How a Prisoner Escaped a Dutch Castle in a Book Chest (1621)

In 1619 the lawyer Hugo de Groot was sentenced to prison for life and locked up in Loevestein Castle. Two years later he was carried out by two soldiers, folded up inside the chest that brought his books. The plan was his wife's. Her maid walked beside the chest all the way to Gorinchem. This episode follows the whole story: the fight over religion that split the young Dutch Republic, the arrest, the life sentence, the book deliveries that made the escape possible, the bricklayer's disguise, the flight to Antwerp and Paris, and the book on the law of war and peace that he began in prison. Chapters 0:00 The chest leaves the castle 0:37 A wonder child from Delft 1:27 A country split over God 3:01 Arrest and a life sentence 3:50 Life at Loevestein 4:50 The plan 5:39 22 March 1621 6:33 The bricklayer who walked south 7:11 The book he began in prison 8:17 What came after 8:48 Which chest? 9:21 Next time Sources Slot Loevestein, Hugo de Groot: https://www.slotloevestein.nl/hugo-de... Canon van Nederland, Hugo de Groot: https://www.canonvannederland.nl/nl/h... Rijksmuseum, book chest possibly of Hugo de Groot: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collect... Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), Grotius, Hugo: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_E... Wikipedia, Hugo Grotius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gr... Wikipedia, Maria van Reigersberch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_v... Wikipedia, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_v... Wikipedia, Synod of Dort: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_o... Wikipedia (Dutch), Ontsnapping van Hugo de Groot: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontsnap... Next episode: 1953, a dike is breaking, and the thing they use to plug the hole is a ship. #DutchHistory #HugoGrotius #Loevestein