By Elizabeth Pearce Madame de Maintenon (France 1635-1719) Born Françoise d’Aubigné on November 27, 1635 in a building adjacent to the prison of Niort, where her father, Constant d’Aubigné was serving a sentence for various crimes, including rape, murder, and creating and using counterfeit money.[1] Her mother was Jeanne de Cardillac, a “prudent and amiable…
Tag Archive for Europe
Catherine of Aragon
By Luz Santodomingo & Samuel Yelton Catherine of Aragon (Spain, 1485-England, 1536) Born December 16, 1485, she was the daughter of Isabella, Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand II of Aragon.[1] Catherine was the youngest of four daughters. Her sisters were Isabella, Queen of Portugal; Juana, Queen of Castile; and Maria, Queen of Portugal.[2] Compared to the traditional education…
Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental
By Julieta Almeida Rodrigues Eleonora de Fonseca Pimental (Rome, 1752-Naples, 1799) Eleonora Anna Feliz Teresa de Fonseca Pimentel was a notable poet, activist, journalist, and revolutionary, acknowledged worldwide for her role in the 1799 Neapolitan Revolution.[1] She was born of Portuguese noble parents, Dom Clemente Henriques Fonseca Pimentel Chaves and Catherina Lopez de Leão, in Rome in…
Mary of Ágreda
by Juliana Ossa Martinez Maria Coronel y Arena (1602-65) born in the village of Ágreda in northern Spain on April 2, 1602. She was the third child of Don Francisco Coronel and Catherine d’Arena.[1] Motivated by a divine revelation, her parents founded a convent in their own house on January 19, 1619.[2] Mary assumed the nun’s…
Catherine (Kitty) Clive
By Lindsay Smith Catherine “Kitty” Clive (1711- 85) Born Catherine Raftor in London in 1711.[1] Her father, William Raftor, likely came from a wealthy Irish family that lost its fortune due to its support of King James II before the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[2] Although her father received a commission for serving in the French army…
Emilie Du Châtelet
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by Elizabeth Pearce Emilie Du Châtelet (1706-49) The Marquise Du Châtelet was born Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil in Paris on December 17, 1706.[1] Her father, Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil served King Louis XIV as one of the noblesse de robe, men ennobled because of service to the king, while her mother,…
Cassandra Fedele
By Juliana Ossa Martinez Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558) Fedele was a renowned Italian scholar. Born in 1465, she was the daughter of Barbara Leoni and Angelo Fedele. Her father was learned in Greek and Latin, and was respected among the aristocracy.[1] He trained his daughter in Greek and Latin, and by the age of twelve…
Anne Oldfield
by Lindsay Smith Anne Oldfield (1683-1730) Oldfield, commonly known as “Nance,” was born to Anne Gourlaw and William Oldfield in Pall-Mall, London, c. 1683.[1] Her father was likely a soldier but he died while she was young, leaving Oldfield and her mother in a difficult financial state.[2] Oldfield labored as a seamstress until around the…
Jeanne d’Albret
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By Elizabeth Pearce Jeanne d’Albret (1528-72) Jeanne d’Albret, later Queen Jeanne of Navarre, was born on November 16, 1528, at St Germain-en-Laye, in France.[1] She was the daughter of Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre, and of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, and niece to King Francis I of France. Little is known about…
Bianca Capello
By Lindsay Smith, Troy O’Neill, and Piera Carroli Bianca Capello (c. 1548-87) was born to Pellegrina Morosini and Bartolomeo Capello, who were members of the wealthy Capelli nobility in Venice, Italy.[1] Not much is known about her childhood, but by the time she reached adolescence, she was known for her great beauty, with reddish blond…
Juliana of Norwich
By Eliana Greenberg and Koren Whipp Juliana of Norwich c. 1343-c. 1416 The exact dates of the life of Juliana, or Julian, are unknown.[1] Little is known of her lineage or family history. She spent most of her life as an anchoret in Norwich, a city in East Anglia, in the modern county of Norfolk. …
Margaret More Roper
by Koren Whipp Margaret More Roper (1505-44), the eldest daughter of Thomas More, lord chancellor of England, and Joanna Colt, often called ‘Jane’ by modern writers, was born at home in late summer or early autumn of 1505 in Bucklersbury, London, five hundred yards north of the Thames.[1] The More children, Margaret, Elizabeth More Dancy,…
Helene Schweitzer Bresslau
Helene Schweitzer Bresslau (1879—1957): Albert Schweitzer’s Wife, Colleague, and “Most Loyal Friend” by Patti M. Marxsen From Berlin to Strasbourg Helene Schweitzer Bresslau was born in Berlin in 1879 to a cultivated family of assimilated Jews. She grew up with two brothers, Hermann and Ernst, as well as the younger sister and brothers of her…
Mary Hays
by Gina Luria Walker Mary Hays (1759-1843) was a novelist, best known for her belief in radical feminism as an expression of enlightened Dissent, and her provocative history of women. She was born in 1759, into a family of Protestants who rejected the practices of the Church of England.[1] Hays was described as ‘the baldest…
Phila
by Stephanie Bedus Phila of Macedonia (c. 340 BCE–287 BCE[1]) was born to Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, during the absence of Alexander, who ruled until his death in 319 BCE.[2] She was married three times, widowed twice, and produced four children; a son to each of her husbands and one daughter to her final husband. Her…
Tarquinia Molza
by Penelope Whitworth Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) Italian virtuosa singer who was a notable courtier, celebrated musician and acclaimed intellectual of her time. In addition to performing, she was probably an instructor and advisor to the concerto delle donne of the court of Ferrara where she was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess, Margherita Gonzaga-Este.[1] In 1589…
Elisabetta Gonzaga
By Koren Whipp Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526) an Italian noblewoman, leader and salonnière of Urbino, Italy. Born in Mantua, she was the fourth child of Federico I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, and Margherita of Bavaria (Margaret of Wittelsbach). Well-educated, Elisabetta also sang and played music. She married Guidobaldoin 1488. Soon after, it became clear that her husband was…
Isabella Losa
by Koren Whipp Isabella Losa de Cardona (1491-1564) was born in Cardona, a town north of Barcelona, Spain. After the death of her husband in 1539, she became a Clarissan abbess and moved to Vercelli in Piedmont in 1553, where she founded an orphanage, Santa Maria di Loreto.[1] Losa is said to have mastered Latin,…
Praxilla
by Lindsay Smith Praxilla (mid 5th century BCE) was a poet from the Greek polis Sicyon[1], a city renowned as a haven for artists. She often performed in Athens{NOTE:Ian Plant, Praxilla, Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries(1803) Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina…
Lucrezia Marinella
by Lindsay Smith Lucrezia Marinella (c.1571-1653) also known as Lucrezia Marinelli Vacca, was born in Venice, Italy[1] to the physician and natural philosopher Giovanni Marinelli. Nothing is known of Marinella’s mother; she may have died in childbirth. [2] Giovanni Marinelli wrote several books on natural philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine, including female medicine and beauty. His…
Modesto Pozzo
Modesta Pozzo – Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana by Koren Whipp Modesto Pozzo -pseudonym Moderata Fonte (1555-92) a Venetian writer and poet. When both parents died of the plague in 1556, when she was just a year old, Pozzo and her older brother Leonardo were placed in the care of their maternal grandmother and her…
Telesilla
by Penelope Whitworth Telesilla of Argos (early 5th century BCE) was well known for her poetry and her bravery.[1] Several accounts tell the story of the Oracle counselling Telesilla to study the Muses to improve her health. The effect was that the power of her verse inspired the women of Argos to join her to…
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro
by Koren Whipp Elena Lucrezia Cornaro also Cornaro-Piscopia (1646-84), philosopher and the first known woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy. She was born in the Republic of Venice, the fifth daughter of Giovanni Battista Cornaro-Piscopia, Procurator of St. Mark’s, the second highest office only to the Doge, and Zanetta Giovanna Boni. Cornaro began…
Aebbe the Younger
by Koren Whipp Æbbe the Younger (d. 870) Abbess of Coldingham, Ireland. The Abby was founded as a double separate monastery for men and women by S. Æbbe the Elder in 642; in 660 he also founded Ebchester, in County Durham. At the time both were in the Kingdom of Northumbria, united by Æbbe…
Cleobulina
by Koren Whipp Cleobulina (fl. c. 6th C BCE) Plutarch states that her father, Cleobulus, the prince of Lindus, called her “Eumetis” which translates to ‘Clever’.[1] Despite her fame as a Greek poet, there is little reliable biography of her; stories about her socializing with famous sages are later inventions, and contradictions in the essential…
Basine
by Koren Whipp Basine, or Basina (c. 438 -77 CE) Childeric I , King of the Salian Franks, was driven from his kingdom and sought refuge with the king of Thuringia, King Bisinus . While in exile, Basine, the wife of King Bisinus, either “conceived a passion for” or was “seduced” by Childeric.[1] When Childeric…
Margaret Ascham
by Veronica Cassidy Margaret Ascham (16th C.), née Margaret How, married Roger Ascham in 1555. In 1570 she arranged the publication of two of his books, A Report and Discourse of the Affaires and State of Germany and The Schole-master, to which she attached an open letter dedicating the book to Sir William Cecil ,…
Mary Sidney
by Eliana Greenberg Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621) was born in 1561 in Worcestershire, England, to Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley Sidney. Sir Henry Sidney served as Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales from 1559 to 1586, and then as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1565 to…
Elizabeth Lucar
by Eliana Greenberg Elizabeth Lucar (1510-1537) was born in London in 1510. She was the daughter of Paul Withypoll, who afforded her a liberal education. She was schooled in needlework, mathematics, music, language (including Latin, Italian, and Spanish) and, most importantly, calligraphy. She is credited with writing the first English essay on the subject of…
Anne Halkett
By Eliana Greenberg and Koren Whipp Lady Anne Halkett (née Murray) (c. 1621/2–99) was the daughter of Thomas Murray, tutor to the children of King James I and later Provost of Eton College, and Jane Drummond, governess to the children of King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria of France . Her mother was…
