The Amsterdam Admiralty Court confiscates the captured…
September 1604 CE
The Amsterdam Admiralty Court confiscates the captured Portuguese carrack Santa Caterina on September 4, 1604.
Its captor, Captain Heemskerk, is an employee of the United Amsterdam Company (part of the Dutch East India Company), and though he had not had authorization from the company or the government to initiate the use of force, many shareholders are eager to accept the riches that he has brought back to them.
Not only is the legality of keeping the prize questionable under Dutch statute, but a faction of shareholders (mostly Mennonite) in the Company also object to the forceful seizure on moral grounds, and of course, the Portuguese demand the return of their cargo.
The scandal leads to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion.
It is in this wider contest that representatives of the Company call upon the jurist Hugo Grotius to draft a polemical defense of the seizure.
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