Maria van Antwerp

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Maria van Antwerpen (born January 17, 1719 in Breda ; † 1781 ) was a Dutch woman who lived temporarily as a man in the 18th century and married twice as such. It is not known whether she was a transvestite or a transsexual person.

biography

Signatures of Maria van Antwerpen under the interrogation protocols - three times she signed with her name as a man (in this case Maggiel van hantwerpen ), the fourth time as a woman

Maria van Antwerpen came from a large Catholic family; she was the seventh child of Johanna de Swart and Johannes van Antwerpen. The father was a city laborer ( kraankind ) in the port. From the age of eight she worked as a maid for various families, in 1743 she was briefly married. At the end of 1745 she worked for a family in Wageningen , which she fired in the middle of winter. Because she could not find a new job, she dressed as a man and at the end of 1746 hired herself as a soldier in Grave for six years under the name of Jan van Ant ; she stated her age as 16 years old (in fact she was 26 years old). The following year, in Coevorden , she married Johanna Cramers, the daughter of a sergeant who allegedly did not know that Maria was a woman. When Maria's regiment was stationed in Breda, she was recognized by the daughter of a family where she had previously worked as a maid. She was arrested and banned from the provinces of Brabant , Limburg and all garrison towns in May 1751 by a military tribunal , the marriage was declared invalid.

Afterwards Maria, now as a woman, went to Gouda and earned her living there sewing. She met Cornelia Swartsenberg, who was unmarried and pregnant. Maria once more assumed a male identity and called herself Machiel van Hantwerpen . She moved to Zwolle , where she hired herself again as a soldier in 1762. Cornelia followed her, and the two married that same year. The child was stillborn. Two years later, Machiel left the army after a conflict and went with Cornelia to Amsterdam , where they lived in the Jordaan . There Maria van Antwerpen worked as a "healer" for skin diseases. She also sold oranjelint , the orange fabric used for festivities around the House of Orange . Cornelia became pregnant, according to Maria, as a result of rape. This second child died at the age of seven weeks after being baptized on November 15, 1764 in Amsterdam. A brother of Maria was the godfather of this baptism.

In 1766 Maria became a soldier for the third time, now in the service of the city of Amsterdam. In 1769 she was recognized again by someone from Gouda in Montfoort . Cornelia escaped, but Maria was arrested and tried in Gouda. A lay judge sentenced her to exile from Holland and West Friesland. Finally, Maria van Antwerpen returned to her native city of Breda, where she died at the age of presumably 61 and was buried on January 16, 1781 in a poor grave in the back of the Markendaalsekerk cemetery.

Transvestism

Maria van Antwerp's decision to live as a man was not unusual in her day. She herself stated that she was inspired by earlier examples, and in fact two other well-known women lived in Breda at the end of the 17th and early 18th centuries, who at times posed as men: Elisabeth Someruell alias Lys Saint Mourel and the English Pirate Mary Read . In the Netherlands, there are 120 documented cases of women posing as men in order to become soldiers.

During her trial, the judges asked Maria van Antwerpen if she was a tribade , which was subject to severe punishment, but Maria convinced her that she had only lived with the women "as a sister". She insisted on being a man, but an investigation found that anatomically she was a woman. She herself stated: “I am a man by nature, but I am a woman by appearance.” This indicates transsexuality . Maria van Antwerpen also posed as a man for economic reasons, as this gave her the opportunity to find work as a soldier or sailor. She herself stated that she only had the choice between the military or prostitution .

swell

Until 1769, the life of Maria van Antwerpen can be reconstructed on the basis of the court files from Gouda, including the minutes of six detailed interrogations. Her "autobiography" De Bredasche Heldinne, of remarkable levens-gevallen van Maria van Antwerpen , recorded by Franciscus Lievens Kersteman, a failed student who had been imprisoned with Maria for fraud, was published as early as 1751 . De Bredasche Heldinne was written as a picaresque novel and decorated accordingly. The essential information in this book is consistent with other sources. Kersteman later made a name for himself as a writer of novels, biographies, and legal manuals. The bankruptcy song Een vermaekelyk liedeken van een manhaftig Vrouwspersoon, the de staeten van Holland vijf jaar en zes maenden served heeft as grenadier binne Breda about Maria van Antwerp, was also written, although it had little to do with the facts.

reception

In October 2019 at the Stedelijk Museum Breda , the exhibition Zij / Hij? Het verhaal van Maria van Antwerpen shown. Mock interrogations were shown with her as part of the exhibition. In the vicinity of the house where she was born, wall pictures with representations of her were created as part of the Blind Walls Gallery campaign .

literature

  • Rudolf Dekker / Lotte van de Pol et al .: Women in men's clothes: female transvestites and their history . Wagenbach, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8031-2678-8 .
  • FL Kersteman: De Bredasche heroine . Ed .: RM Dekker / GJ Johannes / LC van de Pol. Hilversum 1988, ISBN 978-90-6550-105-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Maria van Antwerp. In: brabantserfgoed.nl. September 24, 2019, accessed December 25, 2020 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Jacques Hendriks: Soldaat Maria van Antwerpen, de 'Bredasche heldinne'. In: bndestem.nl. September 25, 2019, accessed December 25, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Lotte van de Pol: Antwerp, Maria van (1719-1781). In: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. January 13, 2014, accessed December 25, 2020 (Dutch).
  4. ↑ Elisabeth Someruell. In: biografischportaal.nl. Retrieved December 25, 2020 (Dutch).
  5. ↑ Zij / Hij? Het verhaal van Maria van Antwerp. In: archeologiedagen.nl. October 9, 2019, accessed December 25, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Antwerp, Maria van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch transgender woman
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1719
PLACE OF BIRTH Breda
DATE OF DEATH 1781