Throughout history, many women have participated in combat disguised as men. Research from England and the Netherlands shows that there were hundreds of such cases in the army between the 1500s and 1800s, and there…
In this theme of Women and War, we explore the lives of women during war. In previous posts we have explored life on campaign, and life as prisoner of war. Let’s turn to the women…
In a previous post, we focused on life on campaign for women. Now, we’ll take a look at how that life changed over the centuries. In a Scandinavian context, military campaigns prior to the 17th…
One risk women who took part in military campaigns took, was being taken prisoner of war. This is the story of Lovisa von Burghausen, who was exposed to just that. Lovisa was born in 1698…
In this series of Women and War, it is time to tell the tale of the ordinary women who followed the armies on campaign. When we read about historical military campaigns, they exclusively focus on…
The last peasant revolt in this theme took place in Norway (then part of Denmark) between 1786 – 1787, and has been named after it’s leader, Christian Lofthuus. At this time, discontent simmered among the…
The last large scale Swedish peasants’ revolt was spearheaded by men from Dalarna, hence the name ”The Great Dalecarlian Dance”. On June 6, 1743, the march from Dalarna to Stockholm began. There were many reasons…
One of the last large scale peasant uprisings in Sweden has been named The Great Dalecarlian Dance and took place in 1743. It played out in a transition between the old peasant society and the…
This is the true story of Emerentia Pauli, wife of the commandant at Gullberg Fortress, Sweden, in 1612. When the Danes suddenly attacked, it was she who led the defense of the fortress after her…
As a prominent Swedish noble woman and married to the regent and rebel leader Sten Sture the younger, Kristina Gyllenstierna was a powerful and determined woman, and the next to be explored in this serie…