François Timoléon, French Transvestite and Author

François Timoléon, French Transvestite and Author

François Timoléon, abbé de Choisy (Octobe 2, 1644 - October 2, 1724) was a French transvestite, abbé, and author. Dressed as a girl by his mother until the age of 18. Her reasons might have been political: his playmate, Philippe I, was also encouraged to dress as a girl, so that he would not be seen as posing a threat to his older brother, King Louis XIV. He delighted in the most extravagant toilettes until he was publicly rebuked by the duc de Montausier, when he retired for some time to the provinces, using his disguise to assist his numerous intrigues. Many young women of the day visited him for fashion advice, encouraged by their mothers. In 1685, he accompanied the Chevalier de Chaumont on a mission to Siam. De Choisy was made an abbé in his childhood. He was eventually ordained priest, and received various ecclesiastical preferments. He was admitted to the Académie française in 1687. He is remembered, however, by his gossiping Mémoires (1737), which contain striking and accurate pictures of his time and remarkably exact portraits of his contemporaries, although he has otherwise small pretensions to historical accuracy.

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