AMAZING WOMEN

Evening Star, Issue 23727, 7 November 1940, Page 12

AMAZING WOMEN

* FIGURES OF THE PAST Tho blossoming into action of Britain’s auxiliary services—to say nothing of their heroic sisters elsewhere. —has not been of sudden growth (savs a writer in the ‘ Adelaide Chronicle’). Its inspiring roots are to bo found in the astonishing feats of women who lived generations ago. Take, for example, that “ handsome Territorial ” of the sixteenth century, Phoebe Hassel When her lover, a private soldier, was ordered to the West Indies with his regiment Phoebe promptly resolved not to remain behind Dressed as a man, she enlisted in a regiment of foot and embarked in “pursuit” of him. After sharing many perilous adventures together, the two came home and were married. i A century earlier we find Christina i —crowned as King by the way—Queen of Sweden dominating her proud sub- 1 jects in a despotic manner that even I; Hitler himself has not attempted. She j < frightened bishops from her Court, and j ' actually hastened tho death of the 1 s

great philosopher Descartes by dragging him from his bed at 5 o’clock on winter mornings in order to discuss philosophy with her. Humorously enough, too, Her Majesty would often delight in making a specified number of learned professors play shuttlecock, what time the remainder danced jigs. On more than one occasion when Ministers came on State affairs she forced them also to join in these “ night club ” frolics. Christina’s forceful character was more apparent than ever_ after her abdication in 1654. ThuSj instead of the broken Eve for ever pining for Eden, witness a haughty Amazon still being received by Flemish corporations—as a Queen 1 No wonder she entered Rome in triumph, surrounded by cardinals supplied by the Pope. Fifty years later England was amazed by the antics of a woman aristocrat. Eccentric she may have been, yet on her death in 1734 her greatest “ scandaliscr ” confessed that the Duchess of Montagu had proved “ what a woman can do when she puts her mind to it.” She was heiress of Henry, Duke of Newcastle, her first husband being General Monk’s son, who died young. Soon after his death she be- i came so immensely wealthy that she vowed never to marry anyone but a sovereign prince, , i

This tempted the Duke of Montagu to woo her by means of “ propaganda " which remains unique, even in these days. He assumed the character of the Emperor of China—and was accepted ! But marriage did not vanquish her spirit. Up to the time of her passing she insisted on being always approached as Empress, and was never served but on bended knee. Curiously- enough, the masterful qualities of certain women have developed thanks to being crossed in love. Thus, soon after the daeth of her lover, Sir John Moore, at Corunna, Lady Hester Stanhope, niece of the great William Pitt, left England and founded a Syrian “ Empire.” By 1818 she had turned the dilapidated village of Dahar-June, some eight miles from Sidon, into a veritable “ Maginot Line.” Chiefly through bribery, audacity, and power of will, she came at last to exercise almost boundless authority over Turks and Bedouins alike until the very day of her death in 1839. Although dressed as a Turkish gentleman, she, nevertheless, encouraged the Druses to rebel against the Turks. In fact, her “ Court ” soon became the sanctuary of exiles and fugitives from all parts of the Near East. Lady Hester’s fame soon became international. Amongst those who visited ,

this brilliantly-witty “ dictator ” werw;;" the French poet Lamartine, Princall Maximilian of Bavaria, and Kinglake, ' the English historian of the Crimean;! War. Again, the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine *"■ of those days records the peculiar casw . of jilted Mary East, who decided,' henceforth, to live single under tho name of James How. For 36 years she - played the part of an innkeeper.il “ after which she retired to' enjoy theconsiderable property she had acquired";' by fair and honest means, and with an. unblemished character,” H