милица

Woman with a Tambourine, 1870

Jeanne Merkus - The “Joan of Arc of Serbia”

Jeanne Merkus (1839-1897) was a rich Dutch heiress. Her father had been Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by her father’s brother, a vicar, and became a devout Protestant. Jeanne was also shaped by her discovery of feminism and socialism. She thus started to distribute her fortune among the poor and the sick.

Jeanne’s first military experience was in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war. She was present during the Prussian siege of Paris as well as the ensuing insurrection of the Paris Commune in 1871. She was maybe one of these women who stood on the barricades and took care of the sick and the wounded. In 1872/3 she made a trip to Jerusalem.

By mid-december 1875, she had joined the anti-Ottoman rebellions in Herzegovina. Her motives were religious, she wrote in her memoirs:“I did not wish to nurse wounded soldiers, but to help liberate Christian people, and also Christ’s land, from the sovereignty of the Turks”. Her goal was thus to liberate the Balkans from Muslim rule and ultimately “recapturing” the Holy Land.

Jeanne carried bandages for the wounded and gave ample proof of her fighting abilities. She skillfully mined bridges, lured a pair of Turkish soldiers in an ambush, tried to blow-up a Turkish fortress on her own. Because of her boldness, the enemy nicknamed her “The red devil”. She was one of the bravest fighters during the battle at Ljubinje in 1876. She was, however, captured by Austrians on Turkish soil, but later liberated.

In March 1876, she headed for Belgrade in Serbia, a country who supported the insurrection in Herzegovina, even if it meant going to war with the Ottoman Empire. Dubbed the “amazon of Herzegovina” and the “Joan of Arc of Serbia” Jeanne was a major financial benefactor to the Serb war effort. She was thus able to refuse a traditional female role as a nurse and was allowed to fight in the ranks. She wore a uniform adapted from the local men’s dress, with a Montenegrin cap over her curly long hair and a man’s cape slung across her shoulder. Lieutenant-Colonal Gruka Miskovic, who was at the beginning skeptical of her presence, would later say that she was a “shining example” of courage in action. 

(Jeanne Merkus in uniform, unknown artist)

Užice fortress, Serbia.