Maria van Antwerpen (1719 – 1781) was a Dutch soldier and seamstress who disguised herself as a man to enlist in the Dutch States Army. She is considered by the Dutch historians Rudolf Dekker and L.J.M. van de Pol as a transsexual woman. Maria married twice to women. Two biographies were published about Maria in her own lifetime, one by Franciscus Lievens Kersteman in 1751.
Life.
Van Antwerpen was born in Breda, the daughter of a brewer. She was orphaned at thirteen and worked as a servant maid until she was fired in the middle of winter in 1745. She enlisted in the Dutch States Army as "Jan van Ant" in 1746 and married the sergeant daughter Johanna Cramers in 1748. Recognised by a former employer in 1751, she was put on trial for making a mockery of marriage and by entering an illegal marriage, and sentenced to exile from all garrison cities. She worked as a seamstress until 1762, when she married Cornelia Swartsenberg, pregnant after a rape, and enlisted again. A son was baptised with her as a father. In 1769, she was recognised by someone who knew her as a seamstress, and put on trial again. Cornelia fled and Maria was exiled to the area of Holland. She died in Breda at the age of 62.
Context.
Other examples of Dutch women posing as men to join the military include Adriana la Noy, who served as a sailor in the Dutch States Navy during the First Anglo-Dutch War when she was discovered in 1653, Aal de Dragonder, a woman who fought as a dragoon in the late 17th century, and an unnamed woman, also a soldier, who was discovered after having been killed in a fight with knives in 1710.
References.
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