orig. Huigh de Groot
born April 10, 1583, Delft, Neth.
died Aug. 28, 1645, Rostock, Mecklinburg-Schwerin
Dutch jurist, humanist, and poet.
He enrolled at Leiden University at age 11 and as a teenager accompanied Johan van East India Company and called for free access to the ocean for all nations. He became attorney general of Holland in 1607. Imprisoned in 1618 when his patron Oldenbarnevelt was executed by Prince Maurice, he escaped to Paris in 1621 (by hiding in a trunk of books) and returned 10 years later, having achieved great international prestige. His legal works advance the idea that nations are bound by {{link=natural law">natural law ; his masterpiece, On the Law of War and Peace (1625), one of the first great contributions to modern international law , prescribes rules for the conduct of war. He also published many translations and works of classical scholarship.
Hugo Grotius, detail of a portrait by M.J. van Mierevelt; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam