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