Grotius was permitted to have books sent to him in prison, and these were transported in a large chest. Over time his guards became less vigilant regarding the chest’s contents which led his wife and maid-servant to propose a plan to smuggle him out by hiding him inside it.

By the time the authorities re-established control on the morning of 4 May, two prison officers and three perpetrators lay dead.

On the 22nd March 1621, Dutch legal scholar Hugo Grotius – also known as Hugo de Groot – escaped imprisonment in Loevestein Castle concealed inside a book chest.