Lecture: prostitution in 's-Hertogenbosch in the 17th and 18th centuries

The Aarle-Rixtel Local History Society will give a special lecture at De Couwenbergh on prostitution in the fortified city of 's-Hertogenbosch during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Historian Jos Wassink will delve deeper into the daily lives of the women who worked in the city's brothels and red-light districts.

After Frederik Hendrik captured 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629, the city and the surrounding Meierij came under the rule of the Northern Netherlands. Calvinist regents took control, and thousands of soldiers were billeted there. Despite strict moral codes, prostitution remained a persistent phenomenon, especially near garrisons. In his lecture, Wassink outlines how prostitution was organized and the social conditions underlying it. He demonstrates how poverty, vulnerability, and crime were closely intertwined with the lives of these women. Jos Wassink is the author of the book "Daily Life in 'Unruly'"; Prostitution in the fortress of 's-Hertogenbosch, 1629-1795. He studied history at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, worked at various archives, and was provincial historian of Utrecht. Currently, he supervises heritage communities and teaches history courses for the HOVO Brabant Senior Academy.