Margaretha (soldier)

Margaretha (born in Groningen, died after 1611) was a soldier in the Dutch States Army. She fought disguised as a man in the Dutch Revolt against Spain. This made her one of the first female soldiers in Dutch history.[1]

Biography

Margaretha is described by historian Emanuel van Meteren, who writes that she had served as a soldier, dressed as a man, for seven years.[2] She fought first as a pikeman, later using a musket. Her fellow soldiers praised her heroism in taking many entrenchments near Steenwijk and Groningen. Van Meteren describes her as "a stout and dauntless warrior, yea among the officers [was] reckoned".[3]

Margaretha married a drummer she met in the army. Together they went to live in Groningen sometime between 1599 and 1611, where they ran a shop in "fatty goods".[4] Margaretha is said to have written a song where she called on other women to also defend the fatherland as soldiers, "exhorting the young daughters to the love of war to protect the fatherland by her example".[1]

References
  1. Rudolf Dekker; Lotte van de Pol (1989). Vrouwen in mannenkleren. De geschiedenis van een tegendraadse traditie. Europa 1500-1800 [Women in men's clothes. The history of a defiant tradition. Europe 1500-1800]. Amsterdam. pp. 49, 108, 151.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Emanuel van Meteren (1663). Historien der Nederlanden en haar naburen tot het jaar 1612 [History of the Netherlands and its neighbours up to the year 1612]. Amsterdam. pp. 445–446.
  3. Tom Meijers. "Mysterieuze Margaretha: een vrouwsoldaat in manskleren" [Mysterious Margaretha: a female soldier in man's clothes]. De Verhalen van Groningen.
  4. "Margaretha". Digital Women's Lexicon of the Netherlands.
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