Gustaaf Johannes Petrus Renier (25 September 1892, Flushing – 1 September 1962, Twickenham) was professor of Dutch History at University College London.

Renier was the child of Johanna Maria Elisabeth Renier and the maritime pilot Peter Paul Renier,^[1][2] both natives of Flushing.^[3] He was sent to school in Antwerp and Leuven, and studied History at the University of Ghent, beginning a doctorate under Henri Pirenne.

At the outbreak of the First World War he fled to England, working as a journalist, biographer and translator, and became London editor of Nieuwe Courant,^[4] began his PhD at University College in 1921, completing his doctoral thesis on 19th century Anglo-Dutch relations in 1930, under Pieter Geyl. In 1939, Renier was a BBC contract staff member.^[4] In 1936, he succeeded Geyl as Reader in Dutch History at University College London, retiring in 1957.^[5]

In contrast to his former advisor, Geyl, he took the view that Dutch and Belgian nationhood were highly distinct.^{[citation needed]}

On 17 May 1923, he married the Irish novelist Kate O'Brien, but the marriage ended within a year, and divorced 1925.^[6] O'Brien left Bilbao after less than a year, returning to London because of her sudden decision to marry Renier, the marriage only lasted eleven months.^[7]

• Great Britain and the Establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1930)
• The English: are They Human?. Williams & Norgate. 1931.
• The Ill-fated Princess: The Life of Charlotte, Daughter of the Prince Regent (1932)
• William of Orange (1932)
• Oscar Wilde (1933)
• He Came to England (1933)
• Robespierre (1936)
• The Criterion of Dutch Nationhood: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at University College, London on June 4, 1945. G. Allen & Unwin. 1946.^[8]
• History, its Purpose and Method (Boston: Beacon Press, 1950) (Routledge, March 2018)

• E. H. Kossmann, "Gustaaf Johannes Renier", in Politieke theorie en geschiedenis (Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, 1987), pp. 420–424.