wrote an essay titled Verhandeling op d'Onacht der moederlycke tael in de Nederlanden (Essay on the disregard of the native language in the Low Countries). It is considered to be the first movement in favour of the Flemish language, but also in favour of freedom and democracy.

Before the creation of the Belgian state, the French language had already been for centuries a lingua franca for the bourgeoisie and noble elites among