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Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Bénévent

Born

2 February 1754

Died

17 May 1838

Born into an aristocratic family and ordained as a priest, Talleyrand was bishop of Autun when he was elected to the Estates-General in 1789. He supported the new political order and proposed that Church property be transferred to the nation, a measure intended to ease the state’s financial crisis. He later consecrated bishops chosen under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and resigned his bishopric. Sent to London in 1792, he remained abroad after the Convention ordered his arrest and spent two years in the United States. He returned in 1796 and served as foreign minister under the Directory and Napoleon. After turning against Napoleon, he helped restore the Bourbons in 1814 and defended France’s position at the Congress of Vienna. He later served as ambassador in London and died in Paris in 1838.

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