Peter the Great...

Greetings,

edespalais...

udents

edespalais...

, it

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iable

edespalais...

ks.

CJ Buyers...

ents

CJ Buyers...

edespalais...

I am a high school history teacher and was reading ahead of my students
in our text. In the book's discussion of Russia's Peter the Great, it
mentions that on his trips to the west it was difficult to blend in
because he stood 7 feet tall. Is this true? I don't have many reliable
sources at hand to corroborate this, but would love to know. Thanks.

Keith J. Brown...

The sources I searched the web for say he was 6'7", which sounds about right from
what I remember reading elsewhere. Still, he would have been noticeable.

(Gary Holtzman) garyholtzman...

Robert K. Massie, in his highly regarded biography, uses the 6'7" figure.

=?iso-8859-1?B?SmFuIEL2aG1l?=...

The height of Peter the Great is marked on "Konges=F8jlen" (The King
Column") in the cathedral of Roskilde in Denmark at 2 meters 7
centimeters (between 6'9" and 6'10") above ground level. However, he

edespalais...

edespalais...

afe

was measured fully clothed, and it is likely that he had riding boots
with some type of heels while being measured. It seems reasonably safe
to assume that he was around 6' 8" naked.

CJ Buyers...

Did they have metric measurements in Denmark at that time?

=?iso-8859-1?B?SmFuIEL2aG1l?=...

Of course not. But please note my use of present tense. It is still
marked on the column, because it was engraved in the column, together
with the identification of wich personage was measured.

So the original mark is there, ready to be remeasured in whatever new
measuring system thet might be introduced.

Jan B=F6hme

michael james...

Considering that Peter the Great lived in the 17th century and early
18th, that's about a hundred years before the Metric system.

edespalais...

As a young child 6-to -8 years one was taken to this cathedral by one's
mother, therefore before 1948. One was told Austria also has an
Emperor, his height is marked, one was told and shwon where. (If one
remember correctly). Later one read Emperor Charles I son was invited
by the king of Sweden. Obviously on his way he also visited the king of
Denmark. And ..

Once marked you can recalculate in any measurement a visitor's height,
here in meters.

CJ Buyers...

Indeed one can recaculate everything, and do so three times over, but
one risks a calculation error at every calculation. Then again, if the
mark isn't in the original contemporary measure, one has to ask what
else isn't original?

=?iso-8859-1?B?SmFuIEL2aG1l?=...

Of course the mark is the original contemporary measure. Whet made you
thnk otherwise.

FYI, the figure of 2 meters 7 centimeters is a measurement of the
distance between the mark and the church floor. It isn't inscribed
beside, or in place of, the mark.

CJ Buyers...

Then it isn't a measure of the King's height. It is no more than a
modern measure of the distance between the notch in the wall and the
floor as they now stand.

We do not know where the starting point was. We do not know how the
floor may have worn over the last 300 years, been repaired, been
restored, or whether another layer of flooring, decking or straw
existed at the time.

Jan B=F6hme

edespalais...

On such Royal Marks one would not dare to do any kind of changes, at
least in Denmark.

Furthermore one remember to have read it was difficult to "bed" the
tsar!

One would rather translate the Royal Column or the Column of Kings

=?iso-8859-1?B?SmFuIEL2aG1l?=...

One can dispute that. I actually took a minute to ponder on the
suitable translation. The problem with your two suggestions is that
they normally would be the English translation of "Den Konglige S=F8jle"
and "Kongernes S=F8jle", respectively.

My reason for chosing "the King Column" was primarily that it preserves
the ambiguity of the original between the two meanings "The King of
Columns" and "the Column of the King/Kings" - although of course the
intended meaning is perfectly clear in this case.

But I agree that one can argue about the proper translation.

Jan B=F6hme

(Emperors and any ruling prince.)

If one indeed see Emperor Charles I marked here, it means how he was
considered by the King in Copenhagen (who's father was received by
Francis Joseph I, as one of his daughters told to one in 1958)

Jan B=F6hme