It must have been a stunning woman; Anna Cornelia van der Maade. In the nineteenth century, she runs the inn of Gendt and Loos in Oosterhout and do not get out to visitors about her overwhelming beauty. Men fall by bushes in front of her and even King Willem II and his son William III would have shared the bed with her. Willem III is even impressed that he gives her a beautiful golden necklace in 1870. With her external appearance she deserves the name under which she is still known: beautiful Keetje.
Anyone who wants to catch a glimpse of what this lovable beauty has looked like can admire her statue on the corner of the Leijsenhoek and Mathildastraat. There she was immortalized in 1979 on a now -green base, near the place where the inn she once stood. It is an unsightly and windy corner, right behind her, a electrical installation screwed against the wall disuses the face.
That image is in stark contrast to how writer, poet, pastor and professor Nicolaas Beets describes her in Camera Obscura. This well -known collection of stories, which he created under the pseudonym Hildebrand, originally appeared in 1839, but the story about beautiful Keetje is added later.
“Keetje, the finest, the Netst circumcised mouth of all Noord-Brabant girls, whom I saw under some position. Keetje, with the rankest figure, the sweetest feet, the smallest hands with dimples on everyone’s finger. That white face, that that Great blue eyes, with that penetrating storage.
Not only Hildebrand falls like a block for her beauty, good character and humor, but also many other man who gets to know her. And there are probably thousands. The just 23-year-old Keetje takes over the inn from her parents in 1830. Just at that time, the Belgian rebellion begins, which eventually leads to the separation of the Netherlands in 1839. Crown prince Willem II is traveling through Brabant to teach our Zuiderburen a lesson. The Oosterhout inn is on the path and there Willem and his men get under the spell of her. Although the prince is stationed in Raamsdonksveer, he regularly visits his ‘Princenlief’, even when he is later king.
Hildebrand gets to know Keetje exactly in the same way as he was stationed in Oosterhout in 1832. He returns in 1839 and that is the moment he decides to include her in his collection of stories. They have always been maintaining contact with each other since then, until old age. Whether they have also shared the bed is unknown. But their first meeting makes an indelible impression on Hildebrand: “The large pleated slippery from the Brabant hat, where two dark flat -grounds looked for hair locks, fell over a dark red cloth with green windows that her shoulders and bosom covered high in the neck, And wonderfully off with her white kinnetje. “
He is also deeply impressed by her character. “Nobody who she treated or angry. She remained so sweet and friendly to everyone that everyone thought they were on good terms with her …”
Keetje retains her exceptional beauty even when she is old and that gives her much more alongside a gold chain of Willem III. The showroom of her inn is full of all kinds of gifts that her admirers give her. Only in 1885 did Oosterhoutse born in 1807 sell its catering facility. Ten years later she dies in a guest house in her hometown. She is then 87 years old.
Past
Aflied past is a weekly section about fun, remarkable or funny facts from the rich Brabant past. If you have a tip, mail to: [email protected]