Charles de Talleyrand-Perigord (2 February 1754-17 May 1838) was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Empire in several terms: from 1797 to 1799, from 1799 to 1807, from 1814 to 1815, and 1815, and Prime Minister of the Bourbon Restoration in 1815.
Biography[]
Talleyrand in 1797
Charles de Talleyrand was born into an aristocratic Parisian family on 2 February 1754, and originally sought a career in the French Army. However, a left leg limp prevented him from serving, and his career as Bishop of Autun ended in 1801 when Pope Pius VII laicized him, becoming a lay priest. Talleyrand had other successes, however. In 1780, he became Agent-General of the Clergy, representing the Catholic Church in the King's court. He also aided in the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and promoted public education, and in 1792 began his diplomatic career in the French Republic. He twice failed to avert war with Great Britain, but fled there during the September Massacres of 1792, where priests and prisoners were massacred. Talleyrand was later expelled by William Pitt the Younger and lived in the United States until 1796, two years after the radical Jacobin Club and Committee of Public Safety fell.
In 1797, he was made the Minister of Foreign Affairs, succeeding Charles-Francois Delacroix. During his term, he was responsible for the starting of the Quasi War with the United States after he demanded bribes from the Americans during the XYZ Affair, but succeeded in allying with General Napoleon Bonaparte and persuaded him to start a political career. As Napoleon's chief diplomatic advisor until 1807, he was the effective head-of-government of the French Empire under Emperor Napoleon. He resigned in August 1807, and although Napoleon still trusted him, he attempted to make a secret peace with Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and Russian Empire so as to perpetuate the gains of the French Revolution. Talleyrand became an official of King Louis XVIII of France when he came to power in the Bourbon Restoration, and in 1815 secured favorable terms for the division of Europe at the Congress of Vienna, undoing Napoleon's conquests but maintaining France's pre-1792 borders.
Talleyrand briefly served as Prime Minister of France from 9 July to 26 September 1815, but he retired and died in 1838 at the age of 84 in Paris.
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