He was educated at the Athenée royale de Liège and then at the École Normale in the same city, graduating in July 1881 with a qualification to teach history in the upper forms of secondary school.
While a student at the École Normale, he had also taken some of Paul Fredericq's courses on National History at the University of Liège.
While teaching he continued to publish his research on the history of the principality of Liège in the early modern period.
In 1906 and again in 1908 he undertook research missions to the Simancas archives to analyse documents relating to Belgian history, particularly during the reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella as joint sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands.
[1] His teaching in Brussels was suspended during the German occupation of Belgium in World War I, and he died in Schaerbeek on 13 December 1918.