After the great division of the Low Countries into the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands formalised in the Peace of Westphalia (1648), "Dutch literature" almost exclusively meant "Republican literature", as the Dutch language fell into disfavour with the southern rulers. A notable exception was the Dunkirk writer Michiel de Swaen (1654–1707), who wrote comedies, moralities and biblical poetry. During his lifetime (1678) the Spanish lost Dunkirk to the French and so De Swaen is also the first French-Flemish writer of importance.