Adolf van Meetkercke[a] (1528–1591) (Latin: Adolphus Mekerchus) was a Flemish diplomat and humanist.
He was born in Bruges, into a wealthy family of the nobility.[1]
In 1577, after the Pacification of Ghent, he travelled to England on a diplomatic mission concerned with the First Union of Brussels, with the Marquis of Havrech (Havré), Charles Philippe de Croÿ (1549–1613).[1]
In 1580, he became a Protestant convert.[2] He accompanied Philip Marnix of St. Aldegonde to France, to negotiate the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours with François of Alençon. He was then appointed as chairman of the Flemish governing council.[1] His support for Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in 1587 led to his becoming an exile in England, leaving with Hadrian Saravia. This followed a failed plot to mount a coup in Leiden on behalf of Leicester.[3][4][5]
He died in London in 1591^ .
Hubert Goltzius published his translations of Moschus and Bion of Smyrna in 1565.[6]
He wrote a commendatory poem for the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius.[7]
He married the widow of Jean Wijts of Bruges.[8] With Jacoba Cerbina he had four sons: Adolf, Nicolaas, Anthony, and Baldwin.[3] Nicolaas and Baldwin were killed at the siege of Deventer, Anthony at Zutphen.[9]
Margaret, daughter of John Lichtervelde, was his second wife; Edward Meetkerke, an English clergyman, was his son with her.[3] His daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Westfield.[10] There was another daughter of this marriage, Salome.[1]