Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf (8 January 1632 – 26 October 1694) was a German jurist, political philosopher, economist and historian.

He was born Samuel Pufendorf and ennobled in 1694; he was made a baron by Charles XI of Sweden a few months before his death at age 62.

He was involved in constant quarrels with clerical circles and frequently had to defend himself against accusations of heresy, despite holding largely traditional Christian views on matters of dogma and doctrine.

Leaving Leipzig altogether, Pufendorf relocated to University of Jena, where he formed an intimate friendship with Erhard Weigel, the mathematician, whose influence helped to develop his remarkable independence of character.

Pufendorf left Jena in 1658 as Magister and became a tutor in the family of Peter Julius Coyet, one of the resident ministers of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden, at Copenhagen with the help of his brother Esaias [de], a diplomat in the Swedish service.

He occupied himself in meditating upon what he had read in the works of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes, and mentally constructed a system of universal law.

At Leiden, he was permitted to publish, in 1660, the fruits of his reflections under the title of Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis libri duo ("Elements of Universal Jurisprudence: Two Books").

The work was dedicated to Charles Louis, elector palatine, who created for Pufendorf a new chair at the University of Heidelberg, that of the law of nature and nations.

In 1667 he wrote, with the assent of the elector palatine, a tract De statu imperii germanici liber unus ("On the Present State of the German Empire: One Book").

Published under the cover of a pseudonym at Geneva in 1667, it was supposed to be addressed by a gentleman of Verona, Severinus de Monzambano, to his brother Laelius.

Its author directly challenged the organization of the Holy Roman Empire, denounced in the strongest terms the faults of the house of Austria, and attacked with vigour the politics of the ecclesiastical princes.

In 1672 appeared De jure naturae et gentium libri octo ("On The Law of Nature and of Nations: Eight Books") and of, and in 1673 a résumé of it under the title De officio hominis et civis iuxta legem naturalem ("On the Duty of Man and Citizen, according to Natural Law"), which, among other topics, gave his analysis of just war theory.

To this new period belong Einleitung zur Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten ("Introduction to the History of the Most Distinguished Kingdoms and States" as well as Commentarium de rebus suecicis libri XXVI., ab expeditione Gustavi Adolphi regis in Germaniam ad abdicationem usque Christinae and De rebus a Carolo Gustavo gestis.

In his historical works, Pufendorf wrote in a very dry style, but he professed a great respect for truth and generally drew from archival sources.

In 1658 Denmark was forced to cede the eastern provinces of Skåne (Scania), Halland, and Blekinge (plus some Norwegian territories) to Sweden.

[4][5] John Locke, David Hume, Edward Gibbon, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Denis Diderot all recommended Pufendorf's inclusion in law curricula, and he greatly influenced Blackstone and Montesquieu.