33 Facts About Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius was imprisoned in Loevestein Castle for his involvement in the controversies over religious policy of the Dutch Republic, but escaped hidden in a chest of books that was regularly brought to him and was transported to Gorinchem.

Hugo Grotius was a major figure in the fields of philosophy, political theory and law during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Peter Borschberg suggests that Hugo Grotius was significantly influenced by Francisco de Vitoria and the School of Salamanca in Spain, who supported the idea that the sovereignty of a nation does not lie simply in a ruler through God's will, but originates in its people, who agree to confer such authority upon a ruler.

Hugo Grotius's father was a man of learning, once having studied with the eminent Justus Lipsius at Leiden University, as well as of political distinction.

Hugo Grotius's family was considered Delft patrician as his ancestors played an important role in local government since the 13th century.

Hugo Grotius groomed his son from an early age in a traditional humanist and Aristotelian education.

In Holland, Hugo Grotius earned an appointment as advocate to The Hague in 1599 and then as official historiographer for the States of Holland in 1601.

Hugo Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice.

Hugo Grotius played a decisive part in this politico-religious conflict between the Remonstrants, supporters of religious tolerance, and the orthodox Calvinists or Counter-Remonstrants.

Hugo Grotius ordered his books to be publicly burnt in London, Cambridge, and Oxford, and he exerted continual pressure through his ambassador in the Hague, Ralph Winwood, to get the appointment canceled.

Hugo Grotius joined the controversy by defending the civil authorities' power to appoint whomever they wished to a university's faculty.

Hugo Grotius was eventually asked to draft an edict to express the policy of toleration.

Later that year, Hugo Grotius anonymously published Bona Fides Sibrandi Lubberti in response to Lubbertus.

In early 1616, Hugo Grotius received the 36-page letter championing a remonstrant view Dissertatio epistolica de Iure magistratus in rebus ecclesiasticis from his friend Gerardus Vossius.

Around this time Hugo Grotius went to Amsterdam as part of his official duties, trying to persuade the civil authorities there to join Holland's majority view about church politics.

In early 1617 Hugo Grotius debated the question of giving counter-remonstrants the chance to preach in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague which had been closed.

Hugo Grotius went on a mission to the States of Utrecht to stiffen their resistance against this move, but Maurice prevailed.

Hugo Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment and transferred to Loevestein Castle.

In 1621, with the help of his wife and his maidservant, Elsje van Houwening, Hugo Grotius managed to escape the castle in a book chest and fled to Paris.

Hugo Grotius then fled to Paris, where the authorities granted him an annual royal pension.

Hugo Grotius lived in France almost continuously from 1621 to 1644.

Hugo Grotius's stay coincides with the period during which the Cardinal Richelieu led France under the authority of Louis XIII.

In France in 1625 Hugo Grotius published his most famous book, De jure belli ac pacis [On the Law of War and Peace] dedicated to Louis XIII of France.

Hugo Grotius remained in this position for ten years, where he had the mission to negotiate for Sweden at the end of the Thirty Years' War.

Hugo Grotius developed a particular view of the atonement of Christ known as the "Governmental theory of atonement".

Hugo Grotius theorized that Jesus' sacrificial death occurred in order for the Father to forgive while still maintaining his just rule over the universe.

Hugo Grotius's most lasting work, begun in prison and published during his exile in Paris, was a monumental effort to restrain such conflicts on the basis of a broad moral consensus.

In 1634, Hugo Grotius was given the opportunity to serve as Sweden's ambassador to France.

Hugo Grotius accepted the offer and took up diplomatic residence in Paris, which remained his home until he was released from his post in 1645.

Hugo Grotius was friends with the Brabantian Jesuit Andreas Schottus.

Hugo Grotius was the father of regent and diplomat Pieter de Groot.

Hugo Grotius designed his theory to apply not only to states but to rulers and subjects of law in general.

The influence of Hugo Grotius declined following the rise of positivism in the field of international law and the decline of natural law in philosophy.