Hille Feicken (died 27 June 1534) was a Dutch

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...

. She was born to the worker Feicke in Wirdum in Friesland and married Psalmus van Utrecht: no children are known. Her spouse joined the Anabaptist theocracy in Münster, and later sent for her to join him there, and she handed out their property in

Sneek Sneek (; fy, Snits) is a city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. As of 2011 it is the seat of the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân (Southwest Friesland). Th ...

to the poor before she left. During the

Münster Rebellion Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

, she worked with the other women of the town to strengthen the besieged city walls. On the early morning of 16 June 1534, she left the city with the purpose to seduce and kill the commander of the enemy forces, Bishop

Franz von Waldeck Count Franz von Waldeck (1491 – 15 July 1553) was Prince-Bishop of Münster, Osnabrück, and Minden in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. He suppressed the Münster Rebellion, a millenarian Anabaptist theocra ...

, in the manner of

Judith and Holophernes The account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is given in the deuterocanonical ''Book of Judith'', and is the subject of many paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is ab ...

. Later, she stated that she acted only on her own initiative and her own idea. She failed, was discovered, interrogated and executed.

References

*Feicken, Hille, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Feicken 9/02/2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Feicken, Hille 1534 deaths Münster Dutch Anabaptists Executed Dutch women Dutch people executed abroad 16th-century Dutch people Executed Dutch people 16th-century women Year of birth unknown 16th-century executions in the Holy Roman Empire Women in 16th-century warfare Women in European warfare