TALLEYRAND PÉRIGORD, CHARLES-MAURICE, Prince of Périgord. - Bishop of Autun, diplomat, and statesman, born on 2 Feb. 1754 in Paris, died there on 17 May 1838. In 1770 he entered the Seminary of St-Sulpice, and in 1775 he was granted the abbacy of St-Denis in Reims and became a deputy for that province (1775).
He was ordained a priest in 1779, consecrated Bishop of Autun in 1789, and elected deputy to the Estates-General. He played a notable part in the events of the Revolution, proposing that ecclesiastical property be used to meet the public debt (1789), and supporting the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790). He participated in various ways in the activities of the republican government. By this time he was in rebellion against the Church, for in 1790 he had sworn the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and shortly afterward received the brief of excommunication, which would have been imposed upon him had he not retracted his oath within forty days. Meanwhile, he retained only the purely administrative functions of a member of the School Board, and he was only too glad to accept a diplomatic mission to London (1792) with the aim of securing the neutrality of the English government in the event of war. Though he had little confidence in the prospects of success, he was successful, and England promised to observe neutrality in the event of war between France and Austria. He returned to London after the events of 10 Aug. The ostensible purpose of the journey was to persuade the English to accept the unification of the system of weights and measures and to maintain their neutrality. In reality, T. went to London because residence in France had become dangerous for him. In Dec. 1792 he was accused by the Convention of anti-republican activities, and he escaped dire consequences only because he was abroad, but he was included in the lists of political émigrés (1793). The following year he went to the United States, where he remained until 1796, when he was allowed to return to France. In 1797 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Barras and was an advocate of Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt, formulating a program whereby the Mediterranean was to become a French lake. After the failure of the Egyptian campaign, he was attacked by his political opponents and resigned, attempting to justify himself in the work *Éclaircissements*. He was again appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1799 by Bonaparte and left office in 1807. In politics he was an advocate of the principles of legitimacy and balance, and in his work as a statesman he played a notable part in the relations between Napoleon and the Pope. Convinced, along with Napoleon, of the expediency of making concessions to the religious sentiment of French Catholics, he promoted those lengthy negotiations in which there seemed to be an inevitable concession to tolerance and freedom of conscience, for the sake of internal politics, while the enthusiasm and religious fervor aroused among the people by the event in fact gave it a diametrically opposite character, demonstrating that it was truly the longed-for return of the Church among the faithful. Many projects were elaborated, and only the seventh was judged satisfactory by both parties, and further concessions had to be made to Cardinal Consalvi beyond those envisaged. The negotiations for the conclusion of the Concordat were completed in 1801. The following year, personal relations between T. and the Church were regularized, and in June 1802, through the intercession of Napoleon, a papal brief restored him to the lay state. He was thus able to marry Catherine Noël Worlé civilly, but despite this, when Pius VII came to France in 1804, he refused to acknowledge the woman who, in the eyes of the Church, was still a concubine.
In June 1806, T. received from Napoleon, as a reward for his services, the principality of Benevento, which he sold back to the Pope in 1815.
He foresaw Napoleon’s ruin during the Spanish campaign and entered into relations with Tsar Alexander to prepare favorable ground with those whom he saw as the future victors. He soon fell into disfavor with the Emperor for some remarks he made about operations in Spain and was also removed from the post of Grand Chamberlain (1809). He was offered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs twice more, in 1812 and 1813, but Napoleon had already suffered defeat in Russia, and T., seeing in this the confirmation of his predictions, refused the invitation. By now he had given his support to the Bourbon cause and worked toward that end. His skill was displayed at the Congress of Vienna, where, though representing a defeated nation, he succeeded in having France admitted among the great powers of Europe. After the escape from Elba, Napoleon sent an emissary to him, promising him an annuity of 200,000 francs if he would agree to join Napoleon’s government, but in vain, for T. clearly foresaw the impending catastrophe. After the Restoration he was President of the Council, but internal opposition, supported by the hostility of Louis XVIII toward him, led to his resignation after a few months and his passage into liberal opposition. He returned to diplomacy in 1830 and achieved notable successes, such as the recognition of Louis-Philippe by England and the conclusion of a treaty between England, France, Spain, and Portugal, signed in 1834. In the same year he resigned and retired into private life. A few hours before his death he returned to the bosom of the Church and retracted his work of the revolutionary period and his past transgressions.