62 Facts About Talleyrand

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French clergyman, politician and leading diplomat.

Talleyrand worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity.

Talleyrand's career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe.

Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful.

Talleyrand was Napoleon's chief diplomat during the years when French military victories brought one European state after another under French hegemony.

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However, most of the time, Talleyrand worked for peace so as to consolidate France's gains.

Talleyrand succeeded in obtaining peace with Austria through the 1801 Treaty of Luneville and with Britain in the 1802 Treaty of Amiens.

Talleyrand resigned as foreign minister in August 1807, but retained the trust of Napoleon.

Talleyrand conspired to undermine the emperor's plans through secret dealings with Tsar Alexander of Russia and Austrian minister Metternich.

Talleyrand sought a negotiated secure peace so as to perpetuate the gains of the French revolution.

Napoleon rejected peace and, when he fell in 1814, Talleyrand supported the Bourbon Restoration decided by the Allies.

Talleyrand was born in Paris into an aristocratic family which, though ancient and illustrious, was not particularly prosperous.

Talleyrand's father, Count Charles Daniel de Talleyrand-Perigord, was 20 years of age when Charles was born.

Talleyrand's father had a long career in the Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant general, as did his uncle, Gabriel Marie de Perigord, despite having the same infirmity.

From childhood, Talleyrand walked with a limp, which caused him to later be called among other nicknames.

At eight years old, Talleyrand attended the College d'Harcourt, the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, while studying theology at the Sorbonne until the age of 21.

Shortly after he was consecrated as Bishop of Autun, Talleyrand attended the Estates-General of 1789, representing the clergy, the First Estate.

Talleyrand participated in the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and proposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy that nationalised the Church in preference to allegiance to the Pope, and swore in the first four constitutional bishops, even though he had himself resigned as Bishop following his excommunication by Pope Pius VI in 1791.

Just before his resignation from the bishopric, Talleyrand had been elected, with Mirabeau and the Abbe Sieyes, a member of the department of Paris.

Talleyrand then went to the neutral country of the United States where he stayed until his return to France in 1796.

Talleyrand was a house guest of Aaron Burr of New York and collaborated with Theophile Cazenove in Philadelphia.

Talleyrand saw a possible political career for Napoleon during the Italian campaigns of 1796 to 1797.

Talleyrand wrote many letters to Napoleon, and the two became close allies.

Talleyrand was against the destruction of the Republic of Venice, but he complimented Napoleon when the Treaty of Campo Formio with Austria was concluded, probably because he wanted to reinforce his alliance with Napoleon.

Later in 1797, Talleyrand was instrumental in assisting with the Coup of 18 Fructidor, which ousted two moderate members of the Directory in favour of the Jacobins headed by Paul Barras.

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Talleyrand was made Foreign Minister by Napoleon, although he rarely agreed with Napoleon's foreign policy.

Domestically, Talleyrand used his influence to help in the repeal of the strict laws against emigres, refractory clergy, and the royalists of the west.

Talleyrand was instrumental in the completion of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.

Talleyrand wanted Napoleon to keep peace afterwards, as he thought France had reached its maximum expansion.

Talleyrand worked hard to prevent the rupture of the peace of Amiens which occurred in May 1803, and he did what he could to prevent the Louisiana Purchase earlier in the year.

Talleyrand purchased the Chateau de Valencay in May 1803, upon the urging of Napoleon.

Talleyrand held the title until 1815 and administered the principality concurrently with his other tasks.

Talleyrand was opposed to the harsh treatment of Austria in the 1805 Treaty of Pressburg and of Prussia in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807.

Talleyrand negotiated the Treaty of Posen with Saxony, but was shut out completely from the negotiations at Tilsit.

Talleyrand disapproved of Napoleon's Spanish initiative, which resulted in the Peninsular War beginning in 1808.

Talleyrand repaired the confidence of the Russian monarch, who rebuked Napoleon's attempts to form a direct anti-Austrian military alliance.

Napoleon had expected Talleyrand to help convince the Tsar to accept his proposals and never discovered that Talleyrand was working at cross-purposes.

Talleyrand believed Napoleon would eventually destroy the empire he had worked to build across multiple rulers.

Talleyrand opposed the further harsh treatment of Austria in 1809 after the War of the Fifth Coalition.

Talleyrand was a critic of the French invasion of Russia in 1812.

Talleyrand was invited to resume his former office in late 1813, but Talleyrand could see that power was slipping from Napoleon's hands.

Talleyrand offered to resign from the council in early 1814, but Napoleon refused the move.

When Napoleon was succeeded by Louis XVIII in April 1814, Talleyrand was one of the key agents of the restoration of the House of Bourbon, although he opposed the new legislation of Louis' rule.

Talleyrand was the chief French negotiator at the Congress of Vienna, and earlier that same year he signed the Treaty of Paris.

Talleyrand promptly became the champion of the small countries and demanded admission into the ranks of the decision-making process.

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The four powers admitted France and Spain to the decision-making backrooms of the conference after a good deal of diplomatic maneuvering by Talleyrand, who had the support of the Spanish representative, Pedro Gomez Labrador, Marquis of Labrador.

Austria was afraid of future conflicts with Russia or Prussia and the United Kingdom was opposed to their expansion as well—and Talleyrand managed to take advantage of these contradictions within the former anti-French coalition.

Talleyrand, having managed to establish a middle position, received some favours from the other countries in exchange for his support: France returned to its 1792 boundaries without reparations, with French control over papal Avignon, Montbeliard and Salm, which had been independent at the start of the French Revolution in 1789.

However, at the time Talleyrand's diplomacy was regarded as successful, as it removed the threat of France being partitioned by the victors.

Talleyrand played a vital role in the London Conference of 1830, rebuking a partition plan developed by his son Charles de Flahaut and helping bring Leopold Saxe-Coburg to the throne of the newly independent Kingdom of Belgium.

Talleyrand suffered from bouts of recurring depression which were caused by his concern over his legacy and the development of the Napoleonic myth.

Talleyrand sought to gain the friendship of people he believed would shape public opinion in the future, including Honore de Balzac, Lady Granville and Alphonse de Lamartine.

Talleyrand left no legitimate children, though he possibly fathered over two dozen illegitimate ones.

Actually Talleyrand did not visit New England till 1794, when Stevens was already two years old.

Talleyrand's presumed lover Germaine de Stael was a major influence on him, and he on her.

Talleyrand lived with Catherine Worlee, born in India and married there to Charles Grand.

Talleyrand had traveled about before settling in Paris in the 1780s, where she lived as a notorious courtesan for several years before divorcing Grand to marry Talleyrand.

Talleyrand was in no hurry to marry, and it was after repeated postponements that Napoleon obliged him in 1802 to formalize the relationship or risk his political career.

Talleyrand's venality was notorious; in the tradition of the ancien regime, he expected to be paid for the state duties he performed—whether these can properly be called "bribes" is open to debate.

In 1803, Napoleon ordered Talleyrand to acquire the Chateau de Valencay as a place particularly appropriate for reception of foreign dignitaries, and Talleyrand made it his primary place of residence until his death in 1838.

Talleyrand has been regarded as a traitor because of his support for successive regimes, some of which were mutually hostile.

Today, when speaking of the art of diplomacy, the phrase "he is a Talleyrand" is variously used to describe a statesman of great resourcefulness and craft, or a cynical and consciousless self-serving politician.