Mandeville was born on 15 November 1670, at Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where his father was a prominent physician of Huguenot origin. On leaving the Erasmus school at Rotterdam he showed his ability by an "Oratio scholastica de medicina" (1685), and at Leiden University in 1689 he produced the thesis "De brutorum operationibus", in which he advocated the Cartesian theory of automatism among animals. In 1691 he took his medical degree, pronouncing an inaugural disputation, "De chylosi vitiata". He moved to England to learn the language, and succeeded so remarkably that many refused to believe he was a foreigner. His father had been banished from Rotterdam in 1693 for involvement in the Costerman tax riots on 5 October 1690; Bernard himself may well have been involved.