Kenau Hasselaer
Kenau Hasselaer was a prominent figure in Dutch history, known for her remarkable bravery during the siege of Haarlem in the 16th century. Born into a distinguished family, she married shipbuilder Nanning Borst and became a widow at 38, after which she took over her husband’s business, defying gender norms of her time. During the siege, which began in December 1572, Hasselaer emerged as a courageous leader among the women of Haarlem, taking part in fortifying the city's defenses and actively participating in combat. She gained recognition for her valor, often referred to as a “captain” and likened to mythic figures such as Judith and the Amazons.
Hasselaer's legacy inspired many women in the Dutch Republic, leading some to disguise themselves as men to join the fight. Despite the societal stigma against women displaying "masculine" traits, her fame and the positive portrayal of her actions in artwork and literature helped to celebrate her contributions and those of other women in the revolt. Hasselaer's name became synonymous with strength and assertiveness, so much so that it has become a term in Dutch language for an assertive woman. She continued to manage her business affairs until her mysterious disappearance at sea around 1588. Her story remains significant as a symbol of female empowerment and courage in a time when such roles were largely unrecognized.
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Kenau Hasselaer
Dutch social reformer
- Born: 1526
- Birthplace: Haarlem, Holland (now in the Netherlands)
- Died: 1588
- Place of death: Possibly at sea en route to Norway
Kenau Hasselaer was the most celebrated heroine to emerge from the beginnings of Dutch revolt against Spain and its hold of the Netherlands. She led the defense of her native city, Haarlem, during the Spanish siege of 1572-1573.
Early Life
Kenau Hasselaer (KAY-now HAWS-seh-lahr) was the second daughter of Guerte Coenendochter Hasselaer and Simon Gerritsz. Brouwer. Her parents were cousins who both came from Haarlem families of importance and distinction. Indeed, one of her ancestors was the legendary bailiff Claes van Ruyven, who was killed in a riot in 1492.
At the age of eighteen, in 1544, she married the shipbuilder Nanning Borst. The couple became parents of three, perhaps four, daughters and one son. Hasselaer was widowed in 1562, and, remarkably for the time, she took over her husband’s business, with clients throughout the Dutch Republic.
Life’s Work
One of the most famous sieges of the Dutch revolt against Spain took place at Haarlem. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish army, the Protestants in Haarlem had already gained control of the city. The siege, which began in December of 1572, dragged on for several months with the indefatigable citizens of Haarlem continually refortifying themselves and harassing the Spanish troops. The winter months took a heavy toll on the Spanish army and it was not until July of 1573 that they were able to elicit a surrender from the citizens of Haarlem.
A number of contemporary diaries, Dutch and German, recount the brave deeds of the Haarlem women who built and fortified the city wall during the siege. The women aided the fight also by pouring tar and pitch on the heads of the Spaniards and pelting them with stones. It is not known whether any of the women were actually armed during the struggle. Hasselaer was singled out, however, as the heavily armed “captain.” Because of her bravery, which equaled, and even outshone, that of the men, she was described as a manninne, meaning half-man. In 1599, the historian Emanuel van Meteren praised Hasselaer for performing “manly” deeds as she attacked with spear, gun, and sword.
Van Meteran also wrote that Hasselaer looked like a man dressed as a woman. Increasingly, Hasselaer’s deeds were expanded on and lauded in histories of the revolt. She and her legion of three hundred warrior women were called Amazons, and their fame became as legendary as that of their mythic predecessors.
The popular appeal of Hasselaer and her battalion of women is perhaps even more evident in the many visual images produced of her during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As in male heroic images, Hasselaer was frequently depicted in a confident and swaggering hand-on-hip pose with an accompanying sash and medal. She is usually shown bearing a small arsenal of weapons, including pikes, swords, pistols, halberds, and powder horns. At times the image of decapitated heads of Spanish soldiers are included, thus linking Hasselaer to the biblical Judith, whose beheading of Holofernes saved her people.
Accompanying inscriptions in Latin, German, and Dutch identify the Dutch heroine as Captain Kenau, Amazon, and Judith, and they laud her bravery and proclaim her international fame. These images were often in the form of reproducible prints, thus greatly facilitating the spread of her heroic status and fame. A full-length image of Hasselaer in such a pose dominates the title plate of a mid-seventeenth century published play that reenacts Haarlem’s struggle against Spain. Hasselaer is a primary character in the play who encourages everyone men and women to keep up the fight.
Another monumental image of Hasselaer supported by her legion of female soldiers is found in a 1661 text by Petrus de Lange on the glorious past of the Dutch Republic. He includes several engraved portraits of various Dutch heroes in his text the first is of the prince, William the Silent, and the second is of Hasselaer. The place of honor allotted this image strikingly attests to the popularity and power of the Hasselaer legend.
Hasselaer continued to conduct her life and affairs independently after the revolt. She left Haarlem, and business and legal records indicate that she spent time in Delft, Arnemuiden, and Leiden, and that she was a rather tenacious businesswoman, pursuing her debtors even during the Siege of Haarlem. Her financial condition must have been quite satisfactory; she lent money for the acquisition of houses and she bought a farmhouse in Overveen. Even after the siege, it is evident that Hasselaer pursued her financial affairs vigorously, as her name appears in many legal and business documents.
In Arnemuiden in 1574, she was appointed to the post of weigh-master for the city. This position carried with it both wealth and status, and it was a highly unusual appointment for a single woman. It is not known whether her fame or her determination won her this post.
Eventually Hasselaer returned to Haarlem where she continued to deal in ships and lumber. It was on a trip by sea to Norway to buy lumber that Hasselaer disappeared. Her daughters claimed that her ship had fallen prey to pirates, but perhaps she was lost during a storm at sea. The heroine of Haarlem was declared dead in 1588.
Significance
Hasselaer’s deeds had an immediate impact on impressionable young female minds in the Dutch Republic after independence from Spain. Legal records indicate numerous instances of young women disguising themselves as men in order to go to war during the seventeenth century. Young women inspired by Hasselaer’s bravery, and perhaps eager to achieve a similar fame, risked their lives and their reputations by following in Hasselaer’s footsteps.
Some contemporaries praised Hasselaer’s bravery but criticized this same behavior in other women. For most women, this type of role reversal was deemed unnatural. Hasselaer’s fame, however, made it difficult to disparage her memory. Indeed, no other heroine of the Dutch revolt achieved the fame or status bestowed on Hasselaer. Despite the social stigma against so-called masculine behavior in women, the visual and written praise surrounding Hasselaer’s heroism helped to eulogize other women who participated in the revolt.
The cities of Utrecht and Alkmaar used the images and descriptions of Hasselaer to praise their own heroines, Trijn van Leemput and Trijn Rembrands, but they never became household names. In contrast, Kenau’s name became so familiar that it remains the Dutch term for an aggressive, assertive, or a so-called manly woman.
Bibliography
Dekker, Rudolf M., and Lotte C. van de Pol. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. Translated by Judy Marcure and Lotte C. van de Pol. London: Macmillan Press, 1989. Dekker and van de Pol discuss the mixed reactions to and motivations of women dressing as men to enlist as sailors and soldiers. They investigate cases from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries primarily, but they trace the tradition back to Kenau Hasselaer.
Kloek, Els. Kenau: De heldhaftige zakenvrouw uit Haarlem (1526-1588). Hilversum, the Netherlands: Verloren, 2001. Although the text of this general biography of Hasselaer in the context of the revolt is in Dutch, the many reproduced images of the heroine are informative for readers not familiar with the Dutch language.
Peacock, Martha Moffitt. “Proverbial Reframing Rebuking and Revering Women in Trousers.” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 57 (1999). This article links the general seventeenth century Dutch interest in images of powerful women to the early fame of Dutch heroines, particularly Kenau Hasselaer. It is argued that the attention given to these heroines caused a paranoia regarding female power, which manifested itself in satirical texts and ridiculing images of domineering women.
Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. This already classic cultural history of the Dutch golden age briefly discusses Kenau Hasselaer in the general context of the revolt.