The Hague

Seat of the Dutch government and home to the exiled Bohemian court. Elisabeth of Bohemia lived here. Spinoza spent his final years grinding lenses and writing in a rented room nearby.

The Hague was the seat of Dutch government without ever being a chartered city, a town of officials, envoys, and exiled courts. Elisabeth of Bohemia lived here after her father lost his kingdom, and wrote from here the letters that pushed Descartes to explain how an immaterial mind could move a body. He never answered her to her satisfaction. Spinoza spent his last years in rented rooms nearby, grinding lenses by day and writing the Ethics, which his friends published only once he was safely dead.