Volta
Person1694 – 1778

Voltaire

Also called: François-Marie Arouet

French Enlightenment writer who praised English liberty and fiercely attacked the intolerance and superstition of the Church

Born François-Marie Arouet into a family of Paris notaries, he was twice imprisoned in the Bastille for writings mocking the nobility, and from 1726 he spent nearly three years in England, where he was impressed by the ideas of Locke and Newton. He corresponded with Frederick II of Prussia and stayed at his court. In later life he lived at Ferney near the Swiss border, campaigning to clear the name of Jean Calas, a Protestant unjustly executed. He left an enormous body of poems, plays, histories and novels.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

3 related events

  1. 1
    1740 – 1786Rise of Prussia and Frederick the Greatrelated figure

    Frederick II of Prussia, who came to the throne in 1740, seized Silesia and made Prussia a great power; calling the ruler “the first servant of the state”, he was an enlightened despot who reformed from above.

  2. 2
    1751 – 1772The Enlightenment and the Encyclopédieauthor

    In the 18th century the Enlightenment, which used reason to criticise outdated institutions and superstition, spread from France. Voltaire attacked the intolerance of the Church, and from 1751 Diderot and d’Alembert published the Encyclopédie.

  3. 3
    1762 – 1796Russia under Catherine the Greatrelated figure

    Catherine II, who took the throne in a palace coup in 1762, styled herself an enlightened despot but after Pugachev’s Rebellion strengthened noble privilege and serfdom, and fought the Ottoman Empire to win the Black Sea coast and Crimea.

People who appear alongside

  • Frederick the Great1712 – 1786

    King of Prussia (r. 1740–1786) who seized Silesia and made Prussia a great power — an enlightened despot who called the ruler “the first servant of the state”

  • Denis Diderot1713 – 1784

    French Enlightenment thinker who edited the Encyclopédie with d’Alembert, setting out the knowledge and techniques of the age in the light of reason

  • Montesquieu1689 – 1755

    French Enlightenment thinker whose The Spirit of the Laws called for separating legislative, executive and judicial powers so that each checks the others

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712 – 1778

    Genevan Enlightenment thinker whose The Social Contract argued for popular sovereignty guided by the general will, influencing the French Revolution

  • Catherine the Great1729 – 1796

    Empress of Russia (r. 1762–1796), German-born, who took the throne in a palace coup, professed enlightened despotism and expanded Russia to the Black Sea and through the partitions of Poland

Themes this person appears in

  • Reformation and Absolutism1517 – 1796

    From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Catherine the Great — the wars of religion of a divided Christendom ended at Westphalia, and absolute monarchs armed with divine right, standing armies, bureaucracies and mercantilism, followed by the enlightened despots of eastern Europe, contended for the balance of power among sovereign states

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution