In the late 15th century, as the cities of Flanders waged a bitter conflict against the Habsburg ruler Maximilian of Austria, a group of unlikely intelligence operatives was hard at work: rural women, often anonymous, carrying letters, gathering intelligence, and traversing dangerous terrain. A new study by historian Lisa Demets has brought their stories to light, uncovering a remarkable female spy network operating in and around the city of Ypres during the years 1488–1489.
Published in Intelligence and National Security, the article draws on the city accounts of Ypres—financial records that detail payments made to individuals for services rendered during wartime. Among these are dozens of women, paid for delivering messages or collecting military information, suggesting a semi-professional network of female messengers and spies working at the height of the Flemish revolt.
Demets, a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University, was able to analyze hundreds of pages from Ypres’ medieval records, now stored at the State Archives of Belgium, as well as chronicles and eyewitness testimonies, which reveal “the essential role of women in sustaining communication networks during times of war.”
Invisible Agents in a City at War
The conflict itself was part of the broader Flemish Revolt (1482–1492), triggered by the contested regency of Philip the Fair after the death of his mother, Mary of Burgundy. Cities like Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres rejected the authority of Maximilian, Philip’s father and regent, and attempted to rule the County of Flanders through their own city-led regency council. Tensions escalated into open war in 1488 and 1489, with foreign troops and local militias battling for control of towns and supply routes across the region.
Map by Marco Zanoli / Wikimedia Commons
Amid this turmoil, women stepped into roles normally reserved for men, especially in the transmission of sensitive information. While women were excluded from formal city messenger positions, the city of Ypres increasingly relied on them in wartime, compensating them for one-off assignments or, in several cases, for repeated missions.
In total, the Ypres city accounts for 1488–1489 record 38 named women and numerous anonymous ones engaged in intelligence activities. Some, like Josine Hellebout, were highly active, receiving payments for up to eleven separate missions. Others appear only once but often undertook significant and risky journeys—on foot, unarmed, and often alone or in pairs.
A key advantage women had was their invisibility. Because they were not suspected of military or political activity, they could pass through city gates, enemy lines, and military encampments with less scrutiny than men. This phenomenon, Demets argues, was both practical and tactical: “Women could more easily move in and out of cities or around military camps, acting as trustworthy intermediaries between opposing sides.”
But these were not simply passive messengers. Many women were paid not just to carry letters, but to “to find out about the enemies’” or “ascertain the situation” in enemy-held territory. During the Siege of Ghent and subsequent campaigns in 1488, for instance, Tuenine sPepers was sent to Damme and Aardenburg to “gather news about the King of the Romans [Maximilian of Austria]” and to Diksmuide to report on the local situation. Other women, such as Crispine Sroys and Beatrice Cambiers, carried out missions directly to military commanders or towns under threat, often accompanied by unnamed female companions, possibly locals or other camp followers.
The growing professionalization of this network became particularly evident in 1489, when the war intensified. “By 1489, women increasingly emerged as professionals within the medieval intelligence service in Ypres, as records show that the same individuals were repeatedly paid a ‘salary’,” Demets explains. This development stands in contrast to other contexts, such as Elizabethan England, where the rise of organized espionage networks often coincided with the marginalization of women in intelligence roles.
Profiles in Espionage: The Women Behind the Messages
Some of the most active agents worked the vital post between Ypres and Ghent, where the Three Members of Flanders (representatives of Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres) frequently met. Women such as Josine van der Muelne, Josine van der Egghe, and Clara vander Strate repeatedly undertook these journeys—often 70 kilometres each way—earning not only expenses but what the accounts describe as ‘salaris ende aerbeyt’ (salary and labour).
Demets reconstructs dozens of such missions from the archival records. In one typical case, Margriet Lonis was “urgently” dispatched both “by day and by night” to carry letters to Marshal Philippe de Crèvecœur, who was stationed at Auchy. Given the 57-kilometre journey through enemy territory, Lonis likely travelled continuously on foot. In another, Crispine Sroys and Beatrice Syssans had to pass through enemy-occupied Sint-Winoksbergen on a mission to Bourbourg, highlighting the risks these women faced.
Map of Ypres in the 17th century by Braun & Hogenberg – Wikimedia Commons
The involvement of women went beyond intelligence-gathering and message delivery. In one remarkable episode recorded in a contemporary Flemish chronicle, women played a central role in the defence of the city of Nieuwpoort against a French siege in 1489. “The Nieuwpoort women not only prepared kettles full of tar, but they also threw the heavy kettles on the French mercenaries. Other women armed themselves with pestles or filled pots with ashes and iron objects to hurl at the soldiers.”
Despite their central role, these women were often anonymous in the historical record. Many were listed only by their husband’s names, and few left behind other traces in city registers. This makes Demets’ archival reconstruction especially significant, as it pieces together a lost history of female agency during one of Flanders’ most violent periods.
As the war ended and male messengers resumed their official roles, most of the women disappeared from the records. A few, like Hellebout, may have been absorbed back into civilian life or married. Others may have died or been displaced. But for a brief window in 1488–89, they formed a vital and secret part of Flanders’ war effort.
Their legacy, Demets argues, reshapes how we understand both gender and conflict in the Middle Ages. “The frequency and consistency with which women were employed for these tasks challenged traditional perceptions of gender roles in medieval warfare,” she concludes. “Their involvement in intelligence work not only underscores the complexities of late medieval conflict but also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the social and gender dynamics of the time.”
Demets’ study raises broader questions about the role of women in intelligence work elsewhere in medieval Europe and suggests that such networks may have existed in other regions where cities, not courts, orchestrated resistance and relied on local knowledge.
The article, “Women, war and intelligence in Ypres and the Flemish West Quarter (1488–1489),” by Lisa Demets, appears in Intelligence and National Security. Click here to read it.
Lisa Demets‘ research focuses on Flanders between the years 1200 and 1500, and includes gender history, urban historiography and the political and cultural history of the medieval Low Countries. She also recently gave a talk on ‘An Introduction to Multilingualism in Medieval Flanders’:
Top Image: National Library of Austria Cod. 2537 page 197
In the late 15th century, as the cities of Flanders waged a bitter conflict against the Habsburg ruler Maximilian of Austria, a group of unlikely intelligence operatives was hard at work: rural women, often anonymous, carrying letters, gathering intelligence, and traversing dangerous terrain. A new study by historian Lisa Demets has brought their stories to light, uncovering a remarkable female spy network operating in and around the city of Ypres during the years 1488–1489.
Published in Intelligence and National Security, the article draws on the city accounts of Ypres—financial records that detail payments made to individuals for services rendered during wartime. Among these are dozens of women, paid for delivering messages or collecting military information, suggesting a semi-professional network of female messengers and spies working at the height of the Flemish revolt.
Demets, a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University, was able to analyze hundreds of pages from Ypres’ medieval records, now stored at the State Archives of Belgium, as well as chronicles and eyewitness testimonies, which reveal “the essential role of women in sustaining communication networks during times of war.”
Invisible Agents in a City at War
The conflict itself was part of the broader Flemish Revolt (1482–1492), triggered by the contested regency of Philip the Fair after the death of his mother, Mary of Burgundy. Cities like Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres rejected the authority of Maximilian, Philip’s father and regent, and attempted to rule the County of Flanders through their own city-led regency council. Tensions escalated into open war in 1488 and 1489, with foreign troops and local militias battling for control of towns and supply routes across the region.
Amid this turmoil, women stepped into roles normally reserved for men, especially in the transmission of sensitive information. While women were excluded from formal city messenger positions, the city of Ypres increasingly relied on them in wartime, compensating them for one-off assignments or, in several cases, for repeated missions.
In total, the Ypres city accounts for 1488–1489 record 38 named women and numerous anonymous ones engaged in intelligence activities. Some, like Josine Hellebout, were highly active, receiving payments for up to eleven separate missions. Others appear only once but often undertook significant and risky journeys—on foot, unarmed, and often alone or in pairs.
A key advantage women had was their invisibility. Because they were not suspected of military or political activity, they could pass through city gates, enemy lines, and military encampments with less scrutiny than men. This phenomenon, Demets argues, was both practical and tactical: “Women could more easily move in and out of cities or around military camps, acting as trustworthy intermediaries between opposing sides.”
But these were not simply passive messengers. Many women were paid not just to carry letters, but to “to find out about the enemies’” or “ascertain the situation” in enemy-held territory. During the Siege of Ghent and subsequent campaigns in 1488, for instance, Tuenine sPepers was sent to Damme and Aardenburg to “gather news about the King of the Romans [Maximilian of Austria]” and to Diksmuide to report on the local situation. Other women, such as Crispine Sroys and Beatrice Cambiers, carried out missions directly to military commanders or towns under threat, often accompanied by unnamed female companions, possibly locals or other camp followers.
The growing professionalization of this network became particularly evident in 1489, when the war intensified. “By 1489, women increasingly emerged as professionals within the medieval intelligence service in Ypres, as records show that the same individuals were repeatedly paid a ‘salary’,” Demets explains. This development stands in contrast to other contexts, such as Elizabethan England, where the rise of organized espionage networks often coincided with the marginalization of women in intelligence roles.
Profiles in Espionage: The Women Behind the Messages
Some of the most active agents worked the vital post between Ypres and Ghent, where the Three Members of Flanders (representatives of Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres) frequently met. Women such as Josine van der Muelne, Josine van der Egghe, and Clara vander Strate repeatedly undertook these journeys—often 70 kilometres each way—earning not only expenses but what the accounts describe as ‘salaris ende aerbeyt’ (salary and labour).
Demets reconstructs dozens of such missions from the archival records. In one typical case, Margriet Lonis was “urgently” dispatched both “by day and by night” to carry letters to Marshal Philippe de Crèvecœur, who was stationed at Auchy. Given the 57-kilometre journey through enemy territory, Lonis likely travelled continuously on foot. In another, Crispine Sroys and Beatrice Syssans had to pass through enemy-occupied Sint-Winoksbergen on a mission to Bourbourg, highlighting the risks these women faced.
The involvement of women went beyond intelligence-gathering and message delivery. In one remarkable episode recorded in a contemporary Flemish chronicle, women played a central role in the defence of the city of Nieuwpoort against a French siege in 1489. “The Nieuwpoort women not only prepared kettles full of tar, but they also threw the heavy kettles on the French mercenaries. Other women armed themselves with pestles or filled pots with ashes and iron objects to hurl at the soldiers.”
Despite their central role, these women were often anonymous in the historical record. Many were listed only by their husband’s names, and few left behind other traces in city registers. This makes Demets’ archival reconstruction especially significant, as it pieces together a lost history of female agency during one of Flanders’ most violent periods.
As the war ended and male messengers resumed their official roles, most of the women disappeared from the records. A few, like Hellebout, may have been absorbed back into civilian life or married. Others may have died or been displaced. But for a brief window in 1488–89, they formed a vital and secret part of Flanders’ war effort.
Their legacy, Demets argues, reshapes how we understand both gender and conflict in the Middle Ages. “The frequency and consistency with which women were employed for these tasks challenged traditional perceptions of gender roles in medieval warfare,” she concludes. “Their involvement in intelligence work not only underscores the complexities of late medieval conflict but also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the social and gender dynamics of the time.”
Demets’ study raises broader questions about the role of women in intelligence work elsewhere in medieval Europe and suggests that such networks may have existed in other regions where cities, not courts, orchestrated resistance and relied on local knowledge.
The article, “Women, war and intelligence in Ypres and the Flemish West Quarter (1488–1489),” by Lisa Demets, appears in Intelligence and National Security. Click here to read it.
Lisa Demets‘ research focuses on Flanders between the years 1200 and 1500, and includes gender history, urban historiography and the political and cultural history of the medieval Low Countries. She also recently gave a talk on ‘An Introduction to Multilingualism in Medieval Flanders’:
Top Image: National Library of Austria Cod. 2537 page 197
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