Trijntje Keever, daughter of Cornelis, was known as “The Great Maiden” (born January 10 or 16, 1616, Edam, Netherlands; died July 2, 1633, Ter Veen, Netherlands). At 8 feet 6 inches (260 cm), Trijntje Keever was quite possibly the tallest woman in documented history.
Trijntje Keever’s Life
Born as Trijntje Cornelisdochter Keever to the parents Cornelis Keever and Anna Pauwels in 1616, her father was originally from Elbing, Prussia (now Elblong), although he was a Dutch sailor. His first wife, Maria Kooning, was the mother of his two children. On May 24, 1605, he married his maidservant Anna, a native of Nieuwendam (today a suburb of Amsterdam).
Trijntje exploded in height so rapidly that she soon no longer needed a ladder to reach the roof’s gutters. The family put their daughter on display at fairs and carnivals to earn some extra money. On June 30th, 1625, Trijntje was the subject of a royal account.
On their trip to England, Frederick V, Elector Palatinate and King of Bohemia, his wife Elizabeth Stuart, Princess Amalia of Solm-Braunfels, and the retinue all stopped at Edam, and the burgomaster there showed them the 6 feet, 6.75 inches (2 m) child, Trijntje Keever.
In her letter, maid of honor Crofts referred to Trijntje Keever as “a nine-year-old girl of amazing magnitude“. When paired with the tallest man in the retinue, a Scottish officer named Andrew Grey, Trijntje towered above him like a monument. The girl’s name was not actually mentioned in the account, but she was likely no one else than Trijntje Keever.
On July 2, 1633, Trijntje passed away at the age of 17 in the Zealand town of Ter Veen, where her parents often took her for public displays. The burial of Trijntje, the Great Maiden, at the Edam Great Church on July 7 is documented in the Edam church book.
A Case of Gigantism
Willem Kreithoff testified in 1756 that Trijntje’s gravestone read, “Trijntje Keever, the great maiden, 17 years old.” If Trijntje hadn’t died this early, she would most likely be the tallest person in recorded history, surpassing Robert Wadlow (8’11.1″; 272 cm), who was 8’3″ (251 cm) when he was 17.
The Edam Museum’s branch, the old town hall, has a painting of Trijntje Keever by an unidentified artist. She is shown at full height, dressed like a proper lady. A set of keys hangs from her belt on the left, while on her right side, there is a pincushion and a case to store utensils.
The engraving suggests that the portrait shows the girl as more attractive than her actual appearance.
This was likely due to the presence of acromegaly, which is a disorder that occurs when our body produces too much growth hormone (GH). The acromegaly has been the case with all extremely tall people with gigantism, such as John Rogan, Robert Wadlow, Patrick Cotter O’Brien, or Bernard Coyne.
Her shoe length was around 14–16 inches (36–40 cm). Her original footwear is included in the exhibit today, and it proves to be number 54 in the EU, which corresponds to US women’s shoe size 22.5.
A Mysterious Painter
Peter Dirks (d. 1606), known as Longbeard for his beard being twice as long as his body, and Jan Claas Klees, a landowner who weighed 455 pounds (206 kg), were both depicted by the same anonymous artist, who had a propensity for the extraordinary.
William FitzWilliam (Lord Deputy) and Cosimo de Medici both studied these three paintings in detail in 1663 and 1668, respectively, and shared their thoughts.
These three paintings were first displayed at the town inn and then eventually moved to the municipal building by 1874. The French author and art critic Henry Havard confirms this in his book, “Journey to the Ghost Towns of the Zuiderzee” (Paris, 1874).
The paintings were eventually moved to the Edam Museum in the Netherlands. In the main museum building today, you can see portraits of Peter Dirks and Jan Klaas Klees, while in the branch, you can see the portrait of Trijntje Keever.
How Tall Was Trijntje Keever?
The numbers related to “The Great Maiden” vary across works. The book “Reports on Ancient Imperial Archives” gives her height as 8 feet, 3.9 inches (253.7 cm). According to Servaas de Braine’s “Historical and Geographical Dictionary“, her height was around 8 feet, 4.2 inches (254.5 cm).
Oleksandr Ametov’s “Acromegaly and Gigantism” states that her height was around 8 feet, 4.4 inches (255 cm) in height. Liu Yujin (born 1920), a Chinese lady, was reportedly 9 feet, 2.2 inches tall (280 cm), according to the same source.
Trijntje Keever is reported to be 8 feet, 5.2 inches tall (257 cm) in the 1980 edition of Antiek. The greatest height figure ever stated for her was 8 feet, 6.2 inches (259.6 cm) in Hugo Grotius’s poetical works. Nonetheless, all height figures point to one fact: Trijntje Keever was the tallest woman in recorded history, as well as the fourth-tallest person ever.
