 After Queen Christina ascended to the throne in 1644, she systematically began to undermine her rival Oxenstierna and—as part of this infighting—recalled Grotius from his ambassadorship. She didn’t fire him; instead, she instructed him to come to Stockholm and assume a different position. At first, Grotius didn’t want to go, but bowing to the force of royal prerogative (not to mention economic necessity), he set sail for Stockholm in March 1645. It was a fateful decision: traveling conditions on the Baltic in late winters can be harsh; his ship wrecked and Grotius barely escaped with his life. After spending a few months in Sweden, he decided to return to Germany and so undertook another voyage. Again, conditions were poor; it took eight long days to cross the relatively narrow stretch of water. This time, it was too much: weakened by recent events, Grotius died on 28 August 1645, in Rostock, Germany. While they are probably apocryphal, his supposed last words—“By attempting many things, I have accomplished nothing”—do evoke the span of his life’s work and his personal assessment of the results.