Women in warfare (1500–1699)

Active warfare throughout history has mainly been a matter for men, but women have also played a role, often a leading one. While women rulers conducting warfare was common, women who participated in active warfare was rare. The following list of prominent women in war and their exploits from about 1500 AD up to about 1750 AD suggests the wider involvement of numerous unnamed women, some of them thrust into positions of leadership by accident of birth or family connection, others from humble origin by force of personality and circumstance.

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

Timeline of women in warfare in the early modern era worldwide

Christina of Saxony

Christina Gyllenstierna as defender of Stockholm in a modern statue at the Royal Palace there

File:Ines de Suarez.jpg

Inés de Suárez

Catherine Ségurane

Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer

Rani Durgavati

Chand Bibi

Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby

File:Rsg1706.jpg

Kit Cavanagh

Tarabai

Begum Samru

Hannah Snell

16th century

• 16th century: Sikhism founded. One of its tenets is equality for women which extends to allowing them into participate in combat and warfare. See Category:Female Sikh warriors for more information.
• 1501: Christina of Saxony holds the city of Stockholm for the Danish during a Swedish rebellion against the Danish.
• 1502: Anne Rud defends the Bohus Fortress in the absence of her spouse, commander Henrich Krummedige, during his war with Alv Knutsson.
• 1505: Ingeborg Tott defends her fief Häme Castle in Finland against the attack from another noble fiefholder.
• 1511: According to popular legend, Gertruid Bolwater defends Venlo.
• 1513: Catherine of Aragon acts as Regent for Henry VIII and attends the field at the Battle of Flodden Field.
• 1520: Christina Gyllenstierna becomes the leader and commander of the defence of Sweden and Stockholm during the war between Denmark and Sweden.
• 1520: Swedish noble Anna Eriksdotter (Bielke) commands the city of Kalmar in place of her dead spouse during the war between Denmark and Sweden.
• 1521: Maria Pacheco Padilla defends the city of Toledo, Spain for six months after her husband falls in battle.
• 1521–1523: Abbess Anna Leuhusen participates in the secret traffic in and out of the city of Stockholm during the Swedish War of Liberation.
• 1530–1599: Abbakka, a ruler of Tulu Nadu in India fights the Portuguese army.
• 1536–1573: Reign of Amina, ruler of the Hausa empire in Niger. She personally led an army of over 20,000 soldiers.
• 1539–1540: Gaitana of the Paez leads the indigenous people of Columbia in armed resistance against the Spanish.
• 1541: Inés de Suárez, who came to the Americas to search her husband, fought with Pedro de Valdivia in Chile.
• 1541: Gaspar de Carvajal, a Dominican monk, reports being attacked by a band of armed women while travelling in Brazil.
• 1543: According to legend, Catherine Ségurane defends the city of Nice, France.
• February 12, 1545: Scottish women fight in the Battle of Ancrum Moor. Among them is Lilliard, after whom Lilliard Edge is named.
• 1546: Isabel Madeira, Isabel Fernandes, Catarina Lopes and Isabel Dias serve in the defense of the city walls during the siege of Diu in Portuguese India.
• 1547: Scotland, Mariotta Haliburton defends and negotiates the surrender of Hume Castle.
• 1558: Scotland, Janet Beaton marches at the head of an armed party consisting of two hundred members of her clan to the Kirk of St. Mary of the Lowes in Yarrow, where she knocked down the doors in an attempt to apprehend Sir Peter Cranstoun.
• 1559–1560: Scotland, Mary of Guise leads French armies against the Protestant rebellion, and women fight at the Siege of Leith.
• 1562–1566: Mary, Queen of Scots, leads armies against several rebellions by nobles, including the Chaseabout Raid of 1565.
• 1564: Indian queen Rani Durgawati leads her forces against the Mughal army, but is defeated.
• 1569: Marguerite Delaye loses an arm in while fighting Admiral Coligny during his siege of Montélimar. A one-armed statue is erected in her honor.
• 1569: Jane Howard, Countess of Westmoreland, is instrumental in raising the troops for unsuccessful Rising of the North.
• 1569: Brita Olofsdotter, widow after soldier Nils Simonsson, serves in the Finnish troup in the Swedish cavalry in Livonia; she is killed in battle, and king John III of Sweden orders for her salary to be paid to her family.
• 1569: Lady Agnes Campbell, married to Turlough Luineach O'Neill, Chieftain of the O'Neill's in Ulster, leads Her Scottish dowry troops against occupying English forces.
• 1572: In defence of the city during a siege of Haarlem by Spanish troops, which lasted from December 1572 to 1573, Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526–1588) supplied the Dutch forces with wood. She owned a wood company at Haarlem. Myth says she led a force of women defending the city and ever since "kenau" has been a Dutch expression for a harsh woman.
• 1572: Maria van Schooten participates in the defense during the siege of Haarlem by Spanish troops, dies and are granted a military funeral: she is believed to have been one of the women who was led by Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer
• 1573: Trijn Rembrands allegedly participates in the defence of Alkmaar.
• 1576: Portuguese explorer Pedro de Magalhães de Gandavo reports that some Tupinamba Indian women of northeastern Brazil "give up all the duties of women and imitate men, and follow men’s pursuits as if they were not women. They wear the hair cut in the same way as the men, and go to war with bows and arrows and pursue game, always in company with men; each has a woman to serve her, to whom she says she is married, and they treat each other and speak with each other as man and wife."
• 1577: Dutch woman Trijn van de Leemput allegedly rallies women in Utrecht against the Spanish.
• 1580s: A woman is reported to have served as a man in the Portuguese army in Angola for a period of five years before she was discovered.
• 1584: Mary Ambree participates in the fighting against the Spanish for the city of Ghent. A ballad is eventually written about her.
• 1587 : Catharina Rose commands a women battalion at the Spanish siege of Sluis in Flanders.
• 1588 : Queen Elizabeth I defeats the Spanish Armada
• 1589 : Maria Pita defends Corunna against the English armada
• 1590 : Françoise de Cezelli defeats the Spanish army during the battle of Leucate
• 1590: According to legend, Kaihime participates in the defence of Oshi Castle.
• 1597 : Ebba Stenbock serves as commander of Turku Castle in Finland after the death of her spouse.
• Late 16th century: Muslim Queen Chand Bibi fights the Mughals.
• Early 17th century: Catalina de Erauso fights as a soldier in Mexico, Peru, and Chile.

17th century

• 17th century: Sikh woman Bibi Dalair Kaur fights the Mughals by rallying 100 Sikh women against them. She is killed, and Sikhs consider her to be a martyr.
• 17th century: Queen Keladi Chennamma of the Keladi kingdom of India fights the Mughals.
• 17th century: Respective reigns of Jaga warrior queens Mussasa and Tembandumba.
• 17th century to 1894: Dahomey Amazons act as an all female regiment (under female command) of the west African Kingdom of Dahomey.
• 17th century: Several soldiers are reportedly discovered to be female in the French army during the reign of Louis XIV of France.
• 17th century: Shen Yunying leads her own army in China.
• 17th century: Gao Guiying leads her army as a general in China.
• 17th century: Qin Liangyu commands armies in China.
• 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 serve 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: Akiko Yamamoto serve as one of few female samurais of her period.
• 1600: Inahime, a Japanese princess, participates in the Battle of Sekigahara.
• 1604-1611: Margaretha, a woman from Frisia, serve in the Dutch army dressed as a man for seven years before discovery in 1611
• 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.
• 1620: Legendary Albanian heroine Nora of Kelmendi.
• September 13, 1624: Ketevan the Martyr, a Georgian queen, is tortured to death after offering herself as a hostage to Shah Abbas I to prevent war.
• 1625: Trintje Symons serve in the Dutch army dressed as a man
• 1625-1629: Anne Jans serve as sailor in the Dutch navy
• 1628: Glasmästare-Kerstin is hanged after it is discovered that she enlisted as a soldier in the Swedish army
• 1628-1629: Maritgen Jans serve 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.
• 1641: Elizabeth Dowdall successfully defends Kilfinny Castle during the Irish Rebellion.
• 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.
• 1652: Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, fires the cannons against the army of Turenne during the Fronde.
• 1652-1653: Anna Jans serve in the Dutch Navy as a man during the war against England
• 1652-1653: Johanna Pieters serve in the Dutch Navy as a man during the war against England
• 1652-1653: Adriana La Noy serve as sailor dressed as a man in the Dutch Navy
• 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 serve in the Dutch Marine as a man
• 1665: Jacoba Jacobs serve in the Dutch Marine as Jacob Jacobs
• 1670: Alyona, a Russian female ataman rebel, commanded a detachment of about 600 men and participated in the capture of Temnikov.
• 1675–1676: King Philip's War. Awashonks, female chief of the Sakonnet tribe, initially supports Metacomet, but later makes peace with the colonists.
• 1672: Margaretha Sandra, as well as several other women, participare in the defence of the Dutch city of Aardenburg against the French.
• 1676: Colonists request that Pamunkey chief Queen Anne furnish warriors to fight in Bacon's Rebellion. She initially refuses on the grounds that her tribe was neglected by the colonists for twenty years, but relents when the colonists promise better treatment for her tribe.
• 1679: Lisbetha Olsdotter is put on trial for having served in the Swedish army under the name Mats Ersson.
• 1683: The pirate Anne Dieu-Le-Veut becomes known in the Caribbean Sea as a great fighter, one of the first of many female pirates famed for their fighting-skills.
• 1688: A coup takes place in Siam. Women drilled in the use of muskets replace the mercenaries and samurai who had served the old government. They are led by a woman named Ma Ying Taphan.
• 1688: Maria Jacoba de Turenne serve in the Dutch army dressed as a man
• 1690s: Kit Cavanagh disguises herself as a man in order to fight as a dragoon. She eventually fights openly as a woman.
• 1690: Anne Chamberlyne, a female tar who disguised herself as man, fights the French at Beachy Head.
• 1697: New England colonist Hannah Duston is captured by Abenaki Native Americans during a raid. She kills ten of them while they were asleep and escapes with the other prisoners, taking their scalps with her. She is possibly the first woman in the United States to be honored with a statue.

18th century

• Early 18th century: Juliana Dias da Costa rides on a war elephant alongside her husband, Mughal emperor of India Bahadur Shah I, in battles to defend his authority.
• Early 18th century : Mary Read serves as a soldier in Belgium before becoming a pirate.
• 18th century: Kaipkire of the Herero leads forces against British slave traders.
• 18th century: Ghaliyya al-Wahhabiyya leads military resistance movement to prevent foreign takeover of Mecca.
• 18th century: Comtesse de Polignac and Marchioness de Nesle fight a duel over their mutual lover, Duc de Richelieu.
• 18th century: The ruling Princess of Sardhana, Begum Samru (Johanna Noblis), leads her armies in war.
• 18th century: Catherina Margaretha Linck serves as a soldier in the armies of Hanover, Prussia, Hesse, and Poland.
• 18th century: Petronella van den Kerkhof possibly serve in the Dutch army as a grenadier: however, as she was not discovered during service, this is unconfirmed
• 1700 : Tarabai, a queen of the Maratha empire in India, leads a war against invading Mughals.
• 1700 : Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Cassel defends Copenhagen against invasion.
• 1700 : Maria Ursula d'Abreu e Lencastro fights in the Portuguese army in India.
• 1700 : Margareta von Ascheberg acting colonel of her dead husband's regiment during the Great Northern War.
• During the Great Northern War, Maria Faxell, the wife of a vicar, defends her village against a Norwegian attack by handing out old weapons to both men and women during her husband's absence.
• An unnamed woman serves in the Swedish army in the Great Northern War; after the war, she is seen wearing men's clothing on the streets of Stockholm until the 1740s, where she was known as "The Rider".
• 1704: Mai Bhago leads Sikh soldiers against the Mughals.
• 1706: Gertruid ter Brugge seve in the Dutch dragoons and is afterward a local celebrity known as "La Dragonne"
• 1711–1721: Ingela Gathenhielm operates the Swedish Privateering fleet jointly with her husband during the Great Northern War; when widowed in 1718, she continues herself.
• 1712-1714: Anna Jöransdotter from Finland serves in the Swedish army under the named Johan Haritu
• 1713-1721: Margareta Elisabeth Roos is said to have served in the Swedish army, but as she was never trialed, this is regarded as unconfirmed
• 1713-1726: Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar serves in the Swedish army under Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War
• 1713-1714: Annika Svahn, as well as several other enslaved Finnish women taken captive by the Russians, are forced to participate in the Russian conquest of Swedish Finland on the battle fields during the Greater Wrath dressed in Russian dragoon uniforms.
• 1715: Two unnamed women are rumored among the soldiers to serve in the Swedish army, one of them a wife of one of the soldiers, who by this point was to have served for a period of four years
• 1716: Norwegian Anna Colbjørnsdatter is granted the success in the victory over the Swedes at the Battle of Norderhov in Norway during the Great Northern War 29 March 1716 by capturing 600 Swedish soldiers.
• 1716: Norwegian Kari Hiran averts the Swedish attempt to conquer Norway by feeding them false information about the size of the Norwgian army.
• 1716-1718: Hangbe in the Kingdom of Dahomey becomes the regent after her twin brother Akaba is killed. Oral traditions say that when Akaba died, she put on his armour and acted in his place for the rest of war in the Ouémé River valley.
• 1719: Brita Olsdotter, an old Swedish woman, meets the Russian army, who marches against Linköping after having burnt Norrköping, and makes them turn around and leave after telling them that reinforcements were arriving to assist Linköping.
• 1720–1739: Granny Nanny, a spiritual leader of the Maroons of Jamaica, leads rebel slaves in First Maroon War against the British.
• 1725: Dutch woman Maria ter Meetelen serves in the Spanish army dressed as a man.
• 1730s–1740s: Female Ho-chunk chief Glory of the Morning allies her tribe with the French in order to battle the Fox tribe.
• 1740: Ann Mills fights on the frigate Maidenstone as a dragoon.
• 1741-1743: Maria van de Gijessen serve in the Dutch navy under then name Claes van de Gijessen
• 1745: Countess Mary Hay raises an army of Buchan men for Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
• 1745: Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh raises 200–400 men of her clan to fight in the Jacobite rising, but does not lead them.
• 1745: Phoebe Hessel fights in the Battle of Fontenoy with her lover. She had disguised herself as a man and joined the British Army to be near him.
• 1745: Scottish Mary Ralphson fights in the British army in Battle of Fontenoy dressed as a man
• 1746–1769: Maria van Antwerpen serves as a soldier in the Netherlands under the name Jan van Art.
• 1748: Gertruid van Duiren enlists and briefly serve in the Dutch army before being discovered
• 1750: Hannah Snell, a British woman who had disguised herself as a man in order to become a Royal Marine, has her military service officially recognized and is granted a pension.
• 1763: Gabriela Silang, a Filipino woman who continued the rebellion started by his late husband, Diego Silang, against the colonial government of the Spanish East Indies.

See also

• Timeline of Women in Medieval warfare
• Women in warfare (1750 - 1799)

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), v6 pp. 643–71.
• 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)
• McLaughlin, Megan. "The Woman Warrior: Gender, Warfare and Society in Medieval Europe." Women’s Studies (1990) 17: 193-209.
• Martino-Trutor, Gina Michelle. "Her Extraordinary Sufferings and Services”: Women and War in New England and New France, 1630-1763" PhD Dissertation, U of Minnesota, 2012. online
• Rediker, Marcus. "Liberty Beneath the Jolly Roger: The Lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Pirates" in In Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-1920 ed by Margaret Creighton and Lisa Norling, pp 1-33 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)
• Stolterer, Helen. "Figures of Female Militancy in Medieval France," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 16 (1991): 522-549