Grotius's exile and scholarship

Timeline

1. 1630–1634Paris · FranceDuring his exile in Paris, Grotius was in financial straits, living on a meager French royal stipend, yet he never stopped writing. In this period he revised theological works, wrote a history of the Netherlands, and corresponded continuously with European scholars on church-state relations, further deepening the natural law and international law system he had established in De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625).
2. 1634Paris · FranceAxel Oxenstierna, regent for Queen Christina of Sweden, appointed Grotius as Swedish ambassador to France, providing him with a diplomatic identity and financial security. Through this post Grotius participated in diplomatic mediation during the Thirty Years' War while continuing to spread his ideas of international law in European courts.
3. 1635–1639Paris · FranceDuring his tenure as ambassador, Grotius published De Imperio Summarum Potestatum Circa Sacra (published posthumously in 1647 but written in this period), and continued participating in reconciliation dialogues between Protestant factions and Catholicism. His accumulated legal and diplomatic experience provided important intellectual resources for constructing the European international order, and De Jure Belli ac Pacis was widely circulated and cited across Europe.