Although born at Vitry in France, as a Huguenot De Moivre was forced to flee to England to escape the religious persecution that flared up in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In England he came to know both Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, eventually becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of London himself in 1697.

De Moivre made important contributions to mathematics in the fields of probability and trigonometry. His interest in probability was no doubt stimulated by the fact that despite his abilities he was unable to find a permanent post as a mathematician and so was forced to earn his living by, among other things, gambling. De Moivre was the first to define the concept of statistical independence and to introduce analytical techniques into probability. His work on this was published in The Doctrine of Chances (1718), later followed by Miscellanea analytica (1730; Analytical Miscellany). De Moivre also introduced the use of complex numbers into trigonometry. De Moivre's theorem is the relationship (cos A + i sin A)ⁿ = cos nA + i sin nA