Early Life
Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne, also known as Lord Montaigne, was born in Château de Montaigne, France, in the year 1533. He grew up on a wealthy estate as an only child; two of his siblings, who would have been older than him, died as children. For the first three years of his life, Montaigne’s father had him live in a small cottage with a peasant family in order for him to have humble beginnings and to bring him closer with different ways of life and aspects of society.
Pierre Eyquem, Montaigne’s father, was very involved in the education of his son and wanted him to grow up with a solid educational foundation. To do this, he had Latin be the first language of Montaigne. He himself tried only spoke Latin to his son and he hired Latin-speaking servants on the estate where they lived and only speak Latin to Montaigne. Although Montaigne claimed his efficiency in Latin slowly faded throughout his life, he always maintained a level sufficient for understanding important works in the language. He had also learned Greek later on, but preferred to use translations for Greek works in his studies.
Formal Education
In 1539, when Montaigne was six years old, his father sent him to a prestigious boarding school called the College of Guienne, where he studied under the renowned Latin scholar George Buchanan. Montaigne precociously finished his studies in the year 1546 at the age of thirteen. After his fundamental studies, he began to study law. After his studies he began his career in a local legal system, then was a counselor of the Court des Aides of Périgueux, and in 1557 became a counselor of the Parliament of Bordeaux.
Essais
Montaigne’s only principal philosophical work is Essais, or “Essays,” in English. In fact, he is known as the creator of the essay style of writing. In Essays, Montaigne discusses a plethora of topics; cannibalism, education, his relationship with his father, smells, books, cruelty, experience and many others. In his longest and most famous essay, Apology for Raimond Sebond, Montaigne developed his views on skepticism and advocated for Pyrrhonism out of an irritation for the religious intolerance and dispute that were prominent during his time. In his essay, On the Education of Children, Montaigne advocated for an individualized learning environment where children were encouraged to learn through experience and to question and alter the ideas they learn in books, making these ideas their own. This notion was new at the time and differed largely from what was then the contemporary method of education; having children read the classics and accept them as truth without learning to make their own judgments or expand on ideas.
Essais had a great influence on many renown philosophers such as Sir Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Virginia Woolf, Friedrich Nietzsche, and it is presumed some of Shakespeare’s later works as well.
Death
Michel de Montaigne died on September 13th, 1592 at the age of 59 on his home estate. In November of 2019, Montaigne’s remains were suspected to be found in the basement of The Museum d’Aquitaine but the investigation had to be delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.