Cornélie Lydie Huygens (13 June 1848 – 31 October 1902) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

writer, social democrat and feminist.

Biography

Huygens was born on 13 June 1848 in

Haarlemmerliede Haarlemmerliede is a small village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer and lies about east of Haarlem. Haarlemmerliede was a separate municipality between 1817 and 1857, when it merged wi ...

. She was the daughter of Gerard William Otto Huygens and Cornelia Adelaide Henriette Elias (1824–1848) and married the German businessman Ignatius Bernardus Maria Bahlmann (1852–1934) in 1902. Her mother died after her birth and she was raised by her paternal aunt Jeanne Marie Huygens, a friend of the feminist

Mina Kruseman Wilhelmina Jacoba Pauline Rudolphine "Mina" Kruseman (25 September 1839 – 1922) was a 19th-century Dutch feminist, actrice and author who used to call herself Oristorio di Frama. Youth Mina Kruseman was born in Velp, Gelderland as the old ...

. Huygens became known early for her feminist articles and made her debut as a novelist in 1877. In 1896, she joined the newly founded Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) as its first female member and the first woman in the Netherlands to be a member of a political party, becoming known as the "Red Lady". Cornélie Huygens was an active socialist ideologist and participator in the political debate, and by her work for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

, she made the work for women's rights, which in the Netherlands had previously been an issue for upper class women, a part of the socialist movement for workers' rights. Despite her principled opposition against the institution of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

, she married on 2 October 1902, at the age of 54, to the Amsterdam-born German businessman Ignazius Bahlmann, who had translated her novel ''Barthold Meryan'' into German. Apparently very unhappy in her marriage, she drowned herself within a month after this wedding in a pond in the

Vondelpark The Vondelpark () is a public urban park of 47 hectares (120 acres) in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Zuid and situated west from the Leidseplein and the Museumplein. The park was opened in 1865 and originally na ...

. She died on 31 October 1902 in Amsterdam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huygens, Cornelie 1848 births 1902 suicides 1902 deaths 19th-century Dutch writers 19th-century Dutch novelists 19th-century Dutch women writers Dutch women novelists Dutch suffragists Dutch social democrats Suicides by drowning People from Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude 19th-century Dutch women politicians 19th-century Dutch politicians Dutch socialist feminists Suicides in the Netherlands