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Politics, religion and legal argumentation were inextricably intertwined in the reception of John Selden’s Mare Clausum/The Closed Sea (1635). The work’s writing and printing history is closely tie...

SUMMARYThis article examines Anglo–Dutch rivalry in the Banda Islands in the period from 1609 to 1621, with a particular focus on the process of claiming initiated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and English East India Company (EIC). Historians have paid little attention to the precise legal justifications employed by these organisations, and how they affected the outcome of events. For both companies, treaties with Asian rulers and peoples were essential in staking out claims to trade and territory. Because so many different parties were involved, individual documents had to serve multiple purposes, both on the ground in the East Indies and at the negotiating tables back in Europe. Whenever a VOC or EIC official presented a treaty to a Bandanese leader, he had to recognise local power structures in the Spice Islands, but also needed to consider his European competitors in the area, his superiors in Batavia or Bantam, and the company directors back in Amsterdam or London. Consequently, the safest an...

This chapter explains how the myths surrounding Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) came into being and whose interests have been served by it. It was a combination of Dutch nationalism and the rise of modern international law that turned Grotius into a ‘founding father’, with a little help, it should be said, from the American delegates at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference. The myth is based on a highly selective reading of De Jure Belli ac Pacis and completely ignores the larger historical context of Grotius’ work, particularly his hands-on involvement in Western imperialism and colonialism. The chapter aims to contextualize properly his life and work, rather than to focus on just one aspect of it and use that to justify modern-day arrangements for the resolution of conflicts between states.

On 4 June 2016, Jürgen Osterhammel of the University of Konstanz and Geoffrey Parker of Ohio State University gave an all-day workshop on global history for graduate students and junior and senior scholars of the Universities of Dundee and St. Andrews in Scotland. The workshop consisted of three discussion sessions, each with a different theme, namely the conceptualization(s), parameters, and possible future(s) of global history. The central question was to what extent this fast-changing field required adjustments of “normal” historiographical methodologies and epistemologies. The workshop participants agreed that global history focuses in particular on connections across large spaces or long timespans, or both. Yet reconstructing these webs of connections should not obscure global inequalities. In the case of empires, many of the exchanges across space and time have been ordered in a hierarchical fashion—metropoles profiting from peripheral spaces, for example—and imposed by certain groups of people on others, resulting in, for example, the enslavement or extermination of indigenous peoples. As historians, we should also ask ourselves what we do about peoples or areas that were or remain unconnected, local, and remote. Where does globalization end?

The household academy was an important center of knowledge production in the Dutch Republic. This article analyzes the workings of one of the premier political and learned families of Holland, centered on the jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645). His immediate relatives were actively involved in the process of writing and publication. They sought to steer him clear of certain political and scholarly debates, while helping him to engage in others. They liaised with Dutch printers, and served as research assistants, scribes, and translators. With his aid and encouragement, they also became authors themselves, including his wife, her sister and her daughter.

This article examines Grotius’ lifelong support for Dutch expansion overseas. As noted in other publications of mine, Grotius cooperated closely with the directors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the years 1604–1615. Right up to his arrest for high treason in August 1618, he contributed towards Dutch government discussions about the establishment of a West India Company (WIC). Three years of imprisonment at Loevestein Castle and, following his escape, long years of exile could not weaken his dedication to the cause. His relatives in Holland, in particular his brother Willem de Groot and his brother-in-law Nicolaas van Reigersberch, kept him up-to-date on the fortunes of the VOC and WIC. His expertise on maritime affairs was in high demand. For example, Cardinal Richelieu invited him in November 1626 to become actively involved in the establishment of a French East India Company. As itinerant ideologue of empire, Grotius sought to further his own career and those of his nearest family members, wit...

Following the manuscript's discovery in 1864, scholars have widely assumed that De Jure Praedae (Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty) was written by the Dutch lawyer Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) in the period 1604–1606. Yet the conventional dating fails to consider the materiality of Ms. BPL 917 in Leiden University Library. By analyzing paper supplies, this article throws new light on the date and manner of the manuscript's composition. The watermarks in the paper, the quire divisions and foliation are considered in combination with relevant textual evidence, such as manuscript references to historical events and any allusions to Ms. BPL 917 in Grotius’ letters and other archival sources. This approach has yielded unforeseen results. Yes, Grotius wrote out the original text in 1604/05, as a fair copy of a previously existing work. Yet he did not stop there. Entire folio-pages were crossed out in Ms. BPL 917 and new ones inserted in the following sequence: - in, or shortly before, January 1607, Grotius d...

This article reconstructs the voyage of theSwimming Lionto the Caribbean in 1595 and the court battle to which it gave rise. The Master mariner Gillis Dorenhoven was accused of piracy by Pedro d'Arana,contadorof Havana, who sued his employers before the Middelburg Admiralty Court in 1609–1610. Johan Boreel, the eldest son of one of the defendants, sought expert advice from his friend Hugo Grotius. The author ofMare Liberum, published in April 1609, became involved in the case at various levels. Pressure was put on the States General to revise their instructions for the Admiralty Court. Grotius also tried to convince the Admiralty judges that freedom of trade and navigation was a fundamental right of Dutch merchants in the West Indies and that Dorenhoven's actions should be seen in this light. For political reasons, he could not refer to the Americas inMare Liberum. Yet the case of theSwimming Lionreveals just how expansive his notion of freedom of trade and navigation really was.

This article examines the debate over freedom of fi shing conducted by the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius and William Welwood, Professor of Law in the University of St Andrews. It focuses on the historical context of their exchange and argues that it had important repercussions for the Anglo-Dutch negotiations in London in the winter of 1618–1619. The positions of Grotius and Welwood were adopted by the envoys of the Dutch Estates General and the Privy Councillors of James VI and I, respectively. The negotiators’ arguments represented two sides of the same mercantilist coin: they embraced or rejected Grotius’ notion of the freedom of the seas depending on whether they believed it would strengthen or weaken their country’s ability to wage a naval war. In their view, the North Sea fi sheries were not just an actual or potential source of tax revenues (money being the sinews of war), but could also be used to create a strategic reserve of ships and sailors. The

This article reconstructs Jacob van Heemskerck's second voyage to the East Indies and his capture of the Portuguese merchantman Santa Catarina on 25 February 1603. It incorporates important new archival evidence like Van Heemskerck's letter to the directors of the Dutch East India Company of 27 August 1603, and the original text of the verdict of the Amsterdam Admiralty Court, which confiscated the Santa Catarina on 4 September 1604. It has long been known that the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) wrote De Jure Praedae in defense of the ship's seizure and at the explicit request of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. Historians have failed to recognise, however, that Grotius' conceptualisation of natural rights and natural law in De Jure Praedae is based to a large extent on Van Heemskerck's own justification of privateering. A key notion of Grotius' rights theories - the individual's right to punish transgressors of the natural law in the absence of an independent and effective judge - follows logically from Van Heemskerck's reasoned decision to assault the Santa Catarina in revenge for Portuguese mistreatment of Dutch merchants in the East Indies. As shown by recent work in international relations theory - notably Edward Keene's Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics (Keene, 2002) - the natural law and natural rights theories that Grotius formulated in De Jure Praedae cannot be divorced from Dutch imperialism and colonialism in the early modern period.

This article reconstructs the printing history of Hugo Grotius's Mare liberum ( The Free Sea , 1609). It examines the political circumstances which prompted the pamphlet's publication, but then seemed to conspire against it, and relates these to Grotius's revision of chapter 12 of Ms. BPL 917 in Leiden University Library, the one surviving copy of De iure praedae ( The Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty , 1604-1608). While preparing chapter 12 for the press, he made a serious effort to tone down its bellicose rhetoric, erasing, for example, all references to the Spanish claims to the Americas. His aim was to placate the French envoy Pierre Jeannin and his own political patron Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the driving forces behind the negotiations for the Twelve Years' Truce (1609-1621). In the context of these negotiations, Grotius was at pains to downplay his radical rights theories. The subjective right of punishment only received a mention in the conclusion of Mare liberum , for example. Yet a discarded outline for the pamphlet's preface shows that the argument of De iure praedae remained uppermost in his mind, witness the outline's denunciation of the 'poisonings, perfidy and crimes of the Portuguese'. Both De iure praedae and Mare liberum had been commissioned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for the express purpose of influencing political developments in its favour. Yet neither treatise had the impact originally intended by Grotius and the VOC directors. Ironically, these occasional writings became classics of international law instead.

The possible Stoic origins of the natural rights and natural law theories of the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) has been a subject of scholarly debate in recent years. Yet discussions about Grotian sociability tend to focus exclusively on the meaning of appetitus societatis in De Jure Praedae (written in 1604–1608) and De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625), with little reference to the historical context. Insufficient consideration has been given to the intended audience(s) of these works, Grotius’ purpose in writing them, and the possible correlation between his overarching argument and his working methods. This article examines Grotius’ use and abuse of Seneca's philosophical works in De Jure Praedae, commissioned by the directors of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC) in autumn 1604. The brutal murder of Sebald de Weert on the island of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) in June 1603 is analyzed from a Stoic perspective in Chapter 15 of De Jure Praedae. Following his refusal to hand over Portuguese prisone...

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Jacob van Heemskerck's Capture of the Santa Catarina and Its Justification in De Jure Praedae (1604-1606) 2. Hugo Grotius and the Spanish Black Legend: Humanist Historiography and Moral Philosophy in De Jure Praedae 3. Why Was De Jure Praedae Written? 4. Hugo Grotius and the Peace Negotiations between Spain and the United Provinces, 1607-1608 5. Hugo Grotius and the Truce Negotiations between Spain and the United Provinces, 1608-1609 6. VOC Spokesman and Lobbyist during the Twelve Years' Truce Epilogue Bibliography Author Index Subject Index

In the early morning hours of 25 February 1603, the Dutch commander Jacob van Heemskerck (1567-1607) attacked a richly laden Portuguese carrack at the entrance of Singapore Straits. Van Heemskerck's seizure of the Santa Catarina has been a famous episode in Dutch history ever since. This chapter corrects the imbalance in Hugo Grotius scholarship. It compares and contrasts Van Heemskerck's voyage to the East Indies (1601-1604) with its conceptualization in De Jure Praedae. The capture of the richly laden Santa Catarina was literally a godsend for Van Heemskerck, whose voyage to the East Indies had been dogged by bad luck right from the start. Grotius' innovations in legal theory and practice were still far in the future, however, when the Alkmaar and White Lion anchored off Pulau Tiuman in order to intercept the Japan carrack.Keywords: Alkmaar; De Jure Praedae; East Indies; Hugo Grotius; Jacob van Heemskerck; Pulau Tiuman; Santa Catarina; Singapore Straits