Hugo Grotius, the father of the modern science of international law

Front matter

Vreeland, Hamilton, 18 Hugo Grotius

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Preface

When this book was begun the world was little interested in the work of the Hollander, Hugo Grotius. To-day, his writings in the field of International Law are once more in the glare of public scrutiny. I say once more, for, during the three hundred years that have run their course since Grotius lived and wrote, his work as a jurist has from time to time been subjected to the severest of tests, occasioned by armed conflicts between nations. Yet the principles which this man laid down to govern the conduct of nations with one another have remained intact to a remarkable degree up to the present day. They have stood the test of time.

The mind of Grotius was projected simultaneously into so many fields, was productive of the finest work in so many subjects, that it is almost impossible to discuss fully and minutely his many phases. His work as a theologian, poet, and historian I have attempted briefly to set forth, but it is his work as a jurist, international lawyer, statesman, and diplomatist that has claimed most of my attention. It is Grotius, the father of the modern science of International Law, who lives to-day, and it is this Grotius whose life I have endeavored to write.

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PREFACE

There is exceedingly little published in English on this great man. As one scans the record of history and international politics he comes, from time to time, upon the name, but it is seldom more than a name. The books I have most relied upon are Caspar Brandt’s “Historie van het leven des heeren Huig de Groot,” with Adriaan van Cattenburgh’s “Vervolg der Historie van het leven des heeren Huig de Groot,” and De Burigny’s “Vie de Grotius.”

Caspar Brandt is one of the greatest of Dutch historians. He died before he had completed the life of Grotius, having carried it to the year 1632. An attempt by his son to finish the work was abandoned, and Cattenburgh, also a prolific and exhaustive writer, completed the undertaking. The first edition of the work of Brandt and Cattenburgh appeared at Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1727, the second edition at the same places in 1732. It will thus be seen that these men wrote at a time most advantageous to their work. Enough years had passed to enable them to obtain the proper perspective as well as to secure access to important letters.

During my research work at the University of Leiden, I was able to verify many of Brandt’s and Cattenburgh’s references. From this investigation it is evident that their work is all most accurate, and that they justly deserve the reputation they enjoy in Holland. I may further add that I have

PREFACE

IX seen letters from Pieter and Hugo de Groot, son and grandson of Grotius, to Brandt, offering documents and letters in their possession to the historian for use in his work.

The first edition of De Burigny was published in 1752 at Paris, the second in 1754 at Amsterdam. The references to this work are to the second edition. Burigny’s work I have also investigated and found most trustworthy.

In addition to these sources, I have read many of the Latin letters of Grotius. The references to these epistles are to the collection of the year 1687, “H. Grotii Epistolae quotquot reperiri potuerunt. Amstelodami, 1687.” The other works mentioned in the foot-notes, being more recent publications, speak for themselves.

Grateful thanks I wish to express to Dr. Leonard C. van Noppen, Queen Wilhelmina Professor of Dutch Literature at Columbia University, and the translator of Vondel’s “Lucifer.” To him I owe the stimulus that led me to undertake this book, and it was under his instruction that I learned my first Dutch. Throughout the time of research and writing his interest and encouragement have been a constant aid.

I wish also to thank most heartily Messrs. Wouter Nijhoff and August Heyting of The Hague, and Professors Kalff, van Eysinga, and van Vollenhoven of the University of Leiden for references I should probably never have found alone, and for

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PREFACE kindly aid along the paths of rather difficult old Dutch.

To Dr. John Bassett Moore, Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia University; and to Dr. George M. Priest of Princeton University, I am also greatly indebted for very helpful criticism of this work.

Finally I wish to make public expression of my deep gratitude to my father and mother for their assistance, without which this undertaking would have been impossible.

New York, April, 1917.

H. V., Jr.

Chapter I Page

Grotius’ birth — His ancestry — His boyhood and early studies— Enters the University of Leiden — His work there — Reputation as a youth — Grotius goes to France with a special embassy.

Chapter II

The journey of the envoys — Grotius meets King Henry of France — His stay in that country — Returns to Holland and registers as a lawyer — Early writings — The “Adamus Exul,” “Christus Patiens,” “Sophomphaneas”

— Friendship of Grotius and Vondel.

CHAPTER HI

Grotius is chosen to write a history of his country — His method of pleading — Dissatisfaction with the practice of law — The “De Jure Praedae” — Chosen for office of Attorney General — Marries Maria van Reigersbergen — Grotius publishes “The Free Sea” — England attempts to refute his teachings — “History of Old Holland” published — “History of the Netherlands 1560-1609” completed — Grotius becomes Pensionary of Rotterdam— The Dutch-English fisheries dispute, over which Grotius is sent to England — Grotius’ directions for study.

CHAPTER IV Theological and Political Controversy 68

The Arminius-Gomar theological controversy — Maurice favors the Gomarists, Grotius the Arminians — Grotius draws up an Edict to restore tranquillity — The political breach — Grotius is a member of a deputation to Amsterdam — The Prince resorts to force — The 25th of July in Utrecht — Arrest of Grotius.

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CONTENTS xii

Chapter V Page

National Synod held — Intervention of Louis XIII in behalf of the prisoners — Grotius writes to Prince Maurice — Letters to and from his wife — His first examination — Ledenberg kills himself — Barneveld’s sentence and death — Grotius condemned to perpetual imprisonment.

Chapter VI

Grotius is transported to Loevestein — His literary work there — His escape.

CHAPTER VII Residence in Paris and Literary Products ISO

Grotius takes up his residence in Paris — His reception there — Madame de Groot arrives in Paris — Grotius is granted a pension — “The Truth of the Christian Religion” ready for the press — Other literary products — The “Justification of the Lawful Government of Holland and West Friesland,” and its effect — Grotius moves to Balagni — Begins the “De Jure Belli ac Pacis” — His services sought by the Prince of Holstein and the King of Denmark — The death of Hoogerbeets.

CHAPTER XI Diplomatic Activities and Death 211

Further negotiations — The conduct of Schmalz — Death of the Duke of Weimar, and the scheme of Charles Louis — His arrest and release — The exchange of Horn and de Vert — Renewal of the French-Swedish treaty — Arrival of Cerisante — Grotius is recalled — His death.

Chapter XII

Literary products of Grotius’ last years — Praise of the statesman — The United States decorates the tomb of Grotius — Grotius as a living force.

Chapter I

Grotius’ birth — His ancestry — His boyhood and early studies — Enters the University of Leiden — His work there — Reputation as a youth — Grotius goes to France with a special embassy.

The heroic siege of Leiden had been history for eight years, ^ and the world-famous University of that name, given to the burghers of the town by William the Silent, Prince of Orange, as an undying manifestation of his gratitude for, and appreciation of, their heroism and bravery, was still in its infancy, when there came into the world the man who was destined to become the foremost scholar, theologian, lawyer, statesman, and diplomatist of his age, and a poet and historian by no means insignificant.

Huig or Hugo de Groot, named after his grandfather, and better known by the Latinized form of the name, Grotius, was born in Delft at seven o’clock in the evening of Easter Sunday, the tenth of

1 The Siege of Leiden lasted from November, 1573, to October

April, 1583," the same year in which the Count of Anjou had undertaken his “rash assault against the Netherlands.” ® It was at the very crisis of the great struggle between Spain and the Netherlands begun by Charles V twenty years before and carried on after his death by his son Philip II, and in the very town where, one year later, William of Orange was struck down by the hand of Balthazar Gerard, the agent of Philip II of Spain.

All Europe was then overshadowed with black clouds of massacre, assassination, and war. Fifteen years before, the Holy Inquisition had sent forth the Edict condemning all Hollanders to death as heretics; eleven years before, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew had furnished the precedent for the murder of peoples and assassination of rulers which was followed in 1575 in Antwerp, and which was made more easy of repetition by the frenzied tendencies of the time. The Thirty Years’ War, the greatest of the so-called religious wars of Europe, was approaching with the sureness of Fate.

Does it not seem fitting that the man whom pos-

2 For a time there was some controversy over the date of Grotius’ birth ; some, among them Bouhier, claiming that he was born in 1582. However, an examination of the letters of Grotius has left no doubt in the matter, for, on Easter Sunday, 1615, Grotius wrote (Ep. 55, p. 18) to Vossius that, on that day, he was 32; on March 25th, 1617 (Ep. 95, p. 41) to the same friend, “Easter Eve, which begins my thirty-fifth year” ; on Easter Day, 1644 (Ep. 697, p. 965), that he was 61 years old. He also informs us that he was 15 when he first went to France (Poems, p. 213), which was in 1598, and that he was 31 on Easter Day, 1614 (Poems, p. 217). The hour of Grotius’ birth is given by Brandt, “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, p. 5.

3 This was in January, 1583 — Brandt’s “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, pp. 5, 6.

terity was to call the Father of International Law, whose “Rights of War and Peace” was destined to serve humanity more effectively than any work not attributed to divine inspiration, should have first seen the troubled skies of these terrible years in the waning light of an Easter eve ? Each year throughout his life he celebrated the day of his birth on Easter Sunday.*

That Grotius was well born there is not a particle of doubt. Brandt, the old Dutch historian, tells us that “De Groot was born of an ancient and important family,” ® and then speaks of the origin of the great lawyer in these words — “It is clear from old memoirs, that there were for several centuries in the Province of Delft many castles and strongholds of noble ancestral houses, among which the castle of Kraeyenburg excelled, lying between Delft and The Hague, to the East of the canal, which, in the general opinion, was dug by order of the Roman General Corbulo, and runs to Leiden, in the place which (though this is not certain) one, in his walking, still ® sees the house called ‘Crows-Nest’ — occupied by the gentleman Herbert van Beaumont, Secretary of the States of Holland and West Friesland. Further it is gathered from no dark sources, that this house of Kraeyenburg has been one and the same house or race with that from which the family of the ‘Great’

* Burigny’s “Vie de Grotius,” Bk. I, p. 7 ; Ep. 490, p. 895.

® The first edition of Brandt’s “Het Leven van Huig de Groot” was published in 1727.

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(Grooten), taken from the Dutch given name de Groot, has taken its origin, this given name of ‘Great’ having existed in this family for more than four hundred years and in all probability having been given to them for some great and excellent service to the Fatherland. For, from the public registers it is ascertained that the descendant offspring of this stock have been born not only very great lovers of their land, but also brave maintainers of the laws of the land, without giving any thought to their own danger. These men, now that among many others, the castle of Kraeyenburg was annihilated and ruined by civil and foreign wars, betook themselves at last within the adjacent town of Delft, and being received there as lords and being admitted to the most ancient offices of dignity of the State, have held the honorable positions under the same title of de Groot, up to our time, keeping always the coat of arms of the family of Kraeyenburg, which still belongs to the house of de Groot and are even her very own, as the most certain proof of their origin.” ^

As for the parentage of Hugo de Groot, we know that in the beginning of the sixteenth century there traveled into the low countries a gentleman from France. This man, stopping at Delft, became acquainted with the only daughter of the Burgomaster there, and, falling in love with her, finally obtained her hand in marriage. The name of the bridegroom was Cornelius Cornets, who “held his origin from the family of Cornets, which had come from France to the Netherlands with the Counts of Borgonje.” ® The bride was Ermgardt de Groot, whose grandfather, Hugo de Groot, in 1485, at the age of forty had come to Delft, and whose father Dirk Huigen de Groot had continually filled the offices of Alderman, Treasurer, Burgomaster, and Receiver there, from the year 1491 to the time of his death in 1523.

But the young lady appears to have had a mind of her own about some things, and was not to be won without certain concessions on the part of her prospective husband. It seems that about 1530 the male descendants of the dead Burgomaster had disappeared and that Ermgardt de Groot, finding herself the “head of a house of very great means,” ® refused to marry Cornets unless “the sons, which should be born, should have no other name than that of de Groot.” Cornets consented, how readily we do not know, and so it was that the son of this marriage, the grandfather of the great statesman, was named Hugo Cornelius de Groot. Brandt describes the grandfather of Grotius as a man who “reached a high summit of learning in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages,” who “combined the names, coats of arms, means and titles of both houses, namely of de Groot and Cornets, and the old dignities of the house of de Groot, which had been inheritable in the family for three centuries, and which could not be filled by his father, Cornelius Cornets, since he had been born outside of Holland, being renewed, took the offices of Towncouncilman and Burgomaster amid the great applause of the people.” “

Hugo Cornelius chose for his wife Maria Steffens, and after her death, married Elseling van Heemskerk, a daughter of the house of Heemskerk “which has been reckoned of old among the noblest families of Holland,” and which gave to her country, among others, the sea-hero Jacob van Heemskerk, who died in battle before Gibraltar and who has been honored by the Poet of Muiden with a fitting epitaph.^®

When Hugo Cornelius de Groot died in Delft, April 1 2th, 1567, in his fifth Burgomastership, he left two sons, Cornelius and John, who, it seems, inherited his ability as well as his possessions, for they both held honorable positions in the service of their country before they died. Cornelius, the elder son and the uncle of Grotius, born July 25th, 1544, having learned Latin in Delft (the town of his birth) under the Rector Henry Junius along with John van der Does, “Heer van Nordwijk,” and Jacob van Egmondt, “Heer van Kenenburg,” went

The Poet of Muiden was Hooft, a contemporary and friend of Grotius. The verse runs :

Liet d’eer aan’t Landt, hier’t lijf, voor Gibralter het leven,” Brandt’s “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, p. 4.

from there to Leuven to learn the Greek and Hebrew languages, and to study Philosophy, and in his twentieth year to Paris “where he exercised himself diligently in the study of law, and, within a little time, obtained at Orleans the title of ‘Licentiaet’ of Law.” Returning to his native country he served in the Town Council of Delft in the year 1573, as Master of Requests of Prince William of Orange in 1575, and at the same time, the University of Leiden having just been founded, as Professor first of Philosophy (it is said that he knew the philosophic works of Plato almost by heart) and then of Law there. These duties, says Brandt, “he followed and fulfilled with such great zeal and enjoyment that when, in his later years, he was more than once sought as a member of the High Council, he thus heartily refused,” only to have them come to him on numerous occasions for advice on questions of importance. He was elected Rector of the University six times and in this capacity sat as judge for all members of the University in matters both civil and criminal. * This remarkable man died on the 25th of July, 1610, the day of his birth, leaving no children.

Jan de Groot, the second son, and the father of Grotius, seems to have possessed the qualities of a student which were so bountifully revealed in his son. As a youth he studied under the famous Justus Lipsius, who “called him ‘his intimate friend and pupil,’

and did not cease, after his departure from Leiden, to exchange letters with him and thus to maintain their friendship.” While still in his early years he translated some Greek verses of Palladas, wrote a paraphrase of the Epistle of St. John,^^ and produced some original Latin verses which were “full of fine incidents and thought.” As a young man he took at Douay the degrees of Master of Arts and Philosophy and then of Doctor of Laws. The intimate friendships which he retained through life, with the most learned men of the country, show that he was truly “a great lover and protector of learning.” In 1589 he was intrusted with the offices of Alderman and Town Councilman in his native city, and from 1591 to 1596 held the Burgomastership; but of more honor than any of these was his appointment as one of the three Directors of the University of Leiden, who chose the professors and had charge of the finances and direction of the University. The honor attached to this office was doubly great, since, of the three men chosen, one was selected from the nobility and the remaining two by the States of the Province from among the cities of Holland or the Courts of Justice.

In 1582 John de Groot had married Alida van Overschie, of illustrious family, and, as the first child of this union, Hugo Grotius was born April loth,

11 Ep. 22, p. 761, Grotius’ letters.

1583. Of the other children we know little, beyond the fact that before May 16, 1640, when the father died (being survived three years by his wife) there were born two more sons and one daughter.

Hugo Grotius was fortunate in having a father who, in the desire to make him a good as well as a learned man, taught him in his youth the value of the even development and discipline of mind and body. In consequence, one of the most impressive attributes of the famous man was the fine sense of proportion which, throughout his life, always led him to give to his body the care that would enable him to obtain the maximum result from his brain. That Grotius realized and appreciated the value of his home training we have no reason to doubt, for he often declared,^® in later life, that he could never repay his father and mother for the principles they had instilled in him as a boy.

In speaking of the boy, Brandt says : “In his

earliest youth, he gave clear proof of his brilliant wit, noble character and untiring diligence, being as quick of body as of mind. Therefore his father, a man learned in letters, and who could well enough judge what knowledge best could adorn this noble intellect and become useful in the future service of his country, gave him over, before his seventh year, to the care of competent teachers that he might lay the foundations of the Latin and Greek languages. In his eighth year he wrote some Latin verses among lO which I find two written with his own hand.” The first piece, composed on hearing the glad tidings that the state of Nijmwegen was freed from the Spanish power, was presented in the form given below,** to Prince Maurice in October, 1591; in the second, which was written about the same time upon the death of his deceased brother, Jan de Groot, the boy of eight addresses his bereaved father with words of comfort ! **

In the pursuit of his early studies, under his preceptor Lusson *^ and others, Grotius was so absorbed that he spent a great part of the night with his books. We are told by the old Dutch historian that “when his mother, preferring that he enjoy his proper rest at night, refused to give him candles, he used his Sunday money secretly to buy them.” *® Also, he tells *® us that “being rebuked by his parents on a certain occasion about his careless writing (because he, thinking about greater matters, would give himself no time to write slowly and correctly) Grotius gave them the answer ‘that writing was only a trade, but needle making was an art,’ wishing to learn the

Namque is Joannes, quern tristia fata tulerunt.

26 Ibid., Bk. I, p. 7. Brandt obtained these anecdotes, 25 and 26, from the conversation of the friends of Grotius.

BIRTH, ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD ii last rather than the first” (if he had to learn some trade) .

When he had scarcely reached the age of eleven he entered the University of Leiden, then in its nineteenth year. In the Poems of Grotius we have preserved to us some Latin verses, written by J. van der Does, Heer van Nordwijk, who wrote under the name of Janus Dousa. In these verses the poet, who had been very prominent in the siege of Leiden, addressed the young student in words expressive of delight at the precocious start in university education which Grotius had made.*® Nature had indeed lavished her gifts upon him, for, when still very young, he exhibited a soundness of judgment, a power of memory, and a boundless energy which proclaimed him a genius.

At the university the young de Groot seems not to have limited himself to any particular field but 2T p. 447.

Van der Does thus addresses the young student:

to have “exercised himself in all sorts of knowledge,” delving into Greek and Roman history, Philosophy, Astronomy, Mathematics, Religion and Law, with a thoroughness that enabled him before he was twenty-two to produce the “De Jure Praedae,” a work which was to become a masterpiece in the realm of International Law. We have It from Brandt’s own hand that “he was very intimate with the famous Scaliger, into whose home as a temple of wisdom, he had the freedom daily to come and go, with his intimate companions and comrades Peter Scriverius, Dominicus Baudius, Daniel Helnslus and others.”

While a student, Grotius dwelt in the home of Franciscus Junius,®^ author of “The Peaceful Christian,” who has become famous In history for the burning zeal he displayed in favor of the reformation In Holland and France, and for the longing he held for religious peace and toleration In the controversies which ran riot in those troublous times. From him Grotius Imbibed the tranquil religious spirit which remained with him through life and which enabled him later to distinguish so clearly between serious religious controversy and the pointless theological quibblings in which the times abounded and which he thoroughly despised. Many years after, he wrote “that this man’s (Junius’) devoutness was always in his memory and that he hlm-

3^ Grot. Verantw., p. 295.

self felt far more advanced in the exercise of true Righteousness by his example than by all the books he ever had read.”

Of Grotius’ work at the University we know very little, but there are preserved to us three poems which he wrote during his first year there, and which marked him as a youth mature beyond his years. The first, written upon the marriage of Georgius Melissus and Maria van Almonde, and the second, praising Professor Joannes Kuchlinus, were in Latin, while the third, which was addressed to the young Prince Frederick Henry upon the arrival of his mother, Louise de Coligny, from France, was in Greek.®® In these and other early poems he usually signed himself “Hugeianus Grotius,” combining his own name of Hugo with that of his father, Janus or Joannes. However, three or four years later he discontinued the compounding of the two names, and thereafter we find his writings signed simply Hugo Grotius.

As a proof of his intellectual force and power, we have an anecdote which comes through Brandt ®* from the mouths of Grotius’ friends. His mother, who had been reared in the Popish faith (Brandt uses the expression “Popish misunderstandings”) had remained loyal to her church until her son

32 “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, p. 8.

33 The title of this poem is “Ode Pindarica ad illustrissimum Comitem Henr. Fredericum Nassovium Guilielmi Fil., pro adventu Matris,” Brandt’s “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, p. 9.

3^ “Het Leven van Huig de Groot,” Bk. I, p. 9.

reached the age of twelve. This seems to have disturbed the youth, and forthwith he undertook her conversion. The story is told by Brandt as follows : “His father, a man of exceptional modesty,

who up to this time had been able to influence little of the mind of his wife, had now and then argued with her before, ‘that he did not wish to trouble her further, but that he foresaw, that her son would yet convert her.’ Following this prediction the young de Groot did not neglect with loving words to show his mother her blindness, saying many times that she had too much intellect to remain a Papist and exhorted her to read zealously the Holy Scriptures, the best torch which could enlighten her eyes. Through this means, accompanied by the healthy conversation of her son, was her sight daily cleared and she was finally stirred to embrace the teachings of the purified Religion with a confession of her previous errors.” This incident, coming to Brandt from very good sources, shows that there was little justification for those who, in later years scornfully said of Grotius “that he was educated in the Popish Religion and had sucked in the longing for the Roman Church with the motherly milk and even had had a Catholic Priest for a teacher.”

That the boy made great strides in his work there can be little doubt, for in his fourteenth year (1597) he took part in two public debates upon philosophi-

39 See the remarks on the letter of N. Reigersberg, printed 1627, p. 5 ; also letter of H. Grotius to J. Laurent, p. 31.

cal questions, and wrote in praise of King Henry IV his poem “Triumphus Gallicus, parodia Catulliana,” a witty song of triumph, after the style of the poet Catullus, and sung to his Majesty upon his fortunate victory at Amiens. It is interesting to note that this song was dedicated to Paulus Choartus Buzenval, the Ambassador from France, showing that the mind of the boy of fourteen had already turned toward kings, ambassadors and great public events. In the same year, having delivered his public theses in Mathematics, Philosophy, and Law, he left the University. The device which he then adopted, and which he retained as his motto through life, “horav/' ruit,” shows that when still very young he realized the fleeting nature of time.

The reputation of the precocious youth had gone before him, and learned men everywhere spoke of him as a prodigy. As early as 1597 Isaac Pontanus called him “a youth of greatest hopes” ; Meursius in 1599 pronounced him to be “a youth without an equal”; Jaques Gilot, in a letter written from Paris to Meursius in 1601, remarked that “he was a youth of extraordinary genius,” while Daniel Heinsius declared that Grotius was a man from the instant of his birth and never had any childhood. Certainly his childhood, if Heinsius was in a literal

“Summae spei adolescentem.”

“Adolescentem sine exemplo.”

“Portentosi juvenem ingenii.”

i6 sense wrong, was passed, just as were the other stages of his development and preparation, with a power and celerity of attainment almost unknown to the world before or since.

Coming from the University, Grotius ventured to form plans which required great foresight, plans which he executed with such precision, with such perfection, and with such a minimum of lost effort, that the whole Republic was struck with astonishment. He had come into the world at a time when the affairs of the United Provinces were in the greatest disorder. The small territorial divisions had been ripped from end to end by the mighty armies of Philip but still had not been conquered. The Seven United Provinces, still holding to the Protestant Religion (Holland, Utrecht, Friesland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Groningen and Overijssel) had valiantly withstood the terrific onslaughts of Spain. William of Orange, the great hope of the young Republic, deprived of French aid by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (August 24th, 1572), but fighting valiantly to the last, had fallen July loth, 1584, by the bullet of the assassin, Balthazar Gerard, a fanatic in the pay of Philip. The previous year had seen the quarrel of Anjou and the Flemish, fanned into a blaze by religious intolerance, give rise to an attempted coup d’ etat by the rash and impetous lover of Elizabeth, Queen of England, and a quavering in the ranks of the great lords of Holland who were beginning to despair.