Wilhelmus Nuyens

Who was Wilhelmus Nuyens?

Wilhelmus Johannes Franciscus Nuyens better known as Willem Jan Frans Nuyens was a Dutch historian.

Having completed his Humanistic studies in Enkhuizen, he studied medicine at Utrecht, 1842, received the degree of M.D. in 1848, and began practicing in Westwoud near the city of Hoorn. He devoted some of his spare time to literature and history, and he pub-lished, in 1856, a volume of poems entitled: De laatste Dochter der Hohenstaufen, on subjects chiefly from the Middle Ages. Then came a series of historical works, first among which was Het Katholicismus in betrekking met de beschaving van Europa, a history of the influence of Catholicism upon the culture and civilization of European nations. In several pamphlets and in a voluminous work, Geschiedenis der Regering van Pius IX, he treated the Roman question of 1859.

His chief work, Geschiedenis der nederlandsche Beroerten in de XVI. eeuw, a history of the revolutionary wars of the Netherlands from 1559 to 1598, discloses no new sources, but shows what rights Catholics were entitled to in the State. New editions appeared in 1886 and 1904. Somewhat as a sequel he wrote: Geschiedenis der kerkelijke en politieke geschillen in de republiek der zeven vereenigde provincien. Intended for popular reading are: Algemeen Geschiedenis des nederlandschen Volks- van de vroegste tijden tot op onze dagen; Geschiedenis van het nederlandsche Volk van 1815 tot op onze dagen; and the widely read Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis voor de jeugd.