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  • Essay / The life and works of Montesquieu, the French lawyer

    When you ask someone to name a famous person who changed America, they usually answer the obvious: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln; some would even go back to the very founding of the country and say Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. These were the people who were inspired to create America based on the principles of a just government that treated its citizens fairly, but they did not create these ideas on their own. They themselves have been influenced by a number of different people. Perhaps one of the most popular people was named Montesquieu. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayMontesquieu was born on January 18, 1689 in a castle called Château de la Bréde in France. His birth name was Charles-Louis de Secondat. He would be many things throughout his life, a lawyer, a political philosopher and an author. Both his parents came from noble families. His father, Jacques de Secondat, was a soldier and his mother, Marie Françoise de Pensel, was an heiress. She died when he was only seven years old and Montesquieu was sent to the Catholic College of Juilly by his father after her death. The school was specially designed for the French nobility and he stayed there for 5 years from 1700 to 1705. He then moved to Bordeaux in 1705 to study and practice law at the city's university. By the time he completed his studies, he was twenty-two years old. When his father died two years later in 1713, he was entrusted to the care of his uncle, Baron de Montesquieu and became his ward and eventually advisor to the Parliament of Bordeaux. His early childhood was filled with many significant events that would later affect his works. Some examples include England and Scotland joining to become the Kingdom of Great Britain, Louis XV's accession to the throne, and the French Revolution. These events sparked his lifelong interest in politics and societal laws. He married Jeanne de Lartigue, a Protestant, in 1715 and together they had a daughter and two sons. During this period, he was also elected to the Academy of Bordeaux. On the death of his uncle in 1716, he left Montesquieu with a large sum of money, the title of Baron de La Brède and Montesquieu, and an important place in the French government, President à Mortier of the Parliament of Bordeaux. He would eventually abandon his career in law and settle in Paris to become a writer and student. He studied geology, biology, physics and Roman politics. He published many popular books criticizing French society of the time and received much praise from Britain and the rest of Europe. He often used the word "despotism" in his works and was known to have played an important role in introducing this word into politics. He successfully published his first book, Les Lettres persanes, in 1721. Although it was published anonymously, people soon discovered the word "despotism" in his works. true author and Montesquieu became a very popular character. The book was satirical fiction about two Persian merchants who traveled across Europe and mocked and criticized its flawed society and government. Perhaps his most famous work is On the Spirit of Laws, published in 1748. The book challenged the power of the monarchy and the Church and presented ideas such as constitutional government, the separation of powers, and the end of the slave trade. The book also divides French society into three classes, the aristocracy, the monarchy and the communes, and introduces ideas from the three branches of government, the judiciary,.