27 Facts About Montesquieu

1.

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.

2.

Montesquieu is the principal source of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world.

3.

Montesquieu is known for doing more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon.

4.

Montesquieu's anonymously published The Spirit of Law, which was received well in both Great Britain and the American colonies, influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States in drafting the US Constitution.

5.

Montesquieu was born at the Chateau de la Brede in southwest France, 25 kilometres south of Bordeaux.

6.

Montesquieu's father, Jacques de Secondat, was a soldier with a long noble ancestry, including descent from Richard de la Pole, Yorkist claimant to the English crown.

7.

Montesquieu's mother, Marie Francoise de Pesnel, who died when Charles was seven, was an heiress who brought the title of Barony of La Brede to the Secondat family.

8.

Montesquieu's father died in 1713 and he became a ward of his uncle, the Baron de Montesquieu.

9.

Montesquieu became a counselor of the Bordeaux Parlement in 1714.

10.

Montesquieu showed preference for Protestantism and in 1715 he married the Protestant Jeanne de Lartigue, who eventually bore him three children.

11.

Montesquieu's early life was a time of significant governmental change.

12.

Montesquieu withdrew from the practice of law to devote himself to study and writing.

13.

Montesquieu achieved literary success with the publication of his 1721 Persian Letters, a satire representing society as seen through the eyes of two Persian visitors to Paris, cleverly criticizing absurdities of contemporary French society.

14.

Montesquieu acquainted himself with the English politician Viscount Bolingbroke, whose political views were later incorporated into Montesquieu's analysis of English constitution.

15.

Montesquieu's travels included Austria and Hungary and a year in Italy.

16.

Montesquieu remained in England until the spring of 1731, when he returned to La Brede.

17.

Montesquieu next published Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, among his three best known books.

18.

Montesquieu was highly regarded in the British colonies in North America as a champion of liberty.

19.

Montesquieu was troubled by a cataract and feared going blind.

20.

Montesquieu was buried in the Eglise Saint-Sulpice, Paris, and the Revolution obliterated all trace of his remains.

21.

Montesquieu expounded the view in Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, that each historical event was driven by a principal movement:.

22.

Indeed, the French political anthropologist Georges Balandier considered Montesquieu to be "the initiator of a scientific enterprise that for a time performed the role of cultural and social anthropology".

23.

Montesquieu saw two types of governmental power existing: the sovereign and the administrative.

24.

Montesquieu argues that each Power should only exercise its own functions; he is quite explicit here:.

25.

Montesquieu devotes four chapters of The Spirit of Law to a discussion of England, a contemporary free government, where liberty was sustained by a balance of powers.

26.

Montesquieu advocated reform of slavery in The Spirit of Law, specifically arguing that slavery was inherently wrong because all humans are born equal, but that it could perhaps be justified within the context of climates with intense heat, wherein laborers would feel less inclined to work voluntarily.

27.

Montesquieu goes so far as to assert that certain climates are more favorable than others, the temperate climate of France being ideal.