{{Short description|Dutch diplomat (1591–1668)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{Infobox person | birth_date = 2 March 1591 | birth_place = Middelburg, Zeeland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1668|09|29|1591|03|02|df=y}} | death_place = Paris | occupation = Diplomat | family = Boreel }} '''Sir Willem Boreel, 1st Baronet''' (2 March 1591 – 29 September 1668) was a Dutch diplomat.
==Biography== Willem Boreel was born in Middelburg, Zeeland on 2 March 1591 into the Boreel baronets, the son of Jacob Boreel (1552–1636), burgomaster of Bergen-op-Zoom.<ref>John Penry Lewis, ''List of inscriptions on tombstones and monuments in Ceylon, of historical or local interest, with an obituary of persons uncommemorated'' (1913) p. 110; [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924007648516#page/n127/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> Adam Boreel and the jurist Abraham Boreel were brothers; Johan Boreel was a half-brother.<ref>{{in lang|nl}} [http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/retroboeken/nnbw/#accessor=accessor_index&accessor_href=accessor_index%3FSearchSource%253Autf-8%253Austring%3Dboreel&view=transcriptiePane&page=94&source=7 Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, ''Boreel, Jacob''.]</ref> From 1618 Boreel worked for the Dutch East India Company as a lawyer,<ref>{{cite book|author1=Siegfried Huigen|author2=Jan L. De Jong|author3=Elmer Kolfin|title=The Dutch Trading Companies As Knowledge Networks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8d09WTv7fUC&pg=PA133|year=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-18659-0|page=133}}</ref> and was part of a mission to resolve the Dutch and British commercial rivalry in the East Indies by a treaty.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bibliotheca Visseriana Disserationvm Ivs Internationale Inllvstrantivm Cvra Facvltatis Ivridicae Lvgdvno-batavae Edita|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IkeAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA131|publisher=Brill Archive|page=131|id=GGKEY:20UJADURTEJ}}</ref> He was knighted by James I of England.<ref name="HeldenDupré2010">{{cite book|author1=Albert Van Helden|author2=Sven Dupré|author3=Rob van Gent|title=The Origins of the Telescope|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XguxYlYd-9EC&pg=PA21|year=2010|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=978-90-6984-615-6|pages=21–2}}</ref>
Boreel became Baron of Vreendijk and Vreenhove. From 1627 to 1649 he was Pensionary of Amsterdam.<ref name="Mijers">{{cite book|author1=Esther Mijers|author2=David Onnekink|title=Redefining William III: The Impact of the King-stadholder in International Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9J75Re5MLkQC&pg=PA237|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-8639-2|pages=237–8}}</ref> During that period he travelled to England, with Johan van Reede van Renswouden, in an attempt to mediate in the First English Civil War.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=23279|title=Reede van Renswouden, Johan van|first=Marika|last=Keblusek}}</ref> Then, from 1650, until his death in Paris on 29 September 1668 he served as Ambassador of the Dutch Republic to France.<ref name="Mijers"/>
==Telescope investigation== In 1655, Boreel assisted in the controversy over trying to figure out who invented the telescope. He had a local magistrate in Middelburg in the Netherlands follow up on his recollection of a spectacle maker who told Boreel in 1610 about inventing the telescope. The magistrate was contacted by a then unknown claimant, Middelburg spectacle maker Johannes Zachariassen, who testified that his father, Zacharias Janssen invented the telescope and the microscope as early as 1590. This testimony seemed to convincing to Boreel, who now recollected that Zacharias must have been who he remembered.<ref name="HeldenDupré2010"/> Boreel's conclusion that Zacharias Janssen invented the telescope a little ahead of another spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, was adopted by Pierre Borel in his 1656 book on the subject.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Albert Van Helden|author2=Sven Dupré|author3=Rob van Gent|title=The Origins of the Telescope|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XguxYlYd-9EC&pg=PA25|year=2010|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=978-90-6984-615-6|page=25}}</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-reg|en-bt}} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl|title=Baronet<br />'''(of Amsterdam)''' | years=1645–1668}} {{s-aft|after=John Boreel}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boreel, Willem}} Category:1591 births Category:1668 deaths Category:17th-century Dutch diplomats Category:17th-century Dutch lawyers Category:Ambassadors to France Category:People from Middelburg, Zeeland Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of England Category:Dutch barons