Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq

Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522–1592) was a Flemish diplomat in the service of the Habsburgs. The illegitimate son of a lord of Bousbecque, he studied at Louvain and in Italy and in 1554 was sent by Ferdinand I as ambassador to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent in Constantinople, where he remained for most of the next eight years. His four Latin Turkish Letters, describing Ottoman society, the army and the court, became classics of travel writing. He brought back manuscripts, coins and plants, including tulips and lilacs, later served as tutor and steward in the imperial household, and spent his last years in France.