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Women That Left Their Mark Throughout History

Khalid Elhassan August 4, 2020 34 min

6. Gaining a Hubby at Gunpoint

Buccaneers extorting tribute. The Way of the Pirates

In 1693, Anne Dieu-le-Veut became a widow once more, when her second husband Cherel was killed in a bar fight by another buccaneer, Laurens de Graaf. Anne was not about to play the wilting flower grieving widow. Instead, she challenged de Graaf to a duel to avenge her husband. He drew his sword, but when she pulled out a pistol, cocked it, and took aim, de Graaf had second thoughts, and suddenly remembered that chivalry forbids men from fighting women.

De Graaf also proposed to Anne on the spot, supposedly because he thought she was badass and admired her courage. That could well have been true. However, it was also true that she had a cocked pistol aimed at his chest, and the quick-thinking romantic gesture might have saved his life. Either way, Anne accepted de Graaf’s proposal.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.