Wikipedia article of the day for January 12, 2026

The Wikipedia article of the day for January 12, 2026 is Elizabeth Alkin.
Elizabeth Alkin (c. 1600 – c. 1655) was a publisher, nurse and spy for the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War (1642–1651). She was also commonly known as Parliamentary Joan, one of many derogatory names she was called by royalist sympathisers. Little is known about Alkin's early life. Her husband was arrested and hanged in 1643 by the royalists during the English Civil War for spying for the Parliamentarians; Alkin continued his work, spying in Oxford—the royalist wartime capital—even during the city's siege. By 1648 Alkin was involved in selling and then publishing Parliamentary newsbooks (example pictured)—the forerunners of newspapers. She used her role as a vendor to track down and report several publishers of royalist material. After the civil war, Alkin nursed casualties of the First Anglo-Dutch War, initially in Portsmouth, then Harwich and Ipswich. With her health failing she returned to London. It is presumed she died shortly afterwards, possibly over the 1655 Christmas period.