Short answers, pulled from the story.
Michel Eyquem, Lord of Montaigne, entered the world on the 28th of February 1533 at his family estate in Guyenne. His father Pierre had purchased the land in 1477 after making a fortune as a herring merchant.
A German tutor named Horstanus spoke no French, forcing the child to acquire the language through immersion alone. Servants and family members received strict orders to speak only Latin words that the boy employed.
Michel met Étienne de La Boétie when both men were serving in the Parliament of Bordeaux around 1558. La Boétie died in 1563 likely from plague or tuberculosis at the age of thirty-two.
By 1571 he had completely retired from public life to isolate himself within the tower of the château. On the last day of February 1571, marking his thirty-eighth birthday, he inscribed an entry above the bookshelves declaring his retirement from court servitude.
A peritonsillar abscess brought paralysis of his tongue shortly before his death on the 13th of September 1592. He remained conscious until the end and requested a Mass during its celebration.