Mon·tes·quieu 
(mŏntə-sky′, môɴ-tĕ-skyœ) Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu. Title of Charles de Secondat. 1689-1755.
(mŏntə-sky′, môɴ-tĕ-skyœ) Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu. Title of Charles de Secondat. 1689-1755. French philosopher and jurist. An outstanding figure of the early French Enlightenment, he wrote the influential Persian Letters (1721), a veiled attack on the monarchy and the ancien régime, and The Spirit of the Laws (1748), a discourse on government.