Etta Lubina Johanna Palm d'Aelders (April 1743 – 28 March 1799), also known as the Baroness of Aelders, was a Dutch spy and feminist, outspoken during the French Revolution.
She was the daughter of Jacob Aelders van Nieuwenhuys, a wallpaper merchant and pawnbroker, and his second wife Agatha Petronella de Sitter.
One child was born from the marriage the same year as her husband's disappearance in 1763, named Agatha after d'Aelders's mother, but the infant passed away within three months of birth.
On the way she met Douwe Sirtema van Grovestins, a former equerry to the widow of Stadtholder William IV, Prince of Orange, who became her lover, and introduced her in higher circles.
She was released at the end of 1798, but her health had suffered so much, that she died in the Hague the following March on the 28th 1799, and is thought to have been buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery in Rijswijk.
[6] Due to d'Aelders's highly-praised espionage and diplomatic work, the financial income from her missions enabled her to move to a grander house at the Rue Favard in Paris, where she set up a salon, where many politically engaged people met.
Among these meetings were Dutchmen like Gerard Brantsen, who negotiated the peace between the Republic and Austria in Paris in 1784, and Apollonius Jan Cornelis Lampsins, a prominent Patriot, who sought refuge in France in 1787.
She also apparently started working for the Dutch Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel, to whom she became especially valuable after the events of 14 July 1789, when her salon was frequented by prominent revolutionaries like Jean-Paul Marat, François Chabot and Claude Basire.
[7] During this time she developed a lively correspondence with many political figures including the Dutch Grand Pensionary Van de Spiegel and the French minister Lebrun.
Criticism written of her by a journalist from the Gazette universelle claiming that she favoured monarchy in the Netherlands and the republic in France has been affirmed by Hardenberg in his biography of d'Aelders, who also interpreted her political beliefs in this manner.
[1] Historian Judith Vega writes that ‘d'Aelders in her political views combines loyal adherence to the House of Orange with democratic republican ideals and feminist Zeal’.
[4] It is perhaps notable that the de Sitter family, into which d'Aelders's mother was born, is often cited as holding strong Orangeist sympathies and interests.
[4][6] From 1789, when d'Aelders wrote to Van de Spiegel advising him to reform the Dutch constitution to shift power to the people, her enthusiasm for the revolution was no longer contested.
[4] D'Aelders was one of the few women to take direct political action in the French Revolution, her support for it being so great that preserved correspondence shows her urging Van de Spiegel to make reforms to the Dutch constitution in order to grant the people more power.
She gained public attention for her activities in the French Revolution when she interrupted a meeting of the Amis de la Vérité (Society of the Friends of Truth, also known as Cercle social) on 26 November 1790 in order to support an exhausted orator defending the rights of women.
[9] D'Aelders became involved in revolutionary politics and was especially active in feminist circles, like the Société Fraternelle des Patriotes de l'un et l'autre sexe.
D’Aelders then decided to take more concrete action, formulating a plan in February 1791 to create a network of patriotic women's societies across France, much like those already functioning under the leadership of men.
Unfortunately she never succeeded in setting up the schools or workshops to teach these skills, but she did benefit three girls by financing apprenticeships for them with subscription money paid by society members.