About Women who “Busied Themselves with Brigandage”: Katarzyna Włodkowa Skrzyńska and Barbara Rusinowska, Forgotten Lady Robbers from the 15th Century

Historiographic sources contain the memory of two 15th-century female rob­bers: Katarzyna Włodkowa Skrzyńska and Barbara Rusinowska. The former was the wife of Włodek from Skrzynów of the Swan coat of arms, who lived in Barwałd Castle in the area of Zator and reigned terror in the whole region. We are concerned here with a peculiar phenomenon, that is, a husband–wife duo of robbers, and the fact that they were both of noble birth only spices up this story. Barbara Rusinowska, who was active in the Świętokrzyskie Moun­tains, was also from a noble family. She attacked manor houses and merchant wagons, and her characteristic trait was her men’s attire. Both bandits were finally captured and executed. The article introduces the life story of these women and compares various (often contradictory) information about their brigandage that has survived in ancient chronicles. In the nineteenth cen­tury, Rusinowska became the heroine of a stage drama written by Aleksander Ładnowski.