Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu was born to a noble family in 1689 at La Brède, near Bordeaux, in southwestern France. He received his education at the prestigious Oratorian Collège de Juilly in Paris and obtained a law degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708. He continued his study of the law in Paris until the death of his father in 1713 whereupon he inherited the barony of La Brède and returned there to manage the estate. In 1715, he married Jeanne de Lartigue, a Protestant from a wealthy, landed family. They had three children together. In 1716, his uncle bequeathed him the barony of Montesquieu and therewith the presidency of the Parlement of Bordeaux. At this point, he became Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu and Président à Mortier in the Parlement of Bordeaux. In the latter capacity, he served as the principle magistrate of one of the highest institutions of justice: the Parlement. This particular institution served as an appeals court. In this role, Montesquieu possessed a unique opportunity to observe the French governing structure in action. He remained in government for 11 years, learning a great deal about the important role of a separate judiciary as well as the role of the Parlement as a check on the king’s power.

Shortly after returning to his family estate, the Academy of Bordeaux invited Montesquieu to become a member. Initially his activities in the Academy consisted mainly of reporting on scientific observations as well as lecturing on social practices in other countries, duties and natural law. In 1721, he published The Persian Letters anonymously, due to the inflammatory nature of the material. In this work, he recounts the experience of two Persians traveling to Paris commenting on the absurdities of French life in the ancien régime. His penetrating insight made the work an instant success catching the attention of intellectual luminaries all over the country. His fame allowed him to become an active participant in Parisian intellectual life, joining leading salons and clubs, some of which the government actively tried to suppress. His work also received negative attention from the Catholic Church; his portrayal of the Christian religion and the Church hierarchy angered them greatly. In The Persian Letters, Montesquieu frequently points out the irrationality and tyrannical nature of Catholicism, saying, for example that the Pope is a magician because he can “make the king believe that three are only one, or else that the bread one eats is not bread, or that the wine one drinks is not wine, and a thousand other things of the same kind” (Letter 24). After the publication of The Persian Letters and the attendant fame it brought him, Montesquieu spent much more time in Paris. During this time, he published several minor works including A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates, Reflections on Universal Monarchy and The Temple of Gnide. The published writings appear to have been directed at a Parisian audience, portraying exotic settings, beautiful women and superficial delights. Underlying these seemingly shallow works, however, remained the same critical eye which delighted intellectuals and infuriated authorities.

Due to his concern over censorship, he decided against publishing the Reflections on Universal Monarchy and many thought it had been lost. Seventy years later, it was discovered. Montesquieu had suppressed this work for fear that influential figures at Court—who might still dream of the French dominance in Europe envisioned by Louis XIV—would persecute him for his reasoned arguments against continental hegemony.

The next few years marked dramatic change in Montesquieu’s life. In 1725, he sold his parliamentary post in Bordeaux and resigned from government. In 1728, he was elected to the Académie Française, the most prestigious institute of intellectuals in the country. At the time it was heavily controlled by the government and the Church. Montesquieu’s election to the Academie occurred despite serious religious opposition to his work.

Soon thereafter he traveled around Europe, intent on developing a stronger understanding of the differences among European states. His first major stop was Vienna. There he met Prince Eugene of Savoy, spending a great deal of time with his circles, known as libertines and free-thinkers. Next he traveled to Venice, where he sought out Antonio Conti, famous for popularizing Newton’s theories in Italy. Montesquieu moved through other important Italian cities and then settled in England for two years during a time of great struggle between the king and Parliament. It was due in large part to this time in England that he came to see her institutional structure as one of the best ever created. Moreover, he observed what would have been impossible in France at the time: a serious debate between the king and the parliament about their respective roles in the governing of the nation.

Upon his return to France in 1731, he began work on The Spirit of the Laws and he published The Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline anonymously. This book represented his first attempt to apply his theories of government to a particular state. His seminal work, The Spirit of the Laws, came to fruition in 1748 containing “the work of twenty years” in Montesquieu’s own words. In this work he looked at all of the elements involved in the make up of a regime, namely “the physical aspect of the country…the climate, be it freezing, torrid, or temperate…the properties of the terrain, its location and extent…the way of life of the people, be they plowmen, hunters, or herdsmen…the degree of liberty that the constitution can sustain…the religion of the inhabitants, their inclinations, their wealth, their number, their commerce, their mores and their manners; finally, the laws are related to one another, to their origin, to the purpose of the legislator, and to the order of things on which they are established” all of elements together form the spirit of the laws. Understanding a state requires understanding the complex relationship among all of these parts; reforming a state requires understanding how to marry universal principles with the particular circumstances of a given state.

It was greeted with immediate success and censure. The Catholic Church disapproved strongly, placing it on its list of banned books. Two years after the publication, Montesquieu wrote a Defense of the Spirit of the Laws, which failed to placate the Church or satisfy all of his critics.

In 1755, while at work on an entry “On Taste” for Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, Montesquieu died of a fever in Paris.

For a more in-depth biography:

Kingston, Rebecca. Montesquieu and the Parlement of Bordeaux. Geneva: Droz, 1996.

Shackleton, Robert. Montesquieu: A Critical Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.