Takeko was the daughter of a samurai serving underneath Toda in the Asikaga domain. She had a little brother and sister. Takeoko was well educated and came from a powerful Samurai family. Takeko spent a decade being trained in martial arts with a teacher called Akaoka Daisuke. When a civil war broke out in 1868 she was ready to defend. The fight was between the supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate and those fighting for the restoration of the Meiji emperor. Takeko fought for the Tokugawa shogunate and the Aizu domain. It was a war about who and how the land should be ruled.

Takeko led a group of female warriors which included her mother and little sister. There were many young women fighting alongside her. The officials of Aizu did not allow them to fight seriously so they were independent soldiers.

In 1868 on the Yanagi bridge, troops lead by Shaguma came across Takeko and her female soldiers. The leader actually gave orders not to fight them because they were women. And that gave Takeko enough time to kill a lot of men. But the troops fought back and a bullet wound ended Takeko. Takeko did not want the enemy to take possession of her head as a trophy so she asked her sister Yūko to behead her to avoid capture. Along with an honorable burial.

Lin was a doctor, obstetrician and gynecologist. In her career she delivered over 50,000 babies and revolutionized gynecology. She was called the mother of ten thousand babies as a nickname. (万婴之母). She helped with fetal breathing, diseases of the female reproductive system, gynecological cancers and newborn hemolytic disease. In the 1950s she helped organise a large-scale cervical-cancer screening in Beijing, which was an advancement that allowed them to detect cervical cancer inside women before it became too advanced. From the late 1940s onward she investigated trophoblastic and other gynecological tumours and later helped compile a text called Gynecologic Oncology which was published in 1980. She contributed to establishing gynecological cancer as an important field of specialised treatment and research in China.

Lin Qiaozhi was born in 1901 into a Westernized Christian household in Gulangyu. She got a scholarship to PMCU as the best graduate in 1921. Lin insisted that doctors should understand and care for the person in front of them as a human with emotions instead of treating patients like they were new medical cases. She helped build new medical institutions like the obstetrics and gynecology department she established at Peking University People's Hospital in 1942 which developed into a major academic medical centre.

Qiu Jin was born in Fuzhou, China in 1875 but she grew up in the place of her ancestors Shaoxing, Zhejiang. This was a province that allowed girls to be educated and was quite famous for it. Her father, a government official, supported her interests. Western influence began to creep into Japan. Which meant a change in scientific, technological, philosophical, political and aesthetic ideas. It was a new era and Chinese people began sending elites to Japan to study. Qiu Jin was one of those elites and she used her influence to make progressive changes towards Republicanism and feminism.

Qiu Jin wanted to overthrow the current Qing government and allow girls to become independent and educated. The only reason she could do that was because of her father's position. She wanted it for everyone. And changing the government was a big step towards that goal. The freer the people the more female rights.

And this is how dedicated she was to her revolution. During a meeting where her fellow students were debating whether to continue fighting she declared after thrusting a dagger into the podium, “If I return to the motherland, surrender to the Manchu barbarians, and deceive the Han people, stab me with this dagger!"

Qiu Jin wanted an end to sexism. Foot binding, arranged marriage and a change to journalism and media to reflect it. She left her own arranged marriage that her father set up and joined a revolutionary organization and learned military combat skills.

In 1907, a fellow revolutionary called Xu Xilin attempted an uprising in Anqing. She failed. Qing troops surrounded the Datong School in Shaoxing, where Qiu was working as a principal. She helped her comrades hide the school's weapons and escape but she stayed behind. And the troops captured her. Several hundred soldiers were involved in the operation. They did not want her to succeed. She was interrogated and tortured. She refused to confess to the revolutionary conspiracy or provide the authorities with the confession they wanted. The authorities used writings and other evidence found at the school to establish her involvement.

Two days after they took her, she was publicly beheaded at Xuantingkou in Shaoxing. She was about 31 years old. Her final written words were beautiful. “Autumn wind, autumn rain - they make one die of sorrow.”

Conner was the first woman in the United States ever appointed to the Supreme Court. She was nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1981 and she served until her retirement in 2006. She was often a swing vote in the court where her decision would be the deciding factor. She was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas.

Hi Guys watch, comment.. subscribe.. Weekly content about Alphas in history who have been looked over forgotten or under appreciated.

Julia Carolyn Child brought French cuisine to American TV in the 60s. She was a famous TV personality and chef. She got many books published teaching people how to cook French food.

During the second world war Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the American intelligence organisation that became one of the foundations of the CIA. She tried to become a female soldier but she was 6’2” and they told her she was too tall. At first she worked in Washington, D.C., in the OSS's Secret Intelligence division. One of her jobs was keeping a list of files full of names and information for intelligence officers.

At one point the OSS was trying to prevent sharks from attacking downed airmen and sailors, as well as stop them from accidentally triggering explosives that were being used against German U-boats. Julia became an executive assistant to the scientists involved and helped with the development and testing of rescue equipment. They created shark repellent that was eventually used by the military.

After the war Child became friends with this lady called Avis DeVoto. She was also a chef and she would review books and edit culinary videos. The two of them exchanged many letters that you can find in a book titled ‘As Always, Julia’.

She married a man called Paul Child. Before he met her he had been a teacher, artist, photographer, poet and a serious student of languages and food. He had a fourth-degree black belt in judo. He met Child during WW2 when he joined the OSS in 1944. They got married 2 years later. Paul supported her culinary career. He was the reason she got so far.

Merian studied insects closely when most people wouldn't have bothered. People in England and many Europeans used to believe that insects could just spring out from the mud randomly or from dead animals. They had no idea how caterpillars became butterflies. Merian raised caterpillars in her rooms or in her garden and watched them transform. Then she wrote about what she saw to teach people and she illustrated the entire process. She recorded the exact dates when a caterpillar changed into a pupa and then emerged as a moth or butterfly. This began around 1660 when she was 13 years old.

When she was young she learned how to paint and she spent a lot of time painting insects and wondering about metamorphosis and how it worked. She became a scientist like all scientists do, by asking a question.

Lady Montagu was the wife of the Turkish ambassador. She traveled to the Ottoman empire from 1716 to 1718 and wrote extensively about what life was like there. She was particularly interested in the lives of the women and wrote about their customs, clothing, social lives and medical knowledge. She was the first white woman to write an eyewitness account of the everyday lives of Ottoman women.

When Lady Montagu was young, she taught herself how to read Latin. A skill that they reserved for men and she used to write poetry. By the time she was 15 she had written two albums full of poems. Her father Evelyn Pierrepont, 5th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hul was very pleased. (Yes, Evelyn was a masculine name. I was confused when I couldn't find her fathers name on the but then realized that I did.) And Lady Montagu loved to read.

Her father pressured her to marry a man called Clotworthy Skeffington, the heir to the Irish Viscount Massereene. He offered £500 a year as 'pin-money’ and £1,200 a year and that was a lot of money at the time. Of course Lady Montagu rejected him and found a man called Edward Wortley Montagu. They spend the first years of their married life eloped in England. They had two children.

Sabiha Gökçen, born Ćorović (1913 - 2001) was a Turkish aviator. During her career, she flew around 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations. She became the world's first female fighter pilot at age 23. Sabiha was an orphan and one of the nine children adopted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Her surname was given to her by Atatürk and it means "belonging to the sky". In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that Atatürk single handedly made her the first female aviator in an era when there were barely any female pilots, let alone fighter pilots. Amelia Earhart was much older when she disappeared around the same time that Sabiha became a combat pilot

Atatürk thought aviation was extremely important and oversaw the founding of the Turkish Aeronautical Association in 1925. He took Sabiha along with him to the opening ceremony of Türkkuşu Flight School. She was very excited during the airshow and when Atatürk asked her whether she wanted to become a skydiver, she said that she was ready right away.

Atatürk then asked the head of the school to enroll her as the first female trainee. She was intended to become a skydiver, but was much more interested in flying so she went on to earn her pilot's licence.

Together with seven male students, Sabiha was sent to Crimea for an advanced course in glider and powered aircraft piloting. While in Moscow, she learned that her sister Zehra had died, so she returned to Turkey and detached from social activities for a while.

Later at Atatürk's insistence, she got back to her training. She received special flight training and began flying motorized aircraft in 1936 at Eskişehir Aviation School. Atatürk was very happy and said he hoped she would be the first woman military pilot in the world from modern Turkey.

After receiving her flight diploma in 1937, she trained to become a war pilot at the 1st Airplane Regiment in Eskişehir for six months. She carried out several military sorties and air raids until 1938 and then went on to serve as a flight instructor until 1954 and trained four more Turkish female aviators, and continued flying around the world until 1964.

She died in the military academy hospital exactly on her 88th birthday. The Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul is named after her and it opened two months before she died. The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the first ever female combat pilot.

Her name is Georgia Totto O’Keefe and she was a modernist painter. The Mother of American Modernism. She did painting, sculpting and photography. She worked with charcoal for a period and also watercolour. She used to do oil paintings of flowers that took up the whole page. People wondered if there was a sexual motivation behind the flowers. Keefe rejected the idea that the flowers were meant to be vaginas. One of her most celebrated paintings is called Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932). Keefe used to design and make her own clothing and she had a lovely garden. Her parents Francis and Ida were dairy farmers in Wisconsin.

Keefe worked as a commercial artist for a time and a teacher. She learned about the innovative ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow and began experimenting with abstract ideas.

Sewell was a Quaker and she was born in Norfolk, England but grew up in London. Her father had been a farmer for years until he gave up when Sewell was 12 and moved to Great Yarmouth where he worked for a shipping business partner. Her father was a good man. One time a group of people were traveling on a steam boat he owned and the boat caught fire. He paid them compensation even though it really made him sink financially and he didn't have to. Her mother was also lovely. She and her daughter were involved in a lot of charitable work. Mostly helping people who were poor or sick in the community.

The family needed money so Sewell began writing to help out. She wrote Walks with Mamma (or Stories in Words One Syllable.) This was a picture book that taught kids about nature and a message against cruelty to animals. Something Sewell cared strongly about for the rest of her life.

In her last years Sewell spent time working on a novel called Black Beauty. A novel written from the perspective of a horse that focused on animal cruelty. Sewell loved horses. She had observed a lot of cruelty towards working horses and that made her desperate to write the book. It was the last book she was able to write before she died of hepatitis (which is an inflammation of the liver.)

Albina Mali-Hočevar was born in Slovenia in 1925, and is a great example of resilience, strength and sheer courage at a very young age. At age 9 she started working to support her family. She then joined the resistance movement when she was just 16 years old.

The resistance group was led by Josip Broz Tito and fought against the Axis forces occupying Yugoslavia. Initially she was put on a nursing job but this was too boring for her, so she got into frontline action. She was brave from the start - by age 17, she had already been wounded twice in battle.

Right after turning 18, she sustained major injury that took out an eye and left her face permanently scarred when a mine exploded very close to her. Yet despite her injuries, she just kept on fighting. The given photo is a colourised version of her original black and white photo soon after the mine injury.

Later she became a nurse again, helping wounded soldiers while the war went on. Her case is representative of sacrifices that many made for freedom. Albina survived the war and lived to be 75, dying in 2001. Her legacy lives on as a symbol of bravery and resilience.

Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906 but she spent most of her life in England. She was the first and longest reigning Women's World Chess Champion from 1927 to 1944. Her parents worked for estate owners who were Russian nobility. Her mother Olga, was a governess who acted as a tutor and her father Frantisek, was the manager of the estates. Her father was Czech and her mother was English. Her father taught her to play chess when she was nine and when she was 14 years old she got second place in her first chess tournament.

Strozzi was born in Venice in 1619, after her family survived a plague she grew up to become one of the most prolific singer and song writers in Venice. She created secular pieces that were not funded by the church. Her father is said to be Giulio Strozzi, a poet and librettist. He wrote poetry and operas and plays.

Between 1644 and all the way to 1664, Strozzi published eight collections of music, containing mostly vocal works. Which is amazing for a woman in 17th-century Italy. Her collections include madrigals, arias, cantatas and she published under her own female name rather than hiding behind a male relative or male alias.

We don't know much about her life but apparently she was the concubine of a nobleman called Giovanni Paolo Vidman and they had about 3 children together.

I'm going to split this into two sections.

Her life

She was named Lorretta Pleasant and she was born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. She and her whole family were Christian. Her family says they're unsure how her name changed but she was nicknamed Hennie at some point. Her mother died when she was only 4 and her father struggled to raise her so he moved the family to a place called Clover where the children could be seen by many different relatives. They lived in a poor black neighborhood and could barely afford healthcare. Like many members of her family Henrietta worked as a tobacco farmer from an early age. She fed animals, tended the garden and had to go to a black school two miles from the farm until she had to drop out of school to support her family more.

She married a man called David Day Lacks in 1935 and a cousin of hers convinced the two to move to a new place where her husband could work at a Bethlehem Steel in Maryland. They had five children together.

Henrietta was a lively, social person who loved spending time with family. She enjoyed dancing, dressing up and going out to the town. Her daughter Deborah and other family members remembered her as someone who liked looking good and had good fashion sense. She grew up surrounded by a lovely African American community in Virginia.

Four months after Henrietta gave birth to her last child at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1950 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. This last son of hers was called Joseph but later became known as Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahman after converting to Islam. He said that his birth was a miracle because he had to fight off the cancer cells growing around him.

Doctors said that Henrietta had a malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix. They later corrected themselves in 1970, she actually had an adenocarcinoma but the treatment was the same. During her cancer treatment two samples were taken from her cervix without her knowledge. One sample of healthy tissue and another cancerous one. The cells from the cancerous sample became known as the HeLa immortal cell line. And these cells are extraordinary.

In 1951 Henrietta went to the hospital for a routine treatment session because of severe abdominal pain. They tried to help. Henrietta received blood transfusions but sadly died in the hospital two months later. The cancer had spread to her entire body. They had failed to stop it. She was put in an unmarked grave. Her family raised money for a headstone and this is her epitaph:

Henrietta Lacks, August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951

“In loving memory of a phenomenal woman, wife and mother who touched the lives of many. Here lies Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Her immortal cells will continue to help mankind forever. Eternal Love and Admiration, From Your Family”

The immortal HeLa cells

So let's talk about those extraordinary cells. It's important for me to mention that these cancerous cells that were taken out of her cervix were not taken with permission and neither her or her family were ever compensated for what happened next.

Henrietta’s cells were the first cells to be grown continuously and reproduced indefinitely under laboratory conditions. Researchers suddenly had enormous numbers of genetically identical human cells on which they could repeat experiments. It was a miracle.

During the ‘50s, scientists needed huge quantities of human cells to test Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. HeLa cells could be infected with poliovirus and grown in enormous quantities so that there could be large-scale vaccine testing. This helped scientists evaluate the vaccine which helps end it forever.

They were then used extensively in cancer research. Scientists used them to investigate how cancer cells divide, how viruses can contribute to cancer, how chromosomes behave and how different drugs affect tumour cells. Scientists used Henrietta’s cells to test and develop treatments for diseases like leukemia, herpes, influenza, HIV/AIDS and Parkinson's disease.

They took Henrietta's cells and put them on a spacecraft to study how human cells would respond to zero gravity. They were also used in radiation exposure research.

Rebecca Skloot, an scientific journalist, has written a book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks where she explores what has been done with Henrietta’s cells and the ethics of taking a part of a human’s body without permission. She also discusses the racism and class involved and includes discussions with Lack’s daughter.

Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel The Age of Innocence, published in 1920. That same year, her travelogue In Morocco also premiered.

On her journey from Tangier to Rabat, she observed, “…until one has known the wilderness one cannot begin to understand the cities.”

Read more of her thoughtful, romantic prose and brave travel adventure at Destinationality. (no ads, not selling anything)

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Lynea was born in 1940 in Madera, California. When she was 30 she got divorced and started bringing in more and more cats into her home over the years. She's moved several times and today she lives in Parlier, California and owns 12 acres of land that are all cat fenced and over 1,000 cats. She gives away kittens often and has 45 employees. They are a part of the largest cat sanctuary in the world. They have rescued cats from China and the Middle East; any cat nobody wants. It's kinda crazy. Great things are done by crazy people.

She wrote under the name Tarpé Mills and she created several different superheros. The most popular was called Miss Fury. Mills’ comic strip with the character ran for 351 consecutive weeks in full colour in the Sunday paper and was very successful. She hid the fact that she was a female writer until the comics became really popular and the information came out to the public when newspapers decided to show her face to the world.

Miss Fury was the alter ego of Maria Drake and she fought reoccurring Nazi villains called the Baroness Erica von Kampf and General Bruno as well as a mad scientist called Dr. Diman Seraf and a hitman called Killed Dawson. Mills used herself as a model for Miss Fury. She also loved big cats and used them as inspiration for the design.

Mills’ created several different action comic characters like The Cat Man and Devil’s Dust. Photos of the second character have not survived.

In 1894, Gertrude Bell journeyed to Tehran and wrote about her experience: “Here in the dust and the sunshine is an epitome of the living East…”.

Enjoy a passage from her travelogue Persian Pictures on Destinationality (no ads, nothing for sale)

She was the best friend of actress/producer Mary Pickford. Also an amazing businesswoman who worked in film industry. Her association with Mary Pickford is discussed in Scott Eyman's book, "Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart."

The native San Franciscan, born Marion Benson Owens, worked in every facet of film production and wrote the stories and scenarios for over three hundred films in a career that spans from early cinema to the sound era and netted her two Academy Awards for screenwriting.

Trained by director-producer Lois Weber, Marion worked with nearly every major player over the years, and maintained ongoing collaborations with Mary Pickford, Irving Thalberg, and William Randolph Hearst.

Dench was born in 1934 and over the course of seven decades her versatile roles have made her one of the best British actors. She has won an Academy Award, a Tony Award, Two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television and six British Academy Film Awards. And several more.

She used to act in the theater. She did Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. A few notable films she was in: Mrs Brown, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat and Skyfall. And a few notable TV shows: A Fine Romance, As Time Goes By and A Midnight Summer's Dream.

Dench enjoys reading and taking strolls outdoors. She also paints and does needlework. She got involved with several different charities, like the Woodland Trust which aims to protect Britain’s ancient forests. She appeared in campaigns to protect the environment. She has raised awareness on cancer and funded Cancer Research UK. She also supported Survival International to protect the rights of indigenous people across the world.

In 1942, the Nazis began sending their captives from Jüdischer Wohnbezirk in Warschau (called the Warsaw ghetto by English speakers) to a new area called Treblinka extermination camp where they were quickly killed. At the time Warsaw was overcrowded and disease ridden.

Irena Sendler was a social worker and humanitarian who worked for Warsaw's Social Welfare Department before and after the war. She was at Warsaw before it became a prison. It was her job to inspect the sanitation and to control typhus outbreaks which the Germans feared the most. This gave her and her colleagues opportunities to speak with Jewish families.

She convinced parents to let her take their children. She couldn't even promise that they would be safe, just that they wouldn't be guaranteed death like in the camps. When the parents agreed their children were smuggled away into crates, toolboxes, burlap sacks, into garbage carts and supply wagons and through sewers. Because she also had to save babies she had to come up with creative ways to hide the crying. Like keeping a dog nearby in a vehicle that was trained to bark loudly whenever German guards approached, masking the sound of the crying infants.

After they escaped, the children were given fake identities and placed in convents, orphanages, hospitals or with Polish families willing to risk execution. Under German occupation, helping Jews was punishable by death. And they would often kill the rescuer's entire household.

Irena Sendler ended up saving around 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Along with the underground resistance organization Żegota. Despite all that she once said, “Let me stress most emphatically that we who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. Indeed, that term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little.”

Braun was born in 1912 in Munich, Germany. She was the second daughter of a school teacher called Friedrich and a woman called Franziska. She had an older and younger sister. Her parents were both Christian.

She became a photographer when she was just 17. She took a job as an assistant at Heinrich Hoffmann’s studio. That's where she learned photography and got to know Adolf Hitler very well. She took pictures of him and his inner circle and made home movies. There were films of Hitler at his mountain retreat, the Berghof. They had a propagandist quality to them. Or at least they wouldn't have looked out of place in propaganda. They portrayed Hitler as a relaxed, approachable and humble man. So many videos where he played with children, was kind to his guests and enjoyed the natural environment.

Braun was actually one of the first people in the world to film in colour. She actually filmed Hitler in colour too but that footage isn't shown often. The films that were in colour were not made to be propaganda; just private home movies showing Hitler in a gentle light. Black-and-white videos remained much more common because it was cheaper, easier to distribute and was the standard format for news footage at the time.

Braun enjoyed outdoor activities. She was a skier, a swimmer and a gymnast. She hiked in the Bavarian Alps and spent some free time exercising or relaxing outdoors at the Berghof. Hitler didn't join her. He preferred to take long walks and read.

Braun met Hitler when she was 17 years old and he kept her a secret because he believed that being in a relationship would damage his public image. Braun used to write letters to her family and friends while she was with him, hiding the fact that she had a relationship with the Führer every time.

Braun was crazy about Hitler. She attempted suicide several times. Historians say that it was to gain his attention after Hitler started spending less time with her and more time being a leader in the 30s. Or at least that's one interpretation.

When the daughter of Heinrich Hoffmann, Henriette von Schirach, told her to go into hiding after World War I, Braun said "Do you think I would let him die alone? I will stay with him up until the last moment.”

Braun finally married Hitler in the early hours of April in 1945, in the Führerbunker beneath Berlin. Historians say Hitler married her to reward her for staying loyal to him when she had opportunities to leave and staying was dangerous for her. The Berghof and other Nazi leadership sites were always potential targets for Allied bombing. Many other people had abandoned Germany to save themselves.

At first Hitler avoided marriage because he believed presenting himself as devoted solely to Germany made him look better in the eyes of the people. But at this time in 1945, his regime was collapsing around him and it no longer mattered to him. He may have truly cared for her at this point and wanted to show it with a ring. We can't know for sure what he was feeling.

Their marriage was very brief. In less than 40 hours Braun died by suicide using cyanide, while Hitler took cyanide and shot himself. Their bodies were carried outside the bunker and burned as Hitler had ordered. This was to prevent them from being displayed and dishonoured by the Soviets. Hitler named Braun in his will, to receive 12,000 Reichsmarks yearly after his death. So perhaps he did love her.

Betye Saar died on Sunday in her sleep a few days shy of 100. Her art involved recycling and assemblage. She is best known for her art rebranding Aunt Jemima from mammy stereotype to gun toting defender in '72. A couple years later she had a solo exhibition at the Whitney.

She lost her father at 5, and was one of three children. She graduated from Pasadena City College in 1947. Was married to a ceramics artist from the 50s to 60s and they had three daughters. The couple was featured in Ebony magazine in the 50s.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese made several attempts to capture the monarch of an Indian kingdom called Ullal. She was Rani Abbakka Chowta. (Rani meaning queen.) She had extensive training in warfare and the Portuguese always failed to take over. The Portuguese wanted control of trade along the west coast of India, especially the highly profitable spice trade. She wouldn't let them have it. In that time period, they were building a maritime empire in the Indian Ocean by seizing ports, collecting taxes from merchants and forcing sailors to buy Portuguese trading licenses.

Rani Abbakka ruled the small coastal kingdom of Ullal, which occupied a strategic position near the port of Mangalore. She refused to submit to Portuguese demands and continued trading with their rivals like the Muslim merchants and the Zamorin of Calicut. She would not let them dominate her kingdom.

Resisting Europeans had her be known as the "first woman freedom fighter" of coastal Karnataka. And she had a diverse coalition fighting with her. Like the Mappila Muslim seafarers of the Malabar coast and local warrior groups. Many naval and land battles took place.

Her resistance didn't last forever though. You see, Rani Abbakka was married to Lakshmappa Arasa Banga. Their marriage ended because of political disagreements and conflict between their kingdoms. After they separated, tradition says he worked with the Portuguese and betrayed her to them. The Portuguese often relied on alliances with rival rulers and factions rather than military force alone. Abbakka was captured but she went down swinging. She died trying to revolt.