Pieter de Groot

Pieter de Groot (28 March 1615 – 2 June 1678) was a Dutch regent and diplomat during the First Stadtholderless Period of the Dutch Republic. He led the Dutch delegation that vainly tried to negotiate the Dutch capitulation to King Louis XIV of France during the Year of Disaster, 1672. Family life Pieter de Groot was born in Rotterdam, the second son of Hugo de Groot and Maria van Reigersbergen. After his father's celebrated escape from Loevestein castle in 1621, he followed his parents into exile in Paris. Because of this Loevestein-connection (the name of the state prison was also used as an epithet by his Orangist opponents) it was later said of him that he was un oeuf pourri, couvé a Louvestein and he indeed suffered from a weak constitution all his life. His father personally schooled him, and took care of a broad education. He studied law at Leiden University. He was twice married, first on 6 October 1652 at The Hague to Agatha van Rijn, and after her death in 1673, on 11 July 1675 at Rijswijk to his cousin Alida de Groot. Career After having spent a year assisting his father at the Swedish legation in Paris in 1637 he returned to the Netherlands and practiced law till Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine appointed him his ambassador to the States-General of the Netherlands in 1649. He remained in this post till 1660.