Guillaume de Steenhuys

Guillaume de Steenhuys, Lord of Flers (1558–1638) was a noble magistrate and diplomat in the Spanish Netherlands.

Family 
Steenhuys was born at Lannoy on 8 October 1558, son of Jean de Steenhuys, Lord of Linghen, and Charlotte de Preys.

In 1591 he married Marguerite de Gottignies, daughter of Lancelot, Lord of la Haye. They had two children:
Marie de Steenhuys; married to Philippe de Spanghen, Lord of Ter Liest.
Philippe-Guillaume de Steenhuys, who succeeded his father and became Baron of Poederlee; further descendants.

Career 
He obtained the degree of licentiate in law and on 7 June 1601 he was appointed a councillor of the Great Council of Mechelen, on 3 May 1611 councillor and master of requests of the Brussels Privy Council, and in 1613 commissioner in fiscal cases. He was an important advisor on monetary law.

In June 1617 and January 1619 he travelled to Antwerp and Leuven to investigate the publication of Corona Regia, a scandalous libel of James VI and I. In 1618–1619 he undertook a mission to the King of France, and in 1620 to Ambrogio Spinola in the Rhine Palatinate. On 8 May 1622 he was appointed to the Council of State and in October of the same year he was discharged as a privy councillor and despatched to assist the Spanish delegation at the Diet of Regensburg (1623). The same year he was knighted.

He returned to Brussels in April 1623. On 1 January 1627 he was appointed to the Admiralty council.

Steenhuys died at Brussels on 30 April 1638 and was buried in the Dominican church in the city.

References

Category:Belgian diplomats
Category:Belgian judges
Category:Flemish nobility
Category:Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War (Spanish Empire)
Category:1558 births
Category:1638 deaths