Jean François Willems

Jan Frans Willems (11 March 1793 – 24 June 1846), Flemish writer and father of the Flemish movement.

Willems was born in the Belgian city of Boechout, while that was under French occupation. He started his career in the office of a notary in Antwerp.

He devoted his leisure to literature, and in 1810 he gained a prize for poetry with an ode in celebration of the peace of Tilsit. He hailed with enthusiasm the foundation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the revival of Flemish literature; and he published a number of spirited and eloquent writings in support of the claims of the native tongue of the Netherlands.

His political sympathies were with the Orange party at the revolution of 1830, and these views led him into trouble with the provisional government. Willems, however, was soon recognized as the unquestioned leader of the Flemish popular movement, the chief plank in whose platform he made the complete equality of the languages in the government and the law courts. He died in Ghent in 1846.

Among his writings, which were quite numerous, the most important were:

Also, several learned critical editions of old Flemish texts.

Biographies of Willems have been written by Ferdinand Augustijn Snellaert (Ghent, 1847) and Max Rooses (Antwerp, 1874). (New International Encyclopedia). Also published by Rooses, Julius Vuylsteke, and Anton Bergmann is Jan Frans Willems, (Ghent, 1893).

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