Volta
Person1689 – 1755

Montesquieu

Also called: Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

French Enlightenment thinker whose The Spirit of the Laws called for separating legislative, executive and judicial powers so that each checks the others

Born into a noble family at the château of La Brède near Bordeaux, he inherited from his uncle an office in the parlement of Bordeaux and the title of baron. He made his name with the Persian Letters, in which Persian visitors write home about Paris, satirising French society and the Church. Selling his office, he travelled through Europe studying the politics of each country and was especially impressed by English parliamentary government. The Spirit of the Laws was placed on the Church’s Index but was widely read throughout Europe.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    1748Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Lawsauthor

    In 1748 Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws, arguing that liberty is safe only when power is divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches that check one another — the separation of powers.

  2. 2
    1751 – 1772The Enlightenment and the Encyclopédieparticipant

    In the 18th century the Enlightenment, which used reason to criticise outdated institutions and superstition, spread from France. Voltaire attacked the intolerance of the Church, and from 1751 Diderot and d’Alembert published the Encyclopédie.

People who appear alongside

  • Denis Diderot1713 – 1784

    French Enlightenment thinker who edited the Encyclopédie with d’Alembert, setting out the knowledge and techniques of the age in the light of reason

  • Voltaire1694 – 1778

    French Enlightenment writer who praised English liberty and fiercely attacked the intolerance and superstition of the Church

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712 – 1778

    Genevan Enlightenment thinker whose The Social Contract argued for popular sovereignty guided by the general will, influencing the French Revolution

Themes this person appears in

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution