The surname of the Brussels schoolmaster who taught Charlotte and Emily Brontë was Héger, also commonly written Heger.
Constantin Héger was a Belgian professor who taught languages, literature and related subjects in Brussels. In 1842, Charlotte and Emily Brontë travelled there to enrol at the boarding school run by Héger and his wife, Claire, in the hope of improving their language skills before opening a school of their own.
The sisters spent about six months as pupils. Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music in exchange for board and tuition. Charlotte was especially impressed by Constantin’s intellect and teaching style, while Emily was reportedly less enthusiastic about him as a teacher.
Héger later became an important influence on Charlotte’s fiction. Her experiences in Brussels helped shape The Professor and Villette, and elements of her relationship with Héger have often been discussed alongside Jane Eyre. The spelling “Heger” without an accent also appears in English-language sources, but “Héger” is the same surname.