Resulting from a family from very old nobility, Charles Maurice, prince de Talleyrand-Périgord, in spite of his right of seniority, was dedicated by his in an ecclesiastical state because of an infirmity (club-foot) which made it inapt for the military career.

He entered to the seminar of Saint-Sulpice in 1770, supported his thesis of theology in 1774, was ordered priest in 1779 and vicar-general of the diocese of Rheims the same year.  

Deputy of the clergy to the general states
Bishop of Autun in 1788, it was elected appointed clergy with the general states of 1789, and named member of the committee of the Constitution; it was interested then particularly in the financial questions and asked, on on October 10th, 1789, the confiscation of the goods of the clergy in order to relieve the people, “pressed of all shares”, he says. At the time of its speech in front of the Parliament, he declared in particular: “The clergy is not owner following the example of the other owners since the goods of which he enjoys and he cannot lay out were given not for the interest of the people but for the service of the functions.” This kind of quibbles will make it regarded as a cheating policy henceforth.  

President of the Parliament
In 1790, he was elected president of the Parliament. On July 14th, it celebrated at Field-of-March the mass of the festival of the Federation, and, in December, lent oath to the civil Constitution of the clergy. In January 1791, he resigned of his diocese; in February, always bishop, he crowned the first bishops “swearers”. Named diplomatic agent in London in February 1792, it carried out three missions to it. But, following the discovery of two letters compromising in the iron cupboard of Louis XVI, Talleyrand was issued of charge by Convention on on December 5th, 1792, whereas it was still in Great Britain.

The Directory
In April 1793, it was related to the list of the emigrants, was summoned to leave Great Britain at the beginning of 1794 and left for the United States, where it remained of 1794 to 1796. Having managed to make bring back the decree of charge against him and to make stripe its name of the list of the emigrants, Talleyrand returned to Paris to become the Minister for the Foreign relations of the Directory, in 1797, under the protection of Barred. It acquired soon the favor of Bonaparte, whom it helped to prepare the coup d'etat of the 18 brumaire, and found his station under the Consulate and at the beginning of the Empire.

In 1804, it was mixed with the removal of the duke of Enghien; it convainquit indeed Napoleon which the assassination of a Bourbon would prove the impossibility of their return on the throne of France - “It is Talleyrand which decided to me to stop the duke of Enghien of which I did not think”, will write the Emperor later. Having then its confidence, Talleyrand negotiated important treaties, such those of Presbourg or Tilsit. However, anxious of Napoleonean disproportion, Talleyrand gave up its wallet in August 1807, and moved away gradually from the Emperor, who it had made great chamberlain (1804) and prince de Bénévent (1806).

Napoleon still charged with receiving, in his castle of Valençay, the captive Spanish princes (1808-1814). He then carried out a double game which was worth to him to be disgraced and to lose his function of great chamberlain (1809). In 1813, Talleyrand refused to return to the Foreign relations, as well as required the Emperor of him.

, He was the April 1814 elected president of the provisional government by the senators and signed the convention of armistice with the Allies.

The return of the Bourbons
It was one of the principal craftsmen of the return of the Bourbons; its post of minister to him was returned in May 1814, and it signed the treaty of Paris on on May 30th. Louis XVIII sent it to defend the French interests with the Congress of Vienna. It is thanks to its diplomatic skill, in particular throwing division among the Allies, which it succeeds in obtaining for France of the unhoped-for conditions.

Under the second Restoration, he was president of the Council during a few months, in 1815, and was again named great chamberlain, but he had to withdraw himself because of the hostility of the extremists, and passed in the liberal opposition.

The revolution of 1830
With the revolution of 1830, he decided in favor of the house of Orleans, contributed to the introduction of July monarchy and was named ambassador in London (1830-1834). Little before its death, it was reconciled with the Church (which had returned it in a laic state in 1802). Its Memories were published in 1891-1892.  

The prototype of the senior civil servants of the State
By the exceptional duration of its political career, having assumed the highest responsibilities under extremely different modes, Talleyrand is the prototype of the senior civil servants of the State, who serve the institutions independently of the orientation of the government.

That to which Napoleon had said, on on January 28th, 1809, “Ah, hold, you are shit in a silk stocking”, by allusion to its ceaseless reversals - if not its treacheries - request however leniency in its Memories: “The posterity will make an assessment freer and more independent than the contemporaries on those which, placed like me on the large theater of the world, with one of the most extraordinary times of the history, have right, by that even, to be judged with more impartiality and more equity.”