Étienne de La Boétie, is a French writer and poet. He was a humanist. He was born November 1, 1530 in Sarlat-la-Canéda, a city in the south-east of Périgord, and he died August 18, 1563 in Germignan, in the town of Taillan-Médoc, near Bordeaux. La Boétie is famous for his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. From 1558 he was a close friend of Montaigne, who paid him posthumous homage in his Essays. 