Marianne of Orange-Nassau – A True Free Spirit

by | Apr 4, 2018 | Europe, Germany, Mid Modern Period (1750 - 1914), the Netherlands | 0 comments

Today I’d like to present to you one of my biggest personal heroines: Wilhelmina Frederika Louise Charlotte Marianne of Orange-Nassau (or Marianne for short).

Born in 1810 as Princess of the Netherlands her upbringing was already quite unusual for the time with her parents being loving and liberal. Her family’s residence was called “Het Loo,” which made me giggle.

Aged 20 (relatively late!) she was married to her cousin (not unusual), the youngest Prince of Prussia. It was quite a happy marriage at first, producing five children. The couple however was not really compatible, with her being a free spirit and him being more of military character. And when he began to entertain relations with mistresses, she was not willing to take it quietly (as was expected of her): After 14 years of marriage she demanded a divorce. She was denied however, with both the Prussian and the Dutch court trying to avoid a scandal. So she packed her bags and left.

She took her carriage and travelled Europe and her several estates, eventually falling in love with her coachman, Johannes van Rossum. When she got pregnant, she was finally allowed to separate from her husband – if only to avoid an even bigger scandal as she was not only pregnant with an illegitimate child but the father was well below her social rank as well. This was five years after she took off. 

She was now almost 40 (see picture on the right) and forbidden from entering Prussian ground for more than 24 hours at a time. This meant she was separated from her children as well as her own estates in the country. But Marianne was not one to give up.

She simply bought a castle right at the border, thus being able to visit her children regularly or have them visit her and managing her property. And she did well: her descendants became one of the richest branches of the dynasty.

Expanding her house by a gallery with about 600 artworks, she took in aspiring artists to support them and thus created a cultural and intellectual hotspot.

She also decided to raise her illegitimate son herself instead of giving him away, once again making the court wrinkle their noses. Van Rossum and her never married too – they just lived together. And she was never ashamed of it.

A woman ahead of her time, a loving mother, a badass businesswoman and always unapologetically herself.

image credits:

painting: by Jan Philip Koelman, 1846 – via Wikimedia Commons
photo: unknown – via Wikimedia Commons

Zheng Yi Sao – Pirate Queen of the Qing Dynasty

by | Apr 4, 2018 | Asia, China, Mid Modern Period (1750 - 1914) | 0 comments

Did you know the world’s most powerful pirate was a woman? Her name was Zheng Yi Sao, or Madame Ching, who lived in the Qing Dynasty of ancient China and at one point commanded a fleet of about 1800 ships with more than 70000 men, terrifying the Imperial Navy. You can see her on the right, this is one of the very few authentic images of her. But let’s start at the beginning.

She was born on the coast of Southern China and like many women there, she later worked as a prostitute on one of the many swimming brothels. 1801, when she was 26 years old, the already quite powerful pirate captain Zheng Wenxian asked for her hand in marriage and bought her free. At first they went to Vietnam, where the pirate life was a lucrative one. The Zhengs shared every aspects of their lives – yes, the fighting too – life was good.

Unfortunately after just one year the pirates who had been allies in Vietnam, now found themselves competing for the limited ressources of the Chinese coastline again. That’s when the Zhengs started to work on a pirate alliance. In 1804/05, they had established a confederation of six pirate leaders, each commanding a fleet and all under their supreme command. Well, officially HIS supreme command, but that would change when he drowned in a Taifun in 1907, aged 42. Without hesitation Zheng Yi Sao assumed leadership – surprisingly without any uproar and soon she had earned the nickname “Dragonlady.”
And she led well, delegating the command of her fleet to her adoptive son and lover (ignoring both, the mourning tradition and the incest taboo – which still did not diminish her authority) and implementing a strict code of rules. By 1808 (when she was 33) her alliance had brought the whole coast of the Guangdong province under their control (the red part in the picture), so that’s quite a bit of coastline they controlled there) and ships faring the Southern Chinese waters had to pay them for protection – so basically all the ships because the vast majority of trade routes went South. The salt and opium trade had also become a pirate monopoly.
And now the emperor finally had enough. The pirate problem was obviously out of control and his military offences kept failing. So in 1809 he took the desperate measure of forbidding all maritime traffic, all goods had to be transported by land. But well, hungry pirates are not necessarily tamer than well-fed ones, so that plan kinda backfired. Realizing the coast was dead, they began sailing the rivers, advancing into the inland. They frightened the people so bad, that they killed every stranger on sight, fearing him to be a disguised pirate. With no one left to oppose them, it was now time for inner conflicts. Gu Podai, the captain of the second-most powerful fleet in Zheng Yi Sao’s alliance (after hers), was not happy with the quick rise of her adoptive son and lover (whom she had appointed captain of her fleet), taking orders from someone so much younger and less accomplished did not go with his honor. And there was an opportunity: because the Imperial Navy was rendered completely powerless, the authorities offered rewards for pirated denouncing their trade. So Gu Podai left and he and his feared Black Fleet joined the Imperial Navy – not without a generous “compensation” of course. Not a critical change for the pirates but life had become uncomfortable. Zheng Yi Sao had to decide now: continue her pirate life or give up now, as long as the rewards were high? She made her decision and spoke before the governor on April 17, 1810 and three days later surrendered herself, 17318 pirates, 226 ships and 1315 cannons. Then she and her frenemy Gu Pao ran down the remaining pirates. Now the time for surrender was over, no more rewards. The power had shifted – once more thanks to Zheng Yi Sao. That same year the pirate queen retired, aged 35, and lived a happy and relatively quiet life. Just as quietly and entirely unobstructed she led a smuggling operation for opium and a gambling house. In 1844 she died in peace at 69 years old.
While she is certainly not an entirely forgotten “heroine” – I mean, she was in Pirates of the Caribbean – not many people know how powerful she really was and how she defied the rules of society to find happiness for herself. So this is why in my opinion she was the perfect opener for this project – a prostitute from the flower boats becoming a pirate queen, no, THE pirate queen.

image credits:

portrait: found at Ancient Origins
map: That’s Magazine – The Explainer, HK Focus Media Group
movie still: from “Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End,” 2007 – Link