Worst Year Ever

This former spy published a series of letters detailing correspondence with the French king during and after the Seven Years War. The spy in question was a member of a secret circle of spies for King Louis, who interfaced with both England and Russia on behalf of France. The individual who had leaked these conversations was already a figure of great interest, a dashing thirty six year old war hero named Charles

de Beaumont, or the Chevalier Dion. The child of relatively poor French nobility, Dion was well liked among the courts, a charming, strikingly handsome individual who was quite renowned as offencer in fact, the title chevalier was the French equivalent of knight and had been bestowed upon Dion the year before for helping to draft a peace treaty that ended the Seven Years War, and yet things seemed to have

soured between the young noble and the French monarch. After a swashbuckling career that involved fighting the English, negotiating in Russia, and successfully dressing as a woman to accomplish secret missions, Dion was usurped by the subsequent ambassador to England and demoted an absolute insult to someone with Dion's qualifications. Rather than taking this line down, Dion had retaliated, which brings us to that series of letters published in seventeen sixty four.

They were alarming to King Louis the fifteenth, but what was even more alarming is that Dion held back. Louis had corresponded with Dion for years about a potential French invasion of England. These letters were not among the published documents. It seemed that Dion was holding those back as insurance, and ultimately King Louis granted Dion a generous pension, which many theorized was a payout to ensure the Chevalier's silence.

No longer welcome in the French court, the Chevalier settled in London for the time, being a stranger in a strange land. Dion developed a curious reputation among the British. Everyone knew that this was a French ex pat, but something about the Chevaler drew their attention. Dion's facial appearance was actually quite androgynous, leading many to speculate that Dion was hiding a secret under a signature dragoon's uniform. A betting pool started in the London Stock Exchange. Was this

former spy a man or a woman? The Chevalier, upon hearing these rumors, declined to comment, offering only that submitting to an examination would rightly so be beneath anyone's dignity. The betting pool, as a result, fizzled out, and Dion continued to make friends in British high society, but was growing homesick along the way. Following the death of King Louis the fifteenth the Chevalier was permitted to return to France. However,

there was some negotiation in this process. As part of the arrangement to let Dion back into the country, they had to turn in the correspondence withheld from publication and conduct themselves properly as a woman. This is where historical opinion about the Chevalier Dion sharply splits. What we know is that from the mid seventeen seventies onward, the Chevalier Dion wore dresses and was legally declared a woman by the French government, who even paid for the aforementionable wardrobe change.

What we don't know is whether this was a social role forced upon the Chevalier or one that Dion freely chose. The story told about the Chevalier is that she was born a female, forced into the role of a man by a father who wanted a son. Whichever is the case, though Dion did not accept that role of a quiet, demure woman, Becoming a celebrity in France, much to the

chagrin of the French government. Now known as Charlotte de Beaumont, Dion gained a reputation as a modern Amazon, a woman who had fought for her country and now earned a military pension. When the French supported the American War for Independence, Charlotte volunteered to return to military service, but was refused once again. Growing weary with France, Charlotte returned to England

and made a career as a fencer. Paintings of the era depict the Chevalier crossing blades with famous duellists while dressed in layers of petticoats. Writings of the era remarked upon Dion's skill in swordsmanship, even while encumbered by a heavy gown. The Chevalier died in eighteen ten at the age of eighty one. Dion had lived forty eight years as a man and thirty three as a woman. Naturally,

much of Dion's reputation became obscured by tall tales. Even today, it's difficult to ascertain where the line sits between honest truth and fanciful fiction. Whether as Charles or Charlotte, this was a singular individual, one whose primary ambition was to live a life of adventure. He lived a life of excitement so that she could retire and fence in skirts. What other historical figure can make such a curious claim.

Turn on the cable news or spend a few minutes on social media, and you'll soon come to the conclusion that humanity is in dire straits. Whether it's due to natural disasters, the latest epidemic, international wars, global warming, or dropping fertility rates. There is no shortage of problems that we could worry about in times like please, it is worth remembering that as bad as things may seem, they

can always get worse. Unless, that is, you were alive in five point thirty six CE, the year pinpointed by some experts as the worst year in human history. To understand what made this particular year so bleak, put yourselves in the uncomfortable shoes of an everyday peasant living in well, let's just say western France. Your days are full of backbreaking work, either on your own dismal plot of land,

or more likely, on your vassal's estate. At night, you sleep side by side with the livestock and burn manure chips for warmth. The smell is so bad it's all you can do just to fall asleep. Then one day you're out in the fields, toiling away like always, when you look up and see dark clouds rolling across the sky. It looks like a storm is about to break, but the rain never comes. That night, the moon is eerily faint,

and the next morning the sky is still dark. You can see the sun through the clouds if you really look for it, but its rays are a week pale blue, and it doesn't give off the usual heat. The sky smells of sulfur, and every now and then, yellow flakes of ash rain down from the sky like snow. It's the same thing the next day and the next. After a few weeks of darkness, the crops start to wither and die. You hear that the harvests been postponed, which means no work and no money to feed your family.

Even if you were working, there's nothing worth buying at the market. Pretty soon, violent crime skyrockets as everyone fights over the dwindling resources. When your neighbors start to drop from starvation, their rotting corpses lead to pestilence outbreaks. The next thing you know, you're being invaded by people who are even hungrier than you. And in the face of all this misery, you might wonder if you've been abandoned by God or conclude that you're living through the end

of the world. Either way, you'll eventually realize this might finally be as bad as it gets. While people living in five point thirty six had no way of knowing what had gone wrong. We now have a pretty good idea. A volcanic eruption in the Northern Hemisphere spat ash and toxic gas into the atmosphere, darkening the sky and triggering volcanic winter. As a result, temperatures dropped around the globe,

wreaking havoc on the seasons. In parts of China, it snowed during the late summer, while in the Middle East and Europe, a thick, dry heat rolled across the land, choking crops and livestock. The darkness didn't lift for roughly eighteen months, and even when the sun finally returned, the after effects continued. The widespread drought led to the collapse of multiple civilizations, hastening the decline of the collapsing Roman Empire,

and may have even triggered the world's first pandemic. According to Michael McCormick, a Harvard University archaeologist and historian, it took over one hundred years for the global economy to recover. That means at least five generations were impacted by the volcanic winter, while millions of people spent their entire lives under its shroud of darkness. So the next time you're feeling down about the state of things, consider going outside

for a walk. As long as the sun is still shining in the sky, it's safe to say that things could be worse, at least by five point thirty six CE standards, which means we've all got a lot to still be thankful for until the next volcanic winter hits, that is, and then all bets are off. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about

the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.