You know that feeling when you’re reading a novel and think, No way this could ever happen in real life? And then you stumble across someone in history who makes your most flamboyant fictional hero look like a wallpaper pattern?
Meet Julie d’Aubigny. Fencer. Opera singer. Seductress. Fugitive. Diva. Duellist. Bisexual badass.
And somehow… almost entirely forgotten by mainstream history.
A Woman With a Sword and a Scandal
Born in 1673 in France, Julie d’Aubigny was the daughter of a man who trained the King’s pages, which meant she was raised among boys; learning everything they learned, including fencing. By her teens, she could handle a rapier better than most men and didn’t shy away from proving it.
She ran off with her fencing instructor, dressed as a man, and made a living challenging men to duels across the French countryside. Legend says that if her opponent refused to fight her because she was “a woman,” she’d bare her chest to prove just how little she cared for their excuses.
Yes. That actually happened.
Swashbuckling and Singing
And then, because being a duelist and heartbreaker apparently wasn’t enough, she joined the Paris Opera. Her voice was extraordinary, as was her stage presence. Though that could have something to do with her tendency to show up to rehearsals late, bloodied from a duel, and possibly still drunk.
But she could sing. So they kept her.
Her lovers included noblemen, actresses, and the occasional convent-dwelling maiden. (That time, she rescued the girl she loved from a nunnery by sneaking in, faking a death, and setting a corpse on fire. This isn’t fiction. This is Julie.)
France Didn’t Know What to Do With Her
She got herself exiled from Paris after one duel too many (and this is in a time when duels were basically sport). She seduced her way back into society, was pardoned by the king (Louis XIV, of all people), and returned to her opera career.
She lived fast, unapologetically, and in full defiance of every role women were expected to play. And then, at 33, she died. Just… dropped out of history. No epic battle. No scandalous flameout. No opera-worthy finale.
She was here. She was a force. And then she was gone.
Why Don’t We Know Her?
Honestly, that’s the real scandal. Women like Julie d’Aubigny are history’s best-kept secrets. Not because they weren’t extraordinary, but because they were too extraordinary. Too bold. Too loud. Too unladylike. Too unwilling to be forgotten quietly.
So, we remember her now. Not just as a curiosity, but as a blazing reminder that history is full of stories we were never told… and women who absolutely deserve a spotlight.
Now that’s a woman who needs her own novel. (And if you’re writing her? Make sure to give her a sword, a stage, and absolutely no shame.)
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