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Biography
Guillaume de Steenhuys (1558–1638) was a magistrate and diplomat in the Spanish Netherlands.
Steenhuys was born at Lannoy on 8 October 1558. He obtained the degree of licentiate in law and in 1591 married Marguerite de Gottignies.
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 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). 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.