René Vermeir (° 1965) obtained a MA in Roman Philology (1987) and a MA in History (1990) at Ghent University. In 1991 he became teaching and research assistant in the Department of Early Modern History of the same university, where in 1998 he obtained his Ph.D degree in History with a thesis about the government of the Habsburg Netherlands in the second quarter of the 17th century. The Spanish version of the Ph.D was published in Cordoba, 2006 (En estado de guerra. Felipe IV y Flandes, 1629-1648). After a period as post-doctoral researcher, he was appointed lecturer (2003), senior lecturer (2010) and professor (2012) at Ghent University. Since 2010 he is program director of the Ghent Department of History.
His main research interest is in early modern political and diplomatic history, with a special focus on the Low Countries and the Spanish empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Recent publications by René Vermeir are for instance the articles "Implementing the truce. Negotiations between the Republic and the archducal Netherlands, 1609-1610" (European Review of History - Revue européenne d'histoire 2010, together with T. Roggeman) and "How Spanish were the Spanish Netherlands?” (Dutch Crossing 2012), and the book A Constellation of Courts. The Courts and Households of Habsburg Europe, 1555-1665 (Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2014) he edited together with D. Raeymaekers and J.E. Hortal Muñoz.
Office: Department of History - Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35 - UFO, BE-9000 Gent, Belgium.
