author
Estienne de La Boétie
1530–1563
Best known for the fierce little classic Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, this 16th-century French writer asked a question that still feels urgent: why do people obey tyranny at all? His life was brief, but his ideas traveled far through political thought and through the pages of his friend Michel de Montaigne.
1 Audiobook
Notice bio-bibliographique sur La Boëtie, suivie de La Servitude volontaire
by J.-F. (Jean-François) Payen, Estienne de La Boétie
About the author
Born in Sarlat in southwestern France on November 1, 1530, Estienne de La Boétie became a magistrate, humanist scholar, poet, and political thinker. He studied law and served in the Parlement of Bordeaux, where he met Michel de Montaigne and formed the friendship Montaigne would later celebrate as one of the great bonds of his life.
La Boétie is most remembered for Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, an early political essay written while he was still very young. In it, he explored the puzzle of how rulers keep power when so many people submit to them, a question that has kept the work alive for centuries.
He died on August 18, 1563, at just 32 years old. Even with such a short life, his writing and reputation endured, and he remains an important voice in Renaissance humanism and the history of political thought.