.
(47:41):
The King agrees, and he makes a royal proclamation right
there that his decree about dueling really only applies to
mess so their honored guest La Monpin is exempt. This
saves face for the King and also lets you know
you were right. Your dance partner is a woman dressed
in the costume of a man. You touch your lips
and remember the feel of her soft lips against yours.
(48:03):
You think to yourself, what a memorable first masquerade ball,
What a night, What a beautiful night. Whoa, And there
you go, Elizabeth law Montant, reveling in the full glory
of action and seduction before the sun King.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Amazing. And then she gets the exemption.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Yes, she gets parted right there in the spots. Wow,
she wins the second partner in front of the King. Now,
after making that scene at the Chateau de Sant Claus,
Julie is persuaded that would be a good idea for
her to vacate Paris for a while. The nobility is
a little upset, get a little hot, right, and she's like, okay,
despite the King's royal decree, some nobles start this whisper campaign.
(48:42):
You know, she killed the nun and burned down the content, right, right,
So there's talk of reinstating her previous death sentence. The
King's like, come on, come on, you gotta go. Yeah,
so she bounces out. It's like that old meme. Uh,
you smoke too tough, you swag too different, Your bitch
is too bad. They'll kill you. That was Julie, right,
So she did as he persuaded. She dips out of Paris,
(49:03):
She flees France, she heads to Belgium. There she continues
working as an opera star. And of course she well,
I think you know what happens next to Elizabeth. She
seduces a new lover. Sure, of course, this time it's
the ruler of Bavaria. What the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian
Emmanuel Wow.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
In Brussels, the two become tempestuous lovers, just like all
of her other affairs. It burns hot and then the
passion burns out, and then he takes a new lover.
And since he's the ruler of Bavaria, he doesn't want
to deal with the rejection possible tears. He just wants
to get busy with his new mistress. So what does
he do. He hires the husband of his new mistress,
and he makes that man gives Julie the bad news
(49:42):
that their affair is over.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Oh that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And to cushion the blow, he sends this husband with
forty thousand livres to pay her off to go out
with any hard feelings. Yeah, this is this nuts scene.
The husband of the new mistress is the bag man
for the old mistress. Yeah. Anyway, when she hears the
news from the husband of the new mistress, Julie does
not take it well. She kicks the dude down the stairs,
throws the forty thousand livres at him, the husband, and
(50:06):
doesn't pick it up. He's like, that was a gift
from the electors Saveria. He leaves. Now, perhaps she was
like waiting for her of no cooler heads to prevail.
I don't know, but Julie did come down and collect
the forty thousand livres. She's like, I'm an aatis for
the road now. So at this point she's still an
opera star, right, but she's also kind of back to
being a fugitive in Paris, so she doesn't know what
to do. So she goes back to France to see
(50:27):
if she can swing a final pardon from the king, Like,
can we clear all this up for once and for all?
I mean her story with the nun and the fire
and the convent. It was charming the first time, it
was a long time. Will they work a second time?
Will the king be amused twice?
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Well?
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Lamp? She eventually does go back to Paris. He does
successfully sweet talk the Sun King in giving her a
second or third part and depending on how you count it, Yeah,
And she also then gets all talk of her death
sentence being reinstituted kaibashed right, So once again she's free
to perform in Paris. And so she returns to the stage.
The year is seventeen three, and Elizabeth, do you want
(51:01):
to guess what happens next?
Speaker 2 (51:03):
She seduced everybody?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
She it's right, She falls in love. She seduces a
noble woman by the name of Marie Therris Louis de
Sante de L'Estrange, the Marquis de florent soac now the
Madame La Marquis de florent Sac was famous for her beauty.
She was called the most beautiful woman in France. She
was loyal with her heart, when it came to Julie.
(51:25):
The two women enjoyed this deep and true love affair.
They lived together, they love together. She's the true love
of Julie's life.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Oh really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Unfortunately, of the lovers only stay together for two years
because sadly, the Madame Marquis de Florensac she dies of
a fever in seventeen oh five. So at that point,
at the age of thirty five, Julie retires from the
opera stage. Some believe the passing of Marie Theres the
Marquis de Florensac, was too much for Julie's heart to bear,
and so in the years it follow she begins to
(51:54):
get her affairs in order. She reconnects with old lovers
like her husband and the Comte, and then she retires
to a convent. Ironically, whoa, That's where she follows her
one true love into the great beyond. Julie due Albane
dies in seventeen oh seven, at the ripe old age
of thirty seven. She packed a whole hell of a
full life into those dizzy, defiant thirty seven years.
Speaker 5 (52:16):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Now, if you'd like to read more about La monpainp
you can check the book goddess. It's a work of
fiction by her modern biographer Kelly Gardner. That's Gardner with
an Eye. Or you can check the Tumble or archives
if you're into that kind of thing. But I got
to ask you, Elizabeth, what's that ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 4 (52:32):
Man?
Speaker 2 (52:33):
I you know, I like you're saying, there's so much
life packed in the thirty seven years good Gravy. I
can't imagine processing so much of that. Yeah, and you know,
before the age of twenty, My god.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
And she's like, how many times is she hanging out
with King Louis the fourteen? I mean she's at the
highest levels of society. She's also hanging out at inns
and taverns performing for the town folks. She like, she
lived not only a rare life, but every levels of
a rare one.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Want to have such talent in so many areas you
know of just like it's mind blowing. What's your takeaway?
Speaker 3 (53:12):
How is this not a movie or a TV show?
I mean, like there we tell each other all these
stories and so often we're like, this should be a movie.
This movie, this one screams to be a movie. If
it was a man, I think there'd be seven movies. Yeah,
I am I wrong.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, that's true that.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
I think that we're still like, what do we do
with this woman? She's just too much people like, they
won't believe this. Let me just tell her life story.
That's all you gotta do. Embellish a thing, right anyway,
that's mine.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
I I like it.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
You the moved for a talkback.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
I am always always in the mood for a talk.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Produce a d What do you got for us? Well,
let me just say, in the words of Dusty Rhodes,
she whined and dined with kings and queens. She also
dined on pork and beans. Yes, nice damn son and
with that, oh.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
My god, helled g.
Speaker 5 (54:10):
His Aaron High Elizabeth was following up from your furry episode.
So I came home today to discover that for Landia
twenty twenty six is occurring right across the.
Speaker 6 (54:19):
Street from me.
Speaker 5 (54:20):
There's about two dozen furries right now, in varying degrees
of furriness, some with heads, some with tails, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Vaping.
Speaker 5 (54:27):
So far, I've seen a pterodactyl wrestle two eighteen cases
of beer from a Toyota yars, and a lizard struggled
to get a Samsonite up an escalator. So that's pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
My soul just left my body. Sweetheart, sweetheart, take notes,
and I wish.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
You pictures right whatever you.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Can rank and the detail of Yaris and the oh
my god, vaping, the vaping, Oh my god, I love it.
I'm excited you saw that. I'm sorry you.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
Saw that, you shared it.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
I love, love, love.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
That you should.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Oh my god, thank you.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
We needed that.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
The looks on her face she went through like the
rainbow shade of emotions. Well as always, you can find
us online at Ridiculous Crime, at Instagram and blue Ski,
so go check those out at Instagram. We got pictures
from all this stuff we talk about, so if you
wanted like to see what some people look like or whatever,
there it is. Yep, you can go listen and watch
the podcast on Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube. We are
(55:30):
not there, but there's some great animations. Hope you enjoy them. Also,
we have a ridiculous website, ridiculous Crime dot com. It
is a great place to go get merch and to
just enjoy an older version of the web.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Exactly better time.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yeah, right, and we'd love your talkback, so Please go
to the iHeart app download it, leave us to talkback.
Maybe you'd like to hear your voice here. We'd love
to hear your voice here, so please do it. Do
it and also we have special ask tell two friends
about this show. Go out there, let them know you
enjoyed the last. Tell a friend, Yeah, that's there, you go.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (56:01):
He also emails if you'd like it Ridiculous Crime at
gmail dot com.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
We love the email, so please keep them coming. Thank
you for listening, and we will catch you next crime.
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Berne, producer,
edited by Monsieur David, the Duke of Hot Lanta. Dave Pustin.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
Our Ridiculous assistant is the loyal right hand of the
song King Terre Maldonado. Fall research is by the Son
King's Masters of Facts and Figures, Mursa Brown and Jabari Davis.
Our theme song is by our house band, Dolph and
the Masqueraded Balls aka Thomas Lee and Travis Duddy. The
host wardrobe provided by Bobby five hundred producer. Dave's wardrobe
(56:47):
provided by Mister Guy of Beverly Hills. Guest Haaren makup
by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are our Man
in Versailles, Ben Bolin and The Cult The Chiv, Noel.
Speaker 6 (56:59):
Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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