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Why was Hugo Grotius not chosen to negotiate the Peace of Westphalia?
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Hugo Grotius
Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Hugo Grotius was not appointed as a negotiator for the Peace of Westphalia primarily because his diplomatic career as the Swedish ambassador in Paris was not considered successful.1
By 1644, Grotius had been relieved of his ambassadorial post. Following consultations with Queen Christina of Sweden, he departed for LĂŒbeck in 1645, but he tragically died of exhaustion in Rostock shortly after being shipwrecked on the coast of eastern Pomerania. Consequently, he was not in a position to participate in the peace conferences at MĂŒnster and OsnabrĂŒck that concluded the Thirty Yearsâ War.1