GROTIUS, HUGO (1583–1645), or Huigh de Groot, was a Dutch lawyer, diplomat, historian, poet, philologist, and theologian. Grotius was born at Delft on April 10, 1583, into a socially and politically influential family. Following three years at the University at Leiden and a brief period accompanying a diplomatic embassy to Paris, he returned to Holland at the age of sixteen to become an advocate at the courts of the Hague. In 1607 Grotius was appointed to the office of Advocate-Fiscal (attorney general) of Holland. He married Maria van Reigersberch in 1608.

As a result of an assocation with the Dutch East India Company, Grotius wrote his first major legal treatise, De jure praedae (On the law of prize, 1604–1605), which presents a theory of natural law based on divine will. In 1625 he published his most important book, De jure belli ac pacis (On the law of war and peace), in which he...