Elisabeth Wandscherer (died 12 June 1535) was a Dutch

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

. She lived in

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, 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 ...

during the reign of Jan van Leiden and was chosen by him as one of his sixteen spouses in June 1534, when he introduced

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

because women in the city greatly outnumbered surviving men. During the starvation of 1535, she openly criticized Leiden by saying that it could not be the will of God that the public should starve while Leiden and his court lived in luxury. She returned the jewelry given to her by Leiden and asked to leave the city. He refused, had her arrested and beheaded on 12 June 1535. Her execution was frequently used in propaganda attacking the Anabaptists.

References

* http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN/lemmata/data/Wandscherer * Wandscherer, Elisabeth, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Wandscherer 3/01/2014 1535 deaths Münster Dutch Anabaptists Executed Dutch women Dutch people executed abroad 16th-century Dutch people Executed Dutch people 16th-century Dutch women Year of birth unknown People executed in the Holy Roman Empire by decapitation 16th-century executions in the Holy Roman Empire {{christianity-bio-stub

See also

References