Maria van Reigersberch

Maria van Reigersberch (Veere? or Boulogne-sur-Mer?, 7 October 1589? — The Hague, 19 April 1653) was the wife of Hugo Grotius, who helped him escape in 1621 from Loevestein Castle during his incarceration there after his 1619 trial. Early life Maria was the daughter of the Veere schepen and burgomaster Pieter van Reigersberg and Maria Nicolai (also known as Mayken Claesdr.). Her parents fled to Boulogne sur Mer during the troubled times of the reign of Governor General Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester over the Dutch Republic and may only have returned to Veere after her birth, so that her birthplace is a matter of speculation. As most women at the time, she did not receive a formal education, though she was able to read and write. Her family was rich and she therefore was a desirable marriage partner. She married the up-and-coming lawyer Hugo de Groot (better known as Grotius), who had just been appointed advocaat-fiscaal (prosecutor) at the Hof van Holland on 2 July 1608 in Veere. The couple settled in The Hague where Grotius made a swift career under the mentorship of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the Land's Advocate of Holland. In 1613 he was appointed pensionary of the city of Rotterdam with as main task the representation of that city in the States of Holland and West Friesland and the States General of the Netherlands. During this period their first seven children were born: Cornelia (26 April 1611) and Cornelis (2 February 1613) in The Hague; Pieter (24 February 1614; died 18 June 1614); another Pieter (28 March 1615), Françoise (17 August 1616; died 3 May 1617), Maria (16 April 1617), and Diederik (10 October 1618; a month and a half after Grotius' arrest) in Rotterdam Grotius' trial, incarceration and escape Grotius was arrested on 29 August 1618, together with van Oldenbarnevelt, Rombout Hogerbeets, the pensionary of Leiden, and Gilles van Ledenberg, the secretary of the States of Utrecht, on suspicion of treason, on the orders of stadtholder Maurice, Prince of Orange. They were held incommunicado for eight months, during which time Maria was not allowed to visit her husband in his cell in the Binnenhof, not even when he was taken severely ill. Eventually, Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 May 1619 by a court of 24 delegated judges of the States General. He was to serve his sentence in Loevestein Castle, together with Hogerbeets, who received the same sentence.