#Alberte-Barbe d'Ernécourt Dame de Saint-Baslemont

[city-of-ladies]

(Equestrian portrait of Madame de Saint-Baslemont, by Claude Deruet, 1646)

Alberte-Barbe d'Ernécourt, Dame de Saint-Baslemont - The amazon of Lorraine

Alberte-Barbe (1607-1660) was the eldest daughter of a distinguished family from Lorraine. This region between France and Germany is now part of France, but was at that time an independent duchy. Intelligent, robust and athletic, Alberte-Barbe was also generous and concerned with the well-being of the people who lived on her family estates.

In 1624, she married Jean-Jacques de Haraucourt, lord of Saint-Baslemont. The pair rode on horseback and hunted together. Of their children, only a daughter survived to adulthood. The couple would soon be parted as the Thirty Years’ War raged in Europe. Jean-Jacques left to join the Duke of Lorraine who was fighting against the French. It appears that Alberte-Barbe had sympathies for the French crown, as she sometimes gave safe passage to French troops. She nonetheless respected and supported her husband’s choice and paid his ransom twice when he was made prisoner. 

Alberte-Barbe busied herself with defending her territories at the head of a small, but well trained militia. She led from the front, sword in hand and was often found fighting hand-to-hand with her enemies. She fought against French and enemy soldiers as well as marauding brigands, preventing them from pillaging her lands. Her first victory took place in 1636 when she defeated a band of 100 French cavalrymen trying to drive off her cattle herd.

She fought for eight years and her biographer states that she was never wounded or defeated. She also reportedly challenged a military officer who caused troubles on her lands to a duel and defeated him. The man thought he was fighting against “the knight of Saint-Baslemont” and was ashamed and astonished when Alberte-Barbe revealed her real identity before leaving. Her military reputation was so impressive that many refugees came to her lands.

Alberte-Barbe was nonetheless merciful and spared those who surrendered, she also offered medical care to the wounded, friends or foes alike. This benevolence could be observed in other aspects of her life, for instance, she established a weekly “soup kitchen” that fed 200 hundred people, often served by Alberte-Barbe in person. She gave dowries to young women and clothing to young men entering the monastery and cared for the sick. 

She was also a very religious woman and attended the mass daily. Alberte-Barbe was also a playwright and wrote a religious tragedy title The twin martyrs and published in 1650. After her husband’s death in 1644, she refused to remarry. She died in 1660.

Bibliography:

D’Orléans Nemours Marie, Mémoires de la duchesse de Nemours

Hacker Barton, Vining Margaret (ed.), A Companion to Women's Military History

Lynn John A., “Saint-Baslemont, Alberte-Barbe D’Ernecourt, Madame de”, in: Higham Robin, Pennington Reina (ed.), Amazons to fighter pilots, biographical dictionary of military women, vol.2

“Portrait équestre de Madame de Saint-Baslemont”

Tribout de Morembert Henri, Hommes illustres de Lorraine

Winn Colette H., Larsen Anne R., Writings by Pre-Revolutionary French Women

[sartorialadventure]

1-2. Madame de Saint-Baslemont de Neuville by Claude Deruet, 1646 3. Same,  engraved by Balthasar Moncornet, 1630s

Alberte-Barbe d'Ernécourt, Dame de Saint-Baslemont (sometimes spelled Saint-Balmon; 14 May 1607 – 22 May 1660) was a French soldier and writer, a heroine of the Thirty Years' War.

Alberte remained at Neuville-en-Verdunois when her husband was away serving the Duke of Lorraine, but needed to defend her property against French, Swedish and Croatian soldiers who were roaming the countryside. She dressed in men's clothing, assuming the persona of the "chevalier de Saint-Baslemont" (supposedly her brother-in-law), and is said to have participated in hand-to-hand combat, adopting military tactics she had learned from her husband. She also took responsibility for the protection of the shrine of Notre-Dame-de-Benoite-Vaux, with its statue of the Virgin Mary. She created a fighting force from among her tenants, and succeeded in maintaining some order within her family's territory. As a result, her lands attracted many incomers from other areas whose own homes were threatened or destroyed.

[city-of-ladies]

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My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Lydia Litvyak - The white rose of Stalingrad

Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak (1921-1943) was fittingly born on August 18, the Soviet Air Fleet Day or Aviation Day. She made her first solo flight at 15 and was training as a flight instructor by the age of 17. 

In 1937, her father was accused of having committed crimes against the Communist Party and arrested. She never saw him again. Unlike her brother, Lydia refused to change her name. 

When World War II began, Lidya had already trained 45 pilots at the Kirov Flying Club in Moscow. The USSR’s Airplane magazine praised her for having carried out a record number of training flights in a single day (over 8 hours in flight). Lydia wanted to join the war effort, but her appeal was rejected. 

However, things changed when Marina Raskova was allowed to create female aviation regiments. Lydia joined her recruits. She was friendly and curious toward the others. She first refused to have her hair cut, but had to give up due to Marina’s insistence. Lydia was full of enthusiasm, she wrote her mother that she was “thirsting for battle”. 

In September 1942, she and some of her female comrades were moved to an entirely male regiment. They stood their ground and quickly adapted. It was during this month that Lydia was deployed in battle for the first time. She shot down two enemy planes during the fight and thus became the first woman in the world to shoot down an enemy combat aircraft on her own. 

Story has it that a renowned German ace she had shot down was captured, and asked to meet the person who defeated him. When he saw Lydia, he couldn’t believe it was first. Lydia, however, used hand movements to reconstruct their duel and he was forced to admit the truth. Impressed, he offered her his wristwatch, but she refused.

Nicknamed the “White rose of Stalingrad”, Lydia flew with a bouquet of flowers stuck on her dashboard. A white lily was painted on her plane. To become an ace, a pilot had to shoot down five aircrafts. Lydia shot down 11 enemy planes by herself within a year and added a “shared kill” to her performance. She was granted the status of “free hunter”, meaning that she could go searching for enemy aircraft or ground forces on her own initiative.

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384 notes • Posted 2021-09-26 08:22:18 GMT

#4

Nakano Takeko - The swan song of samurai warrior women

In 1868, Japan was facing drastic political changes. The arrival of American ships in 1853 forced a country who had been closed to foreigners for the last two centuries to open. This led a to movement of distrust toward the Tokugawa shogunate  and culminated in the restoration of the emperor’s power.

Some clans and domains didn’t accept this situation and stayed loyal to the shogunate. Such was the case with the Matsudaira of Aizu. In autumn 1868,  Aizu came under attack by the imperial troops. Aizu was a conservative domain, its warriors strictly followed the samurai traditions. The women were trained with the naginata and to knew how to use a dagger for ritual suicide or self-defense. 

When the imperial troops arrived, some women decided to commit suicide, taking with them their children or elderly relatives to avoid being a burden for the defenders or fearing capture. A woman named Kawahara Asako beheaded her daughter and stepmother before taking her naginata to fight against the invaders. She survived her first sortie and was ultimately forced to withdraw to the castle.

Other women decided to fight, and one of them was Nakano Takeko (1847-1868). Takeko was 22 when the battle began. The daughter of an Aizu councilor, she excelled in martial arts, poetry and calligraphy. On October 8, the alarm bell rang as the enemy managed to enter the town. Takeko immediately joined, with her mother, Kôko, and her 16 years old sister Masako (also sometimes called Yûko), a group made of men and women to fight the intruders.

The defenders, however, decided to close the castle gates and the three women found themselves blocked outside. They decided to join the outpost were the Aizu soldiers were stationed and were joined on the way by other women. Each of them had decided to cut their hair like a male samurai. They wore a white headband and a hakama. They had two swords at their belts and were armed with a naginata.

Between 20 and 30 women ultimately joined was later called the joshigun or “women’s unit”. Takeko went to the leader of a squad of Aizu soldiers and asked to be allowed to fight. He refused at first, arguing that if the enemy saw women among the Aizu soldiers, they would think that the domain was on the verge of defeat. Takeko then threatened to commit suicide if she wasn't allowed to fight. She and the other women were placed under commander Furuya who ultimately accepted their demand.

The next day, the Aizu forces and the joshigun, attacked the imperial troops at Yanagi bridge, hoping to break through and go back to the castle. The women were unafraid, even if they had to charge at men equipped with firearms. When the enemies saw that they were women, they gave at first the order to capture them alive. 

Takeko killed 5 or 6 men with her naginata, but was shot in the head and/or in the heart and died. Her younger sister didn’t want Takeko’s head to be taken by the enemy as a trophy. She thus tried to cut it, but couldn’t do it and asked an Aizu soldier for help. Masako managed to bring her sister’s head to Hokkai-ji temple where it was buried.

On October 13, the surviving women arrived to the castle with Hirata Kochô as their leader. They kept fighting and force some of them participated in the defense as sharpshooters. 

Masako was among the members of the joshigun who survived the castle’s fall. She went afterward went to Hakkodate, Hokkaido. 

Today, Takeko’s naginata is kept at Hokkai-ji. A statue as been erected in her honor in the town of Aizu. Each year, young women play the role of the jôshigun at the Aizu festival.

Takeko’s death poem, that she had tied to her naginata, was: 

“I would not dare to count myself among all the famous warriors - even though I share the same brave heart”.

She was among the last samurai warrior women. Women took arms during the 1877 Satsuma rebellion to prevent the samurai status’ and privileges from being abolished, but to no avail.

Here’s the link to my Ko-Fi if you want to support me.

Sources: 

Shiba Gorô, Remembering Aizu: the testament of Shiba Gorô

“Samurai warrior queens” documentary 

Wright Diana E., “Female combatants and Japan’s Meiji restauration: the case of Aizu “

Yamakawa Kikue, Women of the Mito domain

497 notes • Posted 2021-07-28 06:24:52 GMT

#3

Yamamoto Yaeko - Heroic defender of Aizu

If you want to read about another heroine of this battle, you can check out my article on Nakano Takeko.

In autumn 1868 the domain of Aizu, Japan, was under attack by the imperial troops. Women within the castle actively took part in the defense. 

They prepared ammunition, cooked meals, nursed the wounded, but also risked their lives in extinguishing the fires and rushed to cover the enemy canon balls with wet mats before they exploded. Young girls also collected the enemy ammunition for the defenders to reuse it. A 60 years old woman went out of the castle to retrieve food, but encountered an enemy soldier on the way. She stabbed him with her dagger and safely went back to the castle. A female bodyguard unit also protected Matsudaira Teruhime, the lord’s sister.

Some of them also fought. A contemporary witness depicts them as ready to don their white kimono and fight naginata  in hand. An observer also said that they shared all the men’s burden, took on watches and shouldered a rifle if needed.

Among them was Yamamoto Yaeko (1845-1932), who distinguished herself through her leadership and her skills with firearms, though she wasn’t the only woman to use  them in the defense. She was the daughter of an artillery instructor and her brother Kakuma had taught her to use firearms. She was particularly competent, being able to use recent models like the Spencer rifle and had also learned to fight with a naginata. 

On October 8, Yaeko began to take part in night sorties. She had asked another female defender, Takagi Tokio, to cut her hair short like a male samurai. Armed with her Spencer rifle, she was dressed like a man and had two swords at her belt. She also commanded the men in charge of one of the cannons and didn’t abandon her post, even as cannon balls rained on the castle.

In spite of this fierce resistance, Aizu surrender on November 5, 1868. In an ultimate gesture of defiance, Teruhime ordered the women to clean the whole castle in order to humiliate the enemy as soon as they would set a foot in it and to show that the Aizu spirit was still unbroken. 

When the castle fell, Yaeko was made prisoner with the men. After being freed, she divorced from her first husband went to Kyoto to find her brother Kakuma. There, she met and married Nijima Jô, converted to Christianity and helped him to found Doshisha university. She later became a nurse for the Red Cross and served as such during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. Another woman who fought in Aizu’s defense, Yamakawa Futaba, also became a promoter of women’s education.

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534 notes • Posted 2021-08-01 09:51:38 GMT

#2

“As long as you focus on one historical figure, or one cluster of women, or on one historical period, it is easy to believe any individual woman warrior was indeed an exception who stood outside the norm of her time—created by a national crisis or an anomaly of inheritance—and who consequently stands outside the norm of history as a whole. One of John Keegan’s “insignificant exceptions.” There is, after all, only one Joan of Arc. The number of women who enlisted disguised as men in any given war is statistically insignificant. The circumstances that led women to fight at the siege of Sparta or Tenochtitlan or Leningrad were desperate. And so on.

Looking at women warriors in isolation, it is also easy to accept the way in which the accomplishments (or even existence) of a specific woman warrior are dismissed. That Telesilla or Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer or Artemisia II didn’t do what the sources claim she did. That an unknown man stood behind Matilda of Tuscany pulling the military strings. That Fu Hao played no more than a symbolic role on the battlefield. That Mawiyya or Kit Cavanagh didn’t exist. That any ancient remains buried with a sword are male. That the women who stood on the ramparts and fought back don’t count as warriors because if they were soldiers (and therefore men) the fact that they stepped forward to fire a cannon or picked up a rifle wouldn’t be worth remarking on. Looking at women warriors in isolation, it doesn’t matter that Katherine of Aragon successfully defended England against invasion because everyone knows the important part of her story is Henry Tudor’s inability to father a son. You can overlook the fact that Alexander the Great or Edward the Elder of England had a sister who led troops into battle. When you step back and look at women warriors across the boundaries of geography and historical period, larger patterns appear—parallels not only between the stories of the women themselves but in the ways their stories are told and not told. Some times, places, and social structures are more accepting of women warriors than others. (As a general rule, horse-based cultures, honor cultures, and tribal societies do a better job with the concept than large empires or regular armies—with the extraordinary exception of China.) The accomplishments of women are questioned, undercut, and ignored by scholars in consistent ways across periods. There are unexpected linkages between women, particularly between mothers and daughters—looked at in the context of Cynane, Matilda of Tuscany, Katherine of Aragon, and Amina of Zazzau, the legend that the Trung sisters learned the arts of war from their mother seems a lot more possible.

But the main thing that struck me when I looked at women warriors across cultures rather than in isolation is how many examples there are and how lightly they sit on our collective awareness. I began with hundreds of examples. I ended with thousands. (...) 

Exceptions within the context of their time and place? Yes. Exceptions over the scope of human history? Not so much. Insignificant? Hell, no!”

Women warriors: an unexpected history, Pamela D. Toler 

1362 notes • Posted 2021-11-22 16:15:26 GMT

#1

Pretty Nose - Arapaho war chief

Pretty Nose (b.1851-d.c.1952) was a war chief of the Arapaho people. Her red, black and white beaded cuffs signaled her rank. She distinguished herself by fighting at the Battle of The Little Bighorn in 1876 where the Arapaho, Lakota and Northern Cheyenne defeated the U.S. army.

The above photography was taken at Fort Keogh in 1878. Pretty Nose lived for the rest of her life at a reservation. She was still alive in 1952 and saw her grandson, Mark Soldier Wolf, come back from the Korean War in 1952. By a clear spring morning, Soldier Wolf was reunited with his 101-year-old grandmother. Pretty Nose wore a buckskin dress with elk teeth and her cuffs.

When she saw him, Pretty Nose began to sing a war song. As her grandson later recalled: “It was really something when she sang that song. It didn’t sadden me, just put more strength into me and I wished I could have just stayed there with that song.”(Click here if you want to listen to the song sung by her grandson).

Warrior women of the Little Bighorn:

-Buffalo Calf Road Woman

-Susie Shot-In-the-Eye 

-Minnie Hollow Wood

-Moving Robe Woman

References:

Ahtone Tristan, “The story of Soldier Wolf”

Hall Alan R., A Man Called Plenty Horses, The Last Warrior of the Great Plains War

1373 notes • Posted 2021-09-15 06:21:29 GMT

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