Born April 10, 1582 in Delft, Holland.1
He was named for his grandfather. His great-grandfather Cornelius Cornet adopted the surname of his wife Ermingarde de Groote, an heiress and only child. It was not unusual for men to adopt the surname of their wife's family to keep the name from dying out. Grotius' father John (Jan) was a lawyer, general scholar and Hugo's first tutor. His father also served as an alderman, magistrate, and burgomaster.
1594 - sent to the University of Leyden. By all accounts he was a very good student and highly regarded by his well known instructors including Joseph Justus Scaliger.
1597 - publishes his first book. He produced a scholarly edition of the fifth century encyclopedic work of Martianus Capella, On the Seven Disciplines (liberal arts).2 Grotius made all the corrections, annotations, deletions and Illustrations.
1598 - chosen to accompany Count Justin of Nassau and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Land's Advocate for the States of Holland, as part of a diplomatic mission to the court of King Henry IV of France. When presented at court, the King is reported to have exclaimed, "Behold the miracle of Holland!"
1599 - admitted to the bar of the Provincial Court of Holland. He had returned from France with a Doctor of Laws from the University of Orleans.
1604 - writes De Jure Praedae (On the Law of Spoils or Law of Prize). He had been hired by the United Amsterdam Company (part of the Dutch East India Company) to draft a defense of the company's seizure of a Portuguese merchant ship. In this work he discusses the natural principles of justice. It was not published in his lifetime but one chapter later becomes Mare Liberum.
1604/05 - writes On the Indies (De Indus). Not published during his lifetime.
1608 - marries Maria van Reigersbergen. They would have eight children, four survived childhood. At this time he also begins a decade of public service first as Advocate-Fiscal or attorney general of the Province of Holland and then pensionary (a sort of Mayor) of Rotterdam.
1609 - publication of Mare Liberum (The Free Sea). Grotius developed the principle that the sea was international territory and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade. No power had exclusive rights to navigation, fisheries, or trade in the East Indies, whether by rights of discovery or by occupation. His arguments provided justification for the Dutch to break-up various trade monopolies through their considerable naval power.
1613 - publication of Ordinum Pietas (The Piety of the States of Holland and Westfriesland). This twenty-seven page pamphlet was a defense of the civil authorities' power to appoint whomever they wished to a university faculty, specifically the theology chair at the University of Leiden.
The dispute involved the replacement for Jacobus Arminius who died in 1609. His followers known as Arminians or Remonstrants, are Dutch Protestants with significant points of disagreement with Calvinism, called the Five Articles of Remonstrance. Grotius' pamphlet met with strong opposition from the traditional Calvinists or Counter-Remonstrants.
1614 - wrote the edict Decretum pro pace ecclesiarum. The States of Holland took an official position of religious toleration toward Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants. Grotius had been developing his views on church and state. He felt that only the basic tenets necessary for supporting civil order, meaning the existence of God and belief in God's plan for the world and every soul that he has created is guided by his will, or providence, ought to be enforced while differences on obscure theological doctrines should be left to the individual. Thirty-one pages of quotations were his authority for "imposing moderation and toleration on the ministry."
1616 - travels to Amsterdam with the mission of persuading the civil authorities to join Holland's majority view about church politics. His speech appealed to both sides for mutual toleration but his efforts failed as many saw Arminianism as practically a new religion which sought to replace orthodox beliefs.
1617 - writes De imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra (On the power of sovereigns concerning religious affairs). He had hopes that his observations on "the relations between the religious and secular authorities ... would turn the tide and bring back peace to church and state."
When the Remonstrants made public their articles, they requested a national synod (meeting of church leaders) to be called by the civil government. The Contra-Remonstrants objected, any discussion of church doctrine should be confined to a purely church synod. This disagreement divided the whole country. The States of Holland supported the Remonstrants and refused to sanction the summoning of a purely church synod.
Riots broke out in some towns, exacerbated by social tensions due to worsening economic conditions. In addition to the religious differences, a major issue was the power of the central government, headed by the Stadtholder, Prince Moritz (Maurice) of Orange, and the States General, the bicameral legislature, and the degree of independence or sovereignty of a province.
Grotius supported Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Land's Advocate for the States of Holland and a popular statesman because of his role in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain. Oldenbarnevelt proposed that the States of Holland should, on their own authority, as a sovereign province, raise a local force of 4000 men (waardgelders) to keep the peace.
Meanwhile the States General agreed to the summoning of a national church synod. The States of Holland refused to participate and passed a resolution ordering all magistrates, officials, and soldiers in the pay of the province, to take an oath of obedience to the States of Holland and to be held accountable not to the ordinary tribunals but to the States of Holland.
When ordered to disband their armed troops, the provinces and cities refused. The provinces argued they were sovereign states and the cities were subject only to their provinces. These actions were viewed as a declaration of sovereign independence on the part of Holland and could not be allowed to go unchallenged. The States General appointed a commission headed by Prince Maurice to compel the disbanding of the waardgelders.
With a body of troops, Maurice progressed through the towns of Holland encountering no military opposition. Remonstrants were ordered out of various towns and the civil solders laid down their arms.
Grotius took an active part in the rebellion. He had traveled to the city of Utrecht with letters from officials in Holland. The officers of the garrison were advised to resist Maurice and the magistrates were promised that Holland would support them in efforts for the sovereignty of the province of Utrecht. But the soldiers mutinied and Maurice just walked into the city. Grotius was arrested and charged with treason.
1619 - sentenced to life imprisonment in Loevestein Castle.
During the trial Grotius argued that as a citizen of the province of Holland and an official of a city of the province, Rotterdam, he was only subject to the laws of that province. He was not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the prison, including his wife. He was provided no counsel and at one point not even allowed the use of pen and paper. The outcome was never in any doubt as his judges were members of the States General and obviously opposed to his actions to establish the sovereignty of Holland.
After his was settled in at Loevestein, his wife was actually allowed to live with him. Her presence continued on the condition that she not go out more than twice a week. Grotius spent his time studying and writing generally on religious topics.
1621 - escapes from 
Loevestein Castle with the help of his wife and her maid.
Grotius had been allowed to borrow books from his friends. The books were brought in and out in a chest along with his linen. Maria noticed that as time progressed the guards no longer opened the chest. In March she has two soldiers carry out the chest containing her husband. To allow him time to get away, she pretends he is sick and confined to his bed. When the escape is discovered Maria herself is confined but files a petition for her release which is granted and she is freed at the beginning of April.
By April 13 Grotius had arrived in Paris. In 1622 he is granted a royal pension under Louis XIII. Except for a few brief periods, Grotius spent the rest of his life in exile in Paris.
1 Currently Delft is located in the province of South Holland. The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also referred to as the Dutch Republic, existed until 1795, and was a confederation of seven provinces. Holland was the most powerful of the seven. Today the Kingdom of the Netherlands has twelve provinces including North and South Holland. The kingdom also includes the island countries of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten. The Netherlands' two largest cities are located in Holland, Amsterdam in North Holland, Rotterdam in South Holland.
2 Also known as The Marriage of Mercury and Philology.
