Willem 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. Adam Boreel and the jurist Abraham Boreel were brothers; Johan Boreel was a half-brother. From 1618 Boreel worked for the Dutch East India Company as a lawyer, and was part of a mission to resolve the Dutch and British commercial rivalry in the East Indies by a treaty. He was knighted by James I of England.

Boreel became Baron of Vreendijk and Vreenhove. From 1627 to 1649 he was Pensionary of Amsterdam. During that period he travelled to England, with Johan van Reede van Renswouden, in an attempt to mediate in the First English Civil War. Then, from 1650, until his death in Paris on 29 September 1668 he served as Ambassador of the Dutch Republic to France.