The Dutch jurist and statesman Hugo Grotius, or Huig de Groot, was born at Delft, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He entered the University of Leiden when he was eleven, graduating with great distinction at the age of fourteen. At fifteen he served as a member of a Dutch mission to France and obtained the degree of doctor of law at the University of Orléans. In 1601 Grotius was asked for a legal opinion by the Dutch East India Company in an international case, which appears to have spurred the writing of his pamphlet in defense of freedom of the seas (Mare Liberum, 1609) and generally stimulated his enduring interest in international law. In 1607 Grotius was appointed advocate general of the fisc of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland. In 1613 he became the pensionary for Rotterdam and went to England as a member of...