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Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Duke and Peer, GCLH, KOHS
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord by François Gérard, 1808.jpg
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord by François Gérard (1808)
Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom
In office
6 September 1830 – 13 November 1834
Appointed by Louis Philippe I
Preceded by Pierre de Montmercy-Laval
Succeeded by Horace Sébastiani de La Porta
1st Prime Minister of France
In office
9 July 1815 – 26 September 1815
Monarch Louis XVIII
Succeeded by Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis de Richelieu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
13 May 1814 – 19 March 1815
Monarch Louis XVIII
Preceded by Antoine de Laforêt
Succeeded by Louis de Caulaincourt
In office
22 November 1799 – 9 May 1807
Monarch Napoleon I (1804–1807)
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte (1799–1804)
Preceded by Charles-Frédéric Reinhard
Succeeded by Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny
In office
15 July 1797 – 20 July 1799
Head of State Directory
Preceded by Charles-François Delacroix
Succeeded by Charles-Frédéric Reinhard
Member of the National Constituent Assembly
In office
9 July 1789 – 30 September 1791
Constituency Autun
Deputy to the Estates-General
for the First Estate
In office
12 April 1789 – 9 July 1789
Constituency Autun
Personal details
Born (1754-02-02)2 February 1754
Paris, France
Died 17 May 1838(1838-05-17) (aged 84)
Paris, France
Political party Independent (1789–1799)
Bonapartist (1799–1813)
Royalist (1814–1815)
Doctrinaires (1815–1830)
Education Seminary of Saint-Sulpice
Alma mater University of Paris
Profession Clergyman, diplomat
Religion Roman Catholicism
Signature

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (/ˈtæləˌrænd ˈpɛrɪˌɡɔːr/;French: [ʃaʁl moʁis də tal(ɛ)ʁɑ̃ peʁiɡɔʁ]; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a laicized French bishop, politician, and diplomat. After theology studies, he became in 1780 Agent-General of the Clergy and represented the Catholic Church to the French Crown. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe. Those he served often distrusted Talleyrand but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy.

He was Napoleon's chief diplomat during the years when French military victories brought one European state after another under French hegemony, as, he believed, they rightfully should be. However, most of the time, Talleyrand worked for peace so as to consolidate France's gains. He succeeded in obtaining peace with Austria through the 1801 Treaty of Luneville and with Britain in the 1802 Treaty of Amiens. He could not prevent the renewal of war in 1803 but by 1805, he opposed his emperor's renewed wars against Austria, Prussia, and Russia. He resigned as foreign minister in August 1807, but retained the trust of Napoleon and 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 took charge of the Bourbon restoration based on the principle of legitimacy. He played a major role at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815, where he negotiated a favourable settlement for France while undoing Napoleon's conquests.


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