Born: 7 October 1589, France or the Netherlands
Died: 19 April 1653
Country most active: Netherlands
Also known as: Maria Grotius
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
She was a burgomaster’s daughter and married to Victor de Groot, the great Dutch scholar. With faithfulness and courage she stood by her husband. As pensionaris of Rotterdam, an adviser of the municipal government, he became entangled in religious and political quarrels, and was confined in the state prison of Loevestein. Maria followed her husband to Loevestein.
The treatment there was unbearable; she did the washing herself. Untiring were her efforts to obtain justice for the man who had been condemned, unjustly in her opinion. But all these efforts miscarried. It was then that she carried out the plan that was to make her famous. De Groot had obtained permission to receive books from friends for study. These were regularly delivered in a big chest. In this Maria made little holes and de Groot daily trained himself to remain in it longer and longer. When the proper time had come the soldiers of the castle carried the chest in which de Groot was hidden, out of the prison. At the house of friends in a neighboring town to which the chest was taken, de Groot disguised himself as a bricklayer and fled to France.
Maria had remained behind in the prison. This was dangerous, as they might have kept her as a hostage. But the courageous woman was treated chivalrously and allowed to leave. She followed her husband to Paris. His property was confiscated; he only received an allowance from the French court which was paid irregularly. Maria administered all affairs for her husband. She was untiring in trying to have her husband reinstated.
For that purpose she went several times to Holland and it is touching to find in her letters, among various items of political news, the typical Dutch thoughtfulness for domestic arrangements. Her letters contain also an insight into the cultured life of her time. When at last at the instigation of his wife, de Groot ventured to return to Holland, he was expelled, though he eventually became Ambassador of Sweden in Paris. must not die, it would be the ruin of my children,” she once wrote. A very strict mother she had been.
Towards the end of her life, her determination became hardness for she had become embittered. She died five years after her husband, a forsaken, solitary woman.