Real-life Pulp Swordswoman

[Char-Vell]

This may be old news, but...

www.badassoftheweek.com/lamaupin.html

[Von K]

Thanks Char-Vell. An oldie but still a goodie and well worth re-highlighting.

There's a Cimmerian.com link in the article which is off line now and doesn't appear to have made the transition to the backup on Leo Grin's website. I recall reading it many years ago.

There's a bit of xtra speculation as to whether REH knew of La Maupin and whether she was an influence on Dark Agnes here:

grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/03/pulp-fantasy-library-sword-woman.html

[kemp]

Julie D'Aubigny deserves a movie, and it would be wild. She was good with the blade, but temperamental as anything. At one time ( one of many escapades ) she became the lover of Elector of Bavaria, but he found her too much to handle after she stabbed herself on stage with a dagger and offered her 40,000 francs to leave him alone. Apparently, she threw the coins at the feet of his emissary and stomped off to Madrid in a huff. So many stories and scandals. 

kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/goddess/the-real-life-of-julie-daubigny/

[kemp]

Looking at the martial fighting abilities side of things D’Aubigny was very impressive. Initially taught fencing by her father, she took up with a fencing expert by the name of Seranne, travelled the countryside with him showing off her fencing skills to the public.

She was challenged by three men one night, took them all on and beat em. There was this interesting story when she ended up in a duel with Count d’Albert. She wounded him in the duel and then nursed him back to health, stories differ on whether they became friends or lovers, probably both.

I am surprised that this famous, or infamous cross dressing bisexual sword wielding opera singer hasn’t made more of a headway in modern pop culture. That story about her pretending to join a nunnery as an initiate to free her lesbian lover was hilarious, especially the part about stealing the corpse of a recently deceased nun, putting the body in her girlfriend’s bed and then setting the nunnery on fire to create diversion as they made their escape.

I van easily see Julie D’Aubigny being the inspiration for various fictional swordswomen in books and comics.

[Von K]

George Macdonald Fraser could have written a great script for a movie version.

[kemp]

I can’t but help thinking about a movie I watched years ago. It was called The Wicked Lady, starred Faye Dunaway, and was a remake of an earlier 1945 swashbuckler.

Story was about a 17th century high society lady, Barbara Skelton, who gets bored with her life and turns to highway robbery for adventure. She teams up with a famous highwayman Captain Jerry Jackson and they continue as a team.





There was this funny scene where Skelton began a fight with one of Jackson's ex girlfriends ( Marina Sirtis from Star Trek ) at the public hanging of Jackson, thus creating a diversion, the crowd was distracted by the fight which included lots of whipping, everyone forgetting about Jerry Jackson for awhile, during the commotion Jackson was able to take advantage of the situation and make his escape.