ABSTRACT
Montaigne paints a picture of an extremely sensitive man, both as regards poetry and as regards cruelty and the suffering of other human beings. The real Montaigne was indeed an important political figure negotiating with Henri de Navarre, Henri de Guise, Catherine de Medici and Henri III. He was born on 28 February 1533 at the chateau of Montaigne in the small hamlet known today as Saint-Michel de Montaigne, about fifty miles east of Bordeaux. In 1565 he married Francoise de la Chassaigne from an established family in Bordeaux and from her he had six girls, of whom only one, Leonor, survived. On 13 September 1592, Montaigne died and was buried in the church of the Feuillants in Bordeaux.
