Nationality Dutch Name Antonius Hambroek | Died July 21, 1661, Taiwan Residence Netherlands, Taiwan | |
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Born 1607 Rotterdam, Dutch Republic | ||
Antonius Hambroek (1607 – 21 July 1661) was a Dutch missionary to Formosa from 1648 to 1661 during the Dutch colonial era. He was martyred by Koxinga as the Chinese-Japanese warlord wrested Taiwan from the Dutch. Koxinga had captured Hambroek along with his wife and three of his children, and sent him as a messenger to Frederik Coyett, the Governor of Formosa, to demand the surrender of the Dutch garrison at Fort Zeelandia and the abandonment of their colony. Koxinga promised the missionary death should he return with a displeasing answer; Coyett refused to surrender and Hambroek was executed on his return to Koxinga's camp.
After the Siege of Fort Zeelandia, Koxinga took Hambroek's teenage daughter as a concubine. Other Dutch women were sold to Chinese soldiers to become their wives.
Antonius Hambroek, or the Siege of Formosa
The playwright Joannes Nomsz wrote a tragedy for the stage in 1775 about the martyrdom of Hambroek, "Antonius Hambroek, of de Belegering van Formoza" rendered in English as "Antonius Hambroek, or the Siege of Formosa", sealing the missionary's fame in Holland.
The topic of the Chinese taking the Dutch women and the daughter of Antonius Hambroek as concubines was featured in Joannes Nomsz's play which became famous and well known in Europe which revealed European anxiety at the fate of the Dutch women and being subjected to defeat by non-Europeans.