The wealthy Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, who…
1563 CE
The wealthy Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, who in 1557 had succeeded his father as counselor of the Parlement (a high court) of Bordeaux, has since 1561 resided at the court of Charles IX.
After losing his one close friend, humanist writer Étienne de la Boétie, in 1563, when Montaigne is about thirty, he writes an essay, On friendship, in la Boetie’s honor.
Montaigne is generally accounted the inventor of the personal, or familiar, essay as a modern genre.
His personal life is lonely and not especially happy.