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Why was Voltaire forced to leave France for England in 1726?
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Voltaire
Voltaire, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.
In 1726, Voltaire was forced to leave France for England following a physical altercation with the chevalier de Rohan, a member of a prominent French family who had mocked his adopted name.1
After being beaten by the chevalierās men, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille and subsequently escorted to Calais in May 1726, from where he departed for London. This exile marked a turning point in his life, shifting his focus toward opposition and the intellectual exploration of English civil liberty and religious toleration, which he later championed in his work.123