Maria Aletta Hulshoff
Encyclopedia
Maria Aletta Hulshoff, pen-name "Mietje", (30 July 1781 Amsterdam - 10 February 1846, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Patriot, feminist and pamphleteer.
preacher Allard Hulshoff (1734-1795) and Anna Debora van Oosterwijk (1745-1812), and for her whole life held onto her father's democratic, Patriotic and anti-Orangist
views.
Her first pamphlet, writes her biographer Geertje Wiersma, was a dissertation on democracy written by the prominent patriot Samuel Iperusz Wiselius - it is possible it was published under her name to protect Wiselius, the real author. She was taken into custody but because the authorities understood that the young woman was not the real author and the evidence against Wiselius was insufficient, the affair came to nothing.
She wrote her second pamphlet, Oproeping aan het Bataafse volk ("An Appeal to the Batavian People", 1806), under her own name. She took up the task when she heard rumours that Napoleon was considering making one of his brothers king of Holland, and wrote in it against the imposition of Louis Bonaparte
as king of Holland
and for the Patriot Johan Valckenaer
as her choice for the leadership of the Batavian Republic
, making a prediction in the introduction which later came true:
All but five copies of this pamphlet were destroyed by the authorities. Maria Aletta Hulshoff's family therefore kidnapped her and took her to safety in Bentheim
, Germany, but - in combative mood - she escaped the grip of her family and returned to Holland. She sought the publicity that a trial would bring and demanded in a letter that she immediately be arrested. The strategy of her defenders Valckenaer and Willem Bilderdijk
was not based on her birth, but was an apologia founded on the mental disturbance of a clergyman's daughter, stating that she was "in such a way touchingly thrown away from her naturally calm state of mind by her body" ("zodanig een aandoenlijk en door aandoenlijkheid buiten de natuurlijke staat van geestbedaardheid geworpen juffer"). The background to this defence is the 19th century view that an unsatisfied and uterus
(hystera being the Greek for uterus) makes a woman hysterical
. This defense would make the unmarried Mietje unconvincing as a politician and so she dismissed Bilderdijk and Valckenaer and mounted her own defence.
During the trial Mietje suffered a nervous breakdown, which became apparent when, at the moment the judges ordered her to apologise, she suddenly could not produce a single word. With no defence, she thus was condemned on 18 July 1806 to two years at her own expense in the stadsverbeterhuis (city house of correction), a sentence she served. The pious minister's daughter passed the time singing "clean religious and republican songs". When freed, she published a pamphlet against the Napoleontic conscription that characterized it as a "terrible and hateful requirement" ("verfoeilijke hatelijke requisitie"). This attack on the backbone of the Bonapartes' military dictatorship put her on its list of enemies of the regime, and she was to have been locked up in the castle at Woerden
, one of the prisons for political adversaries of Napoleon's regime, but she got to know of this and - disguised as a man - fled to Amsterdam before she could be imprisoned. The description given of her broadcast by the authorities after her escape read:
She was taken in and helped by her relation Wiselius and her mother's seamstress. Mietje then established herself in London where she got to know her Mennonite relations. Reports that she wanted to try to murder Napoleon in 1810 in his palace in Amsterdam or Apeldoorn appear to be unsupported by trustworthy sources, for the sources make clear he was well-guarded during his stays. From 1811 until 1820 she lived as a voluntary exile in New York
in the United States, where she wrote and published in English her "Handbook for pacifist-republicans" under the title "Republicans' Peace Manual". The subtitle of this work was borrowed from Propertius' Latin motto "In magnis volvisse satis" (or "sat est"), meaning "It is enough to have aimed for great things". The progressive Maria Aletta Hulshoff returned to the Netherlands in 1820 to take on further political activities. In 1827, in her last pamphlet, she wrote in favour of hygiene and vaccination
against smallpox
.
Like many Mennonites, Maria remained single her whole life and had no children. In her rooms at the Egelantiersgracht by the Lijnbaansgracht, on the upper storey of number 99, all that was found after her death was "an empty cabinet, a desk with some female clothes of little value, two boxes of books and writings, a rag-blanket, two old chairs, a bed with two cushions, a few further bits of undignified junk". Yet was she rich, for she owned 22,400 guilder in paper money that she had left with Wiselius and other friends.
and, like Joan, she played some part in bringing on herself some of the dangers she encountered.
Life
Maria was the daughter of the MennoniteMennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
preacher Allard Hulshoff (1734-1795) and Anna Debora van Oosterwijk (1745-1812), and for her whole life held onto her father's democratic, Patriotic and anti-Orangist
Orangism (Netherlands)
Orangism is a monarchist political support for the House of Orange-Nassau as monarchy of the Netherlands. It played a significant role in the political history of the Netherlands since the Dutch revolt...
views.
Her first pamphlet, writes her biographer Geertje Wiersma, was a dissertation on democracy written by the prominent patriot Samuel Iperusz Wiselius - it is possible it was published under her name to protect Wiselius, the real author. She was taken into custody but because the authorities understood that the young woman was not the real author and the evidence against Wiselius was insufficient, the affair came to nothing.
She wrote her second pamphlet, Oproeping aan het Bataafse volk ("An Appeal to the Batavian People", 1806), under her own name. She took up the task when she heard rumours that Napoleon was considering making one of his brothers king of Holland, and wrote in it against the imposition of Louis Bonaparte
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...
as king of Holland
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...
and for the Patriot Johan Valckenaer
Johan Valckenaer
Johan Valckenaer was a Dutch lawyer, patriot and diplomat.- Life :His father Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer was Franeker university's professor of law and, in 1766, was appointed to succeed Tiberius Hemsterhuis at Leiden...
as her choice for the leadership of the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
, making a prediction in the introduction which later came true:
All but five copies of this pamphlet were destroyed by the authorities. Maria Aletta Hulshoff's family therefore kidnapped her and took her to safety in Bentheim
Bentheim
County of Bentheim is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Drenthe, the district of Emsland, and the districts of Steinfurt and Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia.- History :The District has roughly the same territory as the County of...
, Germany, but - in combative mood - she escaped the grip of her family and returned to Holland. She sought the publicity that a trial would bring and demanded in a letter that she immediately be arrested. The strategy of her defenders Valckenaer and Willem Bilderdijk
Willem Bilderdijk
Willem Bilderdijk , Dutch poet, the son of an Amsterdam physician. When he was six years old an accident to his foot incapacitated him for ten years, and he developed habits of continuous and concentrated study...
was not based on her birth, but was an apologia founded on the mental disturbance of a clergyman's daughter, stating that she was "in such a way touchingly thrown away from her naturally calm state of mind by her body" ("zodanig een aandoenlijk en door aandoenlijkheid buiten de natuurlijke staat van geestbedaardheid geworpen juffer"). The background to this defence is the 19th century view that an unsatisfied and uterus
Uterus
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
(hystera being the Greek for uterus) makes a woman hysterical
Female hysteria
Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women, which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for many hundreds of years in Western Europe. Hysteria was widely discussed in the...
. This defense would make the unmarried Mietje unconvincing as a politician and so she dismissed Bilderdijk and Valckenaer and mounted her own defence.
During the trial Mietje suffered a nervous breakdown, which became apparent when, at the moment the judges ordered her to apologise, she suddenly could not produce a single word. With no defence, she thus was condemned on 18 July 1806 to two years at her own expense in the stadsverbeterhuis (city house of correction), a sentence she served. The pious minister's daughter passed the time singing "clean religious and republican songs". When freed, she published a pamphlet against the Napoleontic conscription that characterized it as a "terrible and hateful requirement" ("verfoeilijke hatelijke requisitie"). This attack on the backbone of the Bonapartes' military dictatorship put her on its list of enemies of the regime, and she was to have been locked up in the castle at Woerden
Woerden
Woerden is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, and the fact that it has excellent rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commuters who work in those cities.-Population...
, one of the prisons for political adversaries of Napoleon's regime, but she got to know of this and - disguised as a man - fled to Amsterdam before she could be imprisoned. The description given of her broadcast by the authorities after her escape read:
She was taken in and helped by her relation Wiselius and her mother's seamstress. Mietje then established herself in London where she got to know her Mennonite relations. Reports that she wanted to try to murder Napoleon in 1810 in his palace in Amsterdam or Apeldoorn appear to be unsupported by trustworthy sources, for the sources make clear he was well-guarded during his stays. From 1811 until 1820 she lived as a voluntary exile in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in the United States, where she wrote and published in English her "Handbook for pacifist-republicans" under the title "Republicans' Peace Manual". The subtitle of this work was borrowed from Propertius' Latin motto "In magnis volvisse satis" (or "sat est"), meaning "It is enough to have aimed for great things". The progressive Maria Aletta Hulshoff returned to the Netherlands in 1820 to take on further political activities. In 1827, in her last pamphlet, she wrote in favour of hygiene and vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
against smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
.
Like many Mennonites, Maria remained single her whole life and had no children. In her rooms at the Egelantiersgracht by the Lijnbaansgracht, on the upper storey of number 99, all that was found after her death was "an empty cabinet, a desk with some female clothes of little value, two boxes of books and writings, a rag-blanket, two old chairs, a bed with two cushions, a few further bits of undignified junk". Yet was she rich, for she owned 22,400 guilder in paper money that she had left with Wiselius and other friends.
Reception
Contemporaries named her "geëxalteerd", "dweepzuchtig" or "hysterisch" ("hysterical"), since it was then considered that a woman should always hold hold her tongue on everything in the male-controlled domains of science, morals and politics. Hulshoff was happy to compare herself with Joan of ArcJoan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
and, like Joan, she played some part in bringing on herself some of the dangers she encountered.
Works
- De "Verzameling van brieven, gewisseld tusschen Valerius Publicola te Amsterdam en Caius Manlius te Utrecht" 1804
- Oproeping van het Bataafsche volk, om deszelfs denkwijze en wil openlijk aan den dag te leggen, tegen de overheersching door eenen vreemdeling, waarmede het vaderland bedreigd wordt (Amsterdam 1806). (This was probably the work of Samuel Wiselius, but the pamphlet only appeared under her name.)
- Droevige klagt van een aalmoeseniers-weeskind (z.p. 1808).
- Waarschouwing tegen de requisitie, welke men in ons vaderland wil invoeren [...] (Haarlem 1809).
- Peace republican’s manual, or the French constitution of 1793 and the Declaration of the rights of man and of citizens […] (New York 1817).
- Gevolgen der voldoening, of iets over de vrage: Verkondigt Gods heilig woord, dat een gedeelte van het menschelijk geslacht, hier namaals, zonder einde boosaardig en lijdend zal blijven; of verkondigt hetzelve de eindelijke zaligheid van alle menschen? [...] (Amsterdam 1820).
- De koepok-inenting beschouwd, en tien bedenkingen overwogen: voor minkundigen (Amsterdam 1827).
Sources
- "Mietje Hulshoff was geen mietje", article by Saskia Jansen in het Handelsblad , 6-8-2007
- P. van Limburg Brouwer, "Het leven van Samuel Iperuszoon Wiselius" (Groningen 1846).
- J.A. Sillem, "Het leven van mr. Johan Valckenaer" (1759-1821). Naar onuitgegeven bronnen bewerkt 2 (Amsterdam 1876) 203-211 en bijlage xxv.
- J. van den Bergh van Eysinga-Elias, "Het intellectueele leven der Nederlandsche vrouw in 1813", in: Tentoonstelling ‘De Vrouw 1813-1913’. Twaalf voordrachten (Zaltbommel 1913) 191-220.
- J.M. H[ulshoff] en H.Ch. H[ulshoff], de beschrijving van het geslacht Hulshoff in de reeks Nederland’s Patriciaat (het "Blauwe boekje", deel 28 (1942).
- Johanna Stouten, "Willem Anthonie Ockerse" (1760-1826). Leven en werk (Amsterdam 1982).
- Johanna Stouten, "Maria Aletta Hulshoff" (1781-1846), dweepster of idealiste?".
- Tijdschrift over Nederlandse letterkunde I (1984) 2, 72-79.
- Johan Joor, "De adelaar en het lam". Onrust, opruiing en onwilligheid in Nederland ten tijde van het Koninkrijk Holland en de inlijving bij het Franse keizerrijk (1806-1813) (Amsterdam 2000).
- Geertje Wiersma, "Mietje Hulshoff of De aanslag op Napoleon" (Amsterdam 2003).
- Dr. A.J.C.M. Gabriëls, "Maria Aletta Hulshoff (1781-1846), politiek activiste en publiciste", in het Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, een digitale publicatie uit 2004.
- Willem Frijhoff, Marijke Spies, Dutch Culture in a European Perspective, p233http://books.google.com/books?id=_EsKX3r0Mv4C&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=%22maria+hulshoff%22&source=web&ots=eLrE1xSdjW&sig=YMU2ZZmIIuA8vpZxzKYCjj91ySI
External links
- Biography and bibliography at http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN/lemmata/data/Hulshoff,%20Maria
- "Herkauwer writes on Mietje Hulshoff athttp://web.mac.com/andrehanou/iWeb/Site/Herkauwer/1925AFEF-5C07-4FE9-95E3-775472D89D78.html