René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596 in La Haye, Touraine, France. Descartes was an only child and motherless as of the age one. His father, Joachim, however was a councillor in the Parlement of Brittany; furthermore, he owned farms in Poitou, France and houses in Châtellerault and Poitiers, France. Since his father remarried in Rennes, France, Descartes was left to his maternal grandmother in La Haye and later to his great-uncle in Châtellerault. Descartes moved to the Netherlands because Paris was to energetic for him to concentrate on his work, he had also inherited enough money to live independently. There he worked and drafted his book Meditations freely because The Netherlands was tolerant of other ideas; therefore, he could independent
