Beatrix de Rijke

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Detail of the St Elizabeth’s Day Flood, 18-19 November 1421, altar piece by Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c.1490

Beatrix de Rijke (1421 – 1468), was a Dutch foundling in Dordrecht in 1421.

Biography

According to Mathias Balen in his 1677 Description of the city of Dordrecht, she was a survivor of the St. Elizabeth's flood (1421). Her wicker cradle was found floating on the water, and besides the baby, it contained a cat. The small cradle with baby and cat are included as one of the details of the 1490 panorama of the flood by the Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, on view at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The subject was romantic enough to be expanded over time. The baby was given the name Beatrix de Rijke, who married Jacob Roerom. The flood itself, first recording the loss of 18 villages, by 1677 had grown to encompass 72 villages. Today the story of the "cat in the cradle" is told at Kinderdijk, near Rotterdam, while the 1490 painting is said to have been donated as an altarpiece by the town of Wieldrecht, near Dordrecht.

Authority control	BPN: 68469159

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1421 flood in the Netherlands.

References

Beatrix de Rijke in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis
Kind in een Wiege in Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht on Google books
Two paintings inspired by this subject by William Holman Hunt and Laurence Alma-Tadema

Persondata
Name	Rijke, Beatrix de
Alternative names
Short description	Dutch foundling in Dordrecht
Date of birth	1421
Place of birth	Zuid-Hollandse waard
Date of death	1468
Place of death	Dordrecht

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