Gilles II of Busleyden (; ) was a knight, viscount, and a correspondent of Desiderius Erasmus.
Biography Gilles II de Busleyden was born in Arlon into an old Luxembourg family from Bauschleyden. His father was Gilles I, and his mother was Jeanne Elisabeth de Mussey of Marville, Meuse.Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation. (2003). Germany: University of Toronto Press. His brothers were François, Valérien, and Jérôme de Busleyden. Gilles II married Adrienne de Goudeval (or Gondeval), Viscountess of Grimbergen, and had around five children.Delfortrie, É. (1856). Mémoire sur les analogies des langues Flamande, Allemande et Anglaise, ou étude comparée de ces idiomes, en réponse a la question suivante: Constater les analogies que présentent les langues Flamande, [...]. Belgium: Hayez.
His father brought him to the court of Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, where he was appointed receiver for Luxembourg, Arlon, and Thionville on 20 March 1490. He resigned in 1498 in favor of his brother Valérien de Busleyden and became the first master of the Chamber of Accounts in Brabant, rising to president by 1510.De Vegiano, J., de Herckenrode, J. S. F. J. L. (1870). Nobiliaire des Pays-Bas et du Comté de Bourgogne: AA. (n.p.): Gyselynck.
His wife Adrienne came into possession of the Horst Castle in 1521 until 1554.Annales de la Société royale d'archéologie de Bruxelles: Mémoires, rapports et documents. (1896). Belgium: E. Lyon-Claesen, Editeur. Giles held the title of Viscount of Grimbergen and was the Lord of Guirsch, Horst, Sint-Pieters-Rode, Kortrijk, and Thommen.
He inherited properties from his father in Bauschleyden. Gilles II represented the Busleyden family as an executor of the will of his brother Jérôme de Busleyden.Neyen, A. (1860). Biographie Luxembourgeoise: histoire des hommes distingués originaires de ce pays considéré à l'époque de sa plus grande étendue, ou qui se sont rendus remarquables pendant le séjour qu'ils y ont fait. Luxembourg: Bruck. In 1517, he helped execute his plan to establish the Collegium Buslidianum in Louvain. Gilles' exchanges with Desiderius Erasmus highlight Erasmus's advocacy to the Louvain faculty regarding the proposal and his attempts to recruit faculty for the available positions. Erasmus, D. (2019). Collected Works of Erasmus: The New Testament Scholarship of Erasmus, Volume 41. Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Death Gilles II de Busleyden died on 14 July 1536 in Arlon, Habsburg Netherlands (now Belgium). He was buried in the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula (now Brussels' cathedral).
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