Yourcenar, mainly famous for Mémoires d'Hadrien, was the first woman to be elected to the Immortels of the Académie Française, and this depressing fact is referred to in the clue. It is depressing because she died in 1987, having been elected not long before. A more helpful clue is the small quantity of Dutch in the passage, which should place the piece in Belgium. This is correct (though the time is the early 16th century) and Yourcenar herself was a native of Brussels.