prince de Bénévent Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

Born in Paris in 1754, Talleyrand began his public life in the Church and became bishop of Autun just before the French Revolution. He soon moved from clerical office into politics and diplomacy, gaining a reputation for intelligence, flexibility, and an almost unmatched instinct for staying influential while regimes rose and fell.

Over the course of his career, he served at the center of French affairs under Louis XVI, during the Revolution, under Napoleon, and again after the Bourbon restoration. He is especially remembered as one of Europe’s great diplomats, helping shape major negotiations in the age of revolution and empire and playing a leading role at the Congress of Vienna.

Talleyrand remains a fascinating, controversial figure: admired for his wit, polish, and strategic brilliance, and criticized for opportunism and self-interest. However one judges him, he stands out as one of the most memorable political survivors of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe.