1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kervyn de Lettenhove, Constantine Bruno, Baron

KERVYN DE LETTENHOVE, CONSTANTINE BRUNO, Baron, (1817–1891), Belgian historian, was born at Saint-Michel-les-Bruges in 1817. He was a member of the Catholic Constitutional party and sat in the Chamber as member for Eecloo. In 1870 he was appointed a member of the cabinet of Anethan as minister of the interior. But his official career was short. The cabinet appointed as governor of Lille one Decker, who had been entangled in the financial speculations of Langand-Dumonceau by which the whole clerical party had been discredited, and which provoked riots. The cabinet was forced to resign, and Kervyn de Lettenhove devoted himself entirely to literature and history. He had already become known as the author of a book on Froissart (Brussels, 1855), which was crowned by the French Academy. He edited a series of chronicles—Chroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des ducs de Bourgogne (Brussels, 1870–1873), and Rélations politiques des Pays Bas et de l’Angleterre sous le regne de Philippe II. (Brussels, 1882–1892). He wrote a history of Les Hugenots et les Gueux (Bruges, 1883–1885) in the spirit of a violent Roman Catholic partisan, but with much industry and learning. He died at Saint-Michel-les-Bruges in 1891.

See Notices biographiques et bibliographiques de l’académie de Belgique for 1887.