Marie Schellinck

Marie Schellinck (25 July 1757, Ghent – 1 September 1840, Menen), also known as Shelling,[1] was an Austrian-Netherlands-born soldier who fought in the French Revolution.

Disguised as a man, Schellinck enlisted 1792 in the 2nd Belgian battalion of the French army.

[2] A Marie-Jeanne Schellinck is often reported to have been decorated with the Legion of Honor in June 1808 by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte himself before he rode into Ghent and thus having been the first woman with that merit.

This legend is embellished with an impressive list of battles where she was supposed to have fought (Jemappes, Arcole, Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstedt and in the Poland campaign 1807), as well as a rousing speech Napoleon gave the assembled soldiers.

[1] That story has been proven inaccurate: Napoleon I never distinguished a woman with the Legion of Honor and was located in Bayonne in Southern France in June 1808.