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Women in warfare (1500–1699)

Women have played a leading role in active warfare. The following is a list of prominent women in war and their exploits from about 1500 up to about 1699.

Only women active in direct warfare, such as warriors, spies, and women who actively led armies are included in this list.

For women in warfare in what is now the United States during this time period, see Timeline of women in war in the United States, pre-1945.

Timeline of women in warfare from 1500 to 1699

1500–1550

1550–1599

1600–1650

  • 17th century: Belawadi Mallamma is the first woman to form a women's army in Indian history, which she uses to fight against the Maratha Confederacy in the 17th century.
  • 17th century to 1894: Dahomey Amazons act as an all-female regiment (under female command) of the west African Kingdom of Dahomey.
  • 17th century: Antónia Rodrigues serves as man in the Portuguese army and is decorated for bravery in the war against the Moors.
  • 17th century: A woman serves in the Dutch dragoons sometime between 1642 and 1710: she is found dead after a private duel, and her unnamed skeleton is donated to the University of Rotterdam (founded in 1642), where it is first documented in 1710 as "Aal de Dragonder".
  • 17th century: Keumalahayati was killed in combat while attacking the Portuguese fleet at Teuluk Krueng Raya.
  • 1600: Ikeda Sen fought alongside her brother Terumasa against the Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari in the Siege of Gifu castle.
  • 1600: Numata Jakō, also known as Hosokawa Maria, participates in the defense during the Siege of Tanabe.
  • 1600: Tachibana Ginchiyo the former leader of Tachibana clan fight in Siege of Yanagawa.
  • 1600: Yuki no Kata defended the Anōtsu castle in the Battle of Sekigahara.
  • 1600–1615: Okaji no Kata dressed as a man, she fought at the Battle of Sekigahara and the Siege of Osaka.
  • 1604–1611: Margaretha, a woman from Frisia, serves in the Dutch army dressed as a man for seven years before discovery in 1611.
  • 1607–1620: Catalina de Erauso fights as a soldier in Mexico, Peru, and Chile.
  • 1611: Mayken Blomme serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man.
  • 1612: Swedish Emerentia Krakow defends the Fortress of Gullberg against the Danes in the place of her wounded spouse, the commendant of the fortress.
  • 1612: According to legend, Prillar-Guri participates in the Battle of Kringen.
  • 1613–1648: Qin Liangyu commands armies in China.
  • 1614–1615: Kōzōsu helped defend the Toyotomi clan at the Siege of Osaka.
  • 1624: The settler Maria Ortiz (1603–1646) famously participate in the defense of the Portuguese colony of Espírito Santo against the attempted Dutch invasion.
  • 1625: Trintje Symons (or Trijntje Sijmons) serves in the Dutch army dressed as a man.
  • 1625–1629: Anne Jans serves as sailor in the Dutch navy as Jan Janz.
  • 1628: Glasmästare-Kerstin is hanged after it is discovered that she enlisted as a soldier in the Swedish army.
  • 1628–1629: Maritgen Jans serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man under the name David van Gorkum.
  • 1628–1632: Barbara Pieters Adriaens serve in the Dutch army dressed as a man under the name Wilhelm Adriaens.
  • June 5, 1639: Lady Ann Cunningham leads a mixed-sex cavalry troop in the Battle of Berwick.
  • 1629: Two women are discovered after having served in the Dutch army dressed as men.
  • 1630s–1647: Gao Guiying leads her army as a general in China.
  • 1641: Elizabeth Dowdall successfully defends Kilfinny Castle during the Irish Rebellion.
  • 1641: Hendrickgen Lamberts van der Schuyr served in the Dutch army dressed as a man.
  • 1641: Vrouwthe Frans is discovered after having served in the Dutch army dressed as a man.
  • 1643–1715: Several soldiers are reportedly discovered to be female in the French army during the reign of Louis XIV of France.
  • 1643–1644: Shen Yunying leads her own army in China.
  • 1643: Lady Mary Bankes defends Corfe Castle from a siege in the English Civil War.
  • 1643: Lady Brilliana Harley defends Brampton Castle during the English Civil War.
  • 1643: Henrietta Maria of France returns to England from France, landing in Yorkshire and joining Royalist troops in the English Civil War.
  • 1643: Lady Blanche Arundell defends Wardour Castle during the English Civil War.
  • 1643: An unnamed woman uses the name Claus Bernsen to enlist in the Dutch navy.
  • 1644: Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby defends Latham House from Parliamentarian Forces.
  • 1645: Françoise-Marie Jacquelin defence the Fort la Tour during the Acadian Civil War.
  • 1644: Hilleke Sell and Jenneke Everts served in the Dutch army dressed as men.

1650–1699

  • Roughly mid to late 1600s: Pashtun poet Nazo Tokhi defends a fortress.
  • 1652: Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, fires the cannons against the army of Turenne during the Fronde.
  • 1652–1653: Anna Jans serves in the Dutch Navy as a man during the war against England.
  • 1652–1653: Johanna/Jannetje Pieters serves in the Dutch Navy as a man, Jan Pietersse, during the war against England.
  • 1652–1653: Adriana La Noy serves as sailor dressed as a man in the Dutch Navy.
  • 1653: Aagt de Tamboer serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man.
  • 1653: Anna Alders serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man.
  • 1653: The Princess of Moldavia, Doamna Ecaterina Cercheza, defends the city of Suceava toward the Ottoman siege.
  • 1659: Anne Holck leads the defense of the Danish island of Langeland after the death of her spouse against the Swedes during the Dano-Swedish War (1658–1660).
  • 1659–1665: Willemtge Gerrits serves in the Dutch Marine as a man.
  • 1663: Annetje Barents serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man under the name Klaas Barents.
  • 1665: Jacoba Jacobs serves in the Dutch Marine as Jacob Jacobs.
  • 1666: Hendrick Albertsz in the Dutch navy is discovered to have been a female dressed as a male.
  • 1667: Engeltje Dirx serves in the Dutch army dressed as a man.
  • 1667: Jacoba Jacobs serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man.
  • 1670: Alena Arzamasskaia, a Russian female ataman rebel, commanded a detachment of about 600 men and participated in the capture of Temnikov while disguised as a man.
  • 1672: Annetje Pieters serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a man; the same year, another unnamed female is discovered to have done the same.
  • 1672: Margaretha Sandra, as well as several other women, participate in the defence of the Dutch city of Aardenburg against the French.
  • 1673: Elisabeth Someruell is reputed to have served as Tobias Morello in the Spanish army.
  • 1673: Isabella Clara Gelvinck serves in the Dutch army dressed as a male.
  • 1673: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch army dressed as a male.
  • 1674: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch army dressed as a male.
  • 1674: Francijntje van Lint serves in the Dutch army dressed as a male.
  • 1675: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch army dressed as a male.
  • 1675: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a male.
  • 1676: Kong Sizhen succeeds her spouse as Chinese Imperial military commander of Guanxi during the rebellion of Wu Sangui.
  • 1676–1691: Geneviève Prémoy serves in the French army dressed as a male.
  • 1677–1689: Reign of Keladi Chennamma. During her reign of 12 years, she repelled the advances of the Mughal Army led by Aurangzeb from her military base in the kingdom of Keladi located in Sagara, Karnataka India.
  • 1677: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a male.
  • 1679: Lisbetha Olsdotter is put on trial for having served in the Swedish army under the name Mats Ersson.
  • 1684: Catharina Rosenbrock serves in the Dutch army as well as the navy dressed as a male.
  • 1685–1688: Ilona Zrínyi defends the Palanok Castle in Munkács against the Habsburg forces.
  • 1688: Maria Jacoba de Turenne serves in the Dutch army dressed as a man
  • 1690s: Kit Cavanagh disguises herself as a man in order to fight as a dragoon.
  • 1690: Anne Chamberlyne, a female tar who disguised herself as a man, fights the French at Beachy Head.
  • 1691: Anna Isabella Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua, defends Mantua against the Spanish as regent during the absence of her spouse.
  • 1691–1696: Marie Magdelaine Mouron serves in the French army dressed as a male.
  • 1692: Philis de La Charce, led a peasant army to help vanquish invading forces in the Dauphiné region.
  • 1694: An unnamed female serves in the Dutch navy dressed as a male.
  • 1696: Joonas Dirckse in the Dutch navy is discovered to be a female dressed as a male.
  • 1696: Mongolian Queen Anu dies saving her husband at the Battle of Zuunmod.
  • Late 17th century: A Finnish female serves in the French, English and Danish armies dressed as a male.

See also

References

Further reading

  • De Pauw, Linda Grant. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), popular history by a leading scholar
  • Dugaw, Dianne. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry: 1650–1850 (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
  • Fraser, Antonia. The Warrior Queens (Vintage Books, 1990)
  • Hacker, Barton C. "Women and Military Institutions in Early Modern Europe: A Reconnaissance," Signs (1981), v. 6 pp. 643–671.
  • Illston, James Michael. An Entirely Masculine Activity'? Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered (MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 2009) full text online, with detailed review of the literature
  • Little, Ann. Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007)
  • Lynn, John. "Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  • McLaughlin, Megan. "The Woman Warrior: Gender, Warfare and Society in Medieval Europe." Women's Studies (1990) 17: 193–209.
  • Martino, Gina M. Women at War in the Borderlands of the Early American Northeast. (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
  • Stolterer, Helen. "Figures of Female Militancy in Medieval France," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 16 (1991): 522–549
  • Taufer, Alison. "The Only Good Amazon is a Converted Amazon: The Woman Warrior and Christianity in the Amadís Cycle" in Playing With Gender: A Renaissance Pursuit ed. by Jean R. Brink et al. pp. 35–51. (University of Illinois Press, 1991)

External links