Hugo Grotius - (1583-1645), Dutch jurist and theologianHugo was also known as Huigh, or Hugeianus De Groot. After initial schooling in Delft, Grotius’ father entrusted him to the Hague preacher and theologian Johannes Uyttenbogaert. An extremely gifted child, Grotius wrote Latin elegies at the age of eight and became a student in the faculty of letters at Leiden University at the age of 11. When at the age of 15 he accompanied the leading statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt on an embassy to Henry IV of France, he was received there with great honor and decided to remain to study law at Orléans. That same year his Pontifex Romanus appeared, six monologues offering a synthesis of the political situation in 1598. In 1600 his “Mirabilia” appeared, a poem about what had taken place on land and sea in the first half of that year. In 1601 the states of Holland appointed Grotius their official Latin historiographer and specifically requested from him a description of the Dutch republic's revolt against Spain, which became Annales et Historiae de Rebus Belgicis in the manner of the Roman historian Tacitus.