Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularised clergyman, statesman and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. 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 I. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy.
Portrait by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1817)
The oath of La Fayette at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790. Talleyrand, then Bishop of Autun, can be seen at the extreme right. French School, 18th century. Musée Carnavalet.
Portrait of Talleyrand as Grand Chamberlain of France by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, 1807
An 1815 caricature of Talleyrand – L'Homme aux six têtes (The man with six heads), referring to his prominent role in six different regimes
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back
Le Serment du Jeu de paume by Jacques-Louis David (c. 1791), depicting the Tennis Court Oath
The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the iconic event of the Revolution, still commemorated each year as Bastille Day