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TALLEMANT, GEDEON, SIEUR DES REAUX (1...
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See also:TALLEMANT, GEDEON, SIEUR See also:DES REAUX (1619—1692) , See also:French author, was See also:born at La Rochelle on the 7th of See also:November 1619. He belonged to a wealthy See also:middle-class See also:family of Huguenot persuasion; the name des Reaux he derived from a small See also:property See also:purchased by him in 1650. When he was about eighteen years of See also:age he was sent to See also:Italy with his See also:brother See also:Francois, See also:abbe Tallemant. On his return to See also:Paris, Tallemant took his degrees in See also:civil and canonical See also:law, and his See also:father secured for him the position of conseiller au See also:parlement. The profession was distasteful to him, and he decided to ensure himself a competence by See also:marriage with his See also:cousin Elisabeth de See also:Rambouillet. His See also:half-brother had married a d'Angennes, and this connexion secured for Tallemant an introduction to the Hotel de Rambouillet. Madame de Rambouillet was no admirer of See also: It seems that the See also:change was not entirely disinterested, for Tallemant, who had suffered considerable pecuniary losses, soon after received a See also:pension of 2000 livres. He died in Paris on the 6th of November 1692.
Des Reaux was a poet of some merit and contributed to the Guirlande de Julie, but it is by his Historiettes that he is remembered. The work remained in See also:manuscript until it was edited in 1834–6 by MM. de Chateaugiron, Jules Taschereau and L. J. N. de Monmerque, with a See also:notice on Tallemant by Monmerque. A third edition (6 vols. 1872) contains a notice by Paulin Paris. Tallemant had begun Memoires pour la regence d'See also:Anne d'Autriche, but the manuscript has not been found.
TALLEYRAND-See also:PERIGORD, See also: In his third or See also:fourth See also:year, while under the care of a See also:nurse in Paris, he See also:fell from a See also:chest of drawers and injured his See also:foot for See also:life. This See also:accident darkened his prospects; for though by the See also:death of his See also:elder brother he should have represented the family and entered the See also:army, yet he forfeited the rights of See also:primogeniture, and the profession of arms was thenceforth closed to him. Entrusted to the care of his grandmother at Chalais in Perigord, he there received the only See also:kind treatment which he experienced in his See also:early life, and was ever grateful for it. He was removed at the age of eight to the See also:College d'See also:Harcourt at Paris (now the Lycee St Louis), where his See also:rich intellectual gifts enabled him to make See also:good by private study the defects of the training there imparted. At the age of twelve he fell See also:ill of smallpox, but his parents showed little or no See also:interest in his recovery. Destined for the See also: The growing claims of the state on the See also:exchequer of the clergy made his duties responsible, his colleague as agent-general being of little use. At the extra-See also:ordinary See also:assembly of the clergy in 1782 he made various proposals, by one of which he sought, though in vain, to redress the most glaring grievances of the underpaid See also:cures. Though the excellence of his work as agent-general in the years 178o—86 was fully acknowledged, and earned him a See also:special See also:gift of 31,000 livres, yet he did not gain a bishopric until the beginning of the year 1789, probably because the See also: On the loth of See also:October, that is, four days after the insurrection of See also:women and the transference of the king and court to Paris, he proposed to the Assembly the See also:confiscation of the lands of the church to the service of the nation, but on terms rather less rigorous than those in which Mirabeau (q.v.) carried the proposal into effect on the 2nd of November. He identified himself in general with the See also:Left of the Assembly, and supported the See also:pro-posed departmental See also:system which replaced the old provincial system early in 1790. At the federation festival of the 14th of July 1790 (the " Feast of Pikes ") he officiated at the See also:altar reared in the middle of the Champ de See also:Mars. This was his last public celebration of See also:mass. For a brilliantly satirical but not wholly See also:fair reference to the See also:part then played by Talleyrand, the reader should consult See also:Carlyle's French Revolution, vol. ii., bk. i., ch. 12. The course of events harmonized with the See also:anti-clerical views of Talleyrand, and he gradually loosened the ties that See also:bound him to the church. He took little part in, though he probably sympathized with, the debates on the measure known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, whereby the state enforced its authority over the church to the detriment of its See also:allegiance to the See also:pope. When the Assembly sought to impose on its members an See also:oath of obedience to the new See also:decree, Talleyrand and three other bishops complied out of the See also:thirty who had seats in the Assembly. The others, followed by the greater number of the clergy throughout France, refused, and thence-forth looked on Talleyrand as a schismatic. He did not See also:long continue to officiate, as many of the so-called " constitutional " clergy did; for, on the 21st of See also:January 1791, he resigned the see of Autun, and in the See also:month of March was placed under the See also:ban of the church by the pope. Just before his resignation he had been elected, with Mirabeau and Sieyes, a member of the See also:department of Paris; and in that capacity did useful work for some eighteen months in seeking to support the cause of order in the turbulent See also:capital. Though he was often on strained terms with Mirabeau, yet his views generally coincided with those of that statesman, who is said on his death-See also:bed (2nd of See also:April 1791) to have communicated to him his opinions on domestic and See also:international affairs, especially advising a See also:close understanding with England. Talleyrand's reputation for immorality, however, was as marked as that of Mirabeau. While excelling him in suppleness and dexterity, he lacked the force of See also:character possessed by the See also:great " See also:tribune of the See also:people "; and his influence was gradually eclipsed by that of the more ardent and determined champions of See also:democracy, the Girondins and the See also:Jacobins. In the closing days of the first or Constituent Assembly, Talleyrand set forth (loth of See also:September 1791) his ideas on national See also:education. Education was to be free, and to See also:lead up to the university. In place of dogma, the elements of religion were alone to be taught. Debarred from See also:election to the second National Assembly (known as the Legislative) by the self-denying See also:ordinance passed by the " constituents," Talleyrand, at the close of 1791, sought to enter the sphere of See also:diplomacy for which his See also:mental qualities and his clerical training furnished him with an admirableequipment. The See also:condition of affairs on the See also:continent seemed to French enthusiasts to presage an attack by the other Powers on France. In reality those Powers were far more occupied with the See also:Polish and Eastern questions than with the affairs of France; and the See also:declaration of Pilnitz, See also:drawn up by the sovereigns of See also:Austria and See also:Prussia, which appeared to threaten France with intervention, was recognized by all well-informed persons to be " a loud-See also:sounding nothing." The French See also:foreign See also:minister, Delessart, believed that he would checkmate all the efforts of the emigres at the See also:continental courts provided that he could confirm See also:Pitt in his intention of keeping England neutral. For that purpose Delessart sent Talleyrand, well known for his Anglophil tendencies, to See also:London, but in the unofficial or semi-See also:official capacity which was rendered necessary by the decree of the Constituent Assembly referred to above. Talleyrand arrived in London on the 24th of January 1792, and found public See also:opinion so far friendly that he wrote off to Paris, " Believe me, a rapprochement with England is no chimera." Pitt received him cordially; and to See also:Grenville the See also:envoy stated his See also:hope that the two free nations would enter into close and friendly relations, each guaranteeing the other in the See also:possession of its existing territories, See also:India and See also:Ireland being included on the side of See also:Britain. After some delay the See also:British government decided to return no definite See also:answer to this proposal, a result due, as Talleyrand thought, to the Gallophobe views of King See also:George and of the ministers See also:Camden and See also:Thurlow. Talleyrand, however, was convinced that Great Britain would not intervene against France unless the latter attacked the Dutch See also:Netherlands. He returned to Paris on the loth of March to persuade the foreign minister (See also:Dumouriez now held that See also:post) of the need of having a fully accredited See also:ambassador at London. The ex-See also:Marquis See also:Chauvelin was appointed, with Talleyrand as adviser. The situation became more complex after the 19th of April, when France declared See also:war against Austria and prepared to invade the See also:Austrian or Belgic Netherlends. Owing to certain indiscretions of Chauvelin and the growing unpopularity of the French in England (especially after the disgraceful See also:day of the loth of June at the Tuileries), the See also:mission was a failure; but Talleyrand had had some See also:share in confirming Pitt in his policy of See also:neutrality, even despite Prussia's overtures for an See also:alliance against France. After Talleyrand's return to Paris early in July (probably in order to See also:sound the situation there) matters went from See also:bad to worse. The overthrow of the monarchy on the loth of August and the September massacres rendered hopeless all attempts at an entente cordiale between the two peoples; and the provocative actions of Chauvelin, undertaken in order to See also:curry favour with the extremists now in power at Paris, undid all the good accomplished by the tact and moderation of Talleyrand. The latter now sought to See also:escape from France, where events were becoming intolerable; and after some unsuccessful attempts to obtain a See also:passport to leave Paris, he succeeded on the 14th of September and landed in England on the 23rd, avowedly on private business, but still animated 1 by the hope of averting a rupture between the two governments. In this he failed. The provocative actions of the French See also:Convention, especially their setting aside of the rights of the Dutch over the See also:estuary of the See also:Scheldt, had brought the two nations to the brink of war, when the See also:execution of Louis XVI. (21st of See also:Jan. 1793) made it inevitable. Talleyrand was expelled from British See also:soil and made his way to the See also:United States. There he spent thirty months in a state of growing uneasiness and discontent with his surroundings. The course of events after the Thermidorian reaction of July 1794 favoured his return to France. Thanks to the efforts of See also:Daunou and others his name was removed from the See also:list of emigres, and he set See also:sail for See also:Europe in November 1795. Landing at See also:Hamburg in the January following, he spent some time there in the See also:company of his See also:friends Madame de Geniis and Reinhard; and when party rancour continued to abate at Paris, he returned thither in September. After a time marked by some pecuniary embarrassment, he was recommended by Madame de See also:Stael to the Director See also:Barras for the post of minister of foreign affairs. His claims on the attention of the See also:Directors had been strengthened by his See also:reading two papers before the French See also:Institute, the first on the commercial relations between England and the United States (in the sense referred to above), and the second on the advantages to be derived from new colonies. In the latter there occurred the suggestive remarks that, whereas revolutions made men prematurely old and weary, the work of colonization tended to renew the youth of nations. France, he observed, needed the See also:spur to See also:practical See also:energy which the Americans had at See also:hand in the effort to subdue the difficulties placed in their way by nature. Similar efforts would tend to make Frenchmen forget the past, and would at the same time See also:supply an outlet for the poor and discontented. The practical statesmanship contained in these papers raised Talleyrand in public estimation; and, thanks to the efforts above named, he gained the post of foreign minister, entering on his duties in July 1797. See also:Bonaparte by his victories over the Austrians in Italy and See also:Styria had raised the French See also:republic to heights of power never dreamed of, and now desired to impose on the See also:emperor terms of See also:peace, to which the Directors demurred. Talleyrand, despite the weakness of his own position (he was as yet little more than the See also:chief clerk of his department), soon came to a good under-See also:standing with the general, and secretly expressed to him his See also:satisfaction at the terms which the latter dictated at Campo Formio (17th of October 1797). The coup d'etat of Fructidor (September 1797) had perpetuated the See also:Directory and led to the exclusion of the two " moderate " members, See also:Carnot and See also:Barthelemy; but Talleyrand saw that power belonged really to the general who had brought about the coup d'etat in favour of the Jacobinical Directors headed by Barras. After the rupture of the peace negotiations with England, which resulted from the coup d'etat of Fructidor, the policy of France became more warlike and aggressive. The occupation of See also:Rome and of See also:Switzerland by the French troops and the events of Bonaparte's See also:Egyptian expedition (see See also:NAPOLEON I.) brought about a renewal of war on the continent, but with these new developments Talleyrand had little or no connexion. His powers as minister were limited, and he regretted the See also:extension of the See also:area of war. Moreover, in the autumn of 1797 his reputation for political morality (never very See also:bright) was overclouded by questionable dealings with the envoys of the United States sent to arrange a peaceful See also:settlement of certain disputes with France. The investigations of the most recent of Talleyrand's biographers tend to show that the charges made against him of trafficking with the envoys have been overdrawn; but all his apologists admit that irregularities occurred. Talleyrand re-fused to clear himself of the charges made against him as his friends (especially Madame de Stael) urged him to do; and the incident probably told against his chances of See also:admission into the Directory, which were discussed in the summer of 1798. A year later he resigned the See also:portfolio for foreign affairs (loth of July 1799), probably because he foresaw the imminent collapse of the Directory. If so, his premonitions were correct. Their realization was assured by the return to France of the " Conqueror of the See also:East " in October. The general and the diplomatist soon came to an understanding, and Talleyrand tact-fully brought about the alliance between Bonaparte and Sieyes (q.v.) (then the most influential of the five Directors) which paved the way for the coup d'etat of See also:Brumaire (see FRENCH REVOLUTION and NAPOLEON I.). Talleyrand's share in the actual events of the 18th, 19th Brumaire (9th, loth of November) 1799 was limited to certain dealings with Barras on the former of those days. About midday be took to Barras a See also:letter, penned by See also:Roederer, re-questing him to resign his post as Director, By what means Talleyrand brought him to do so, whether by persuasion, threats or bribes, is not known; but on that afternoon Barras left Paris under an escort of soldiers. With the more See also:critical and exciting events of the 19th of Brumaire at St See also:Cloud Talleyrand had no See also:direct connexion; but he had made all his preparations for See also:flight in case the See also:blow failed. His See also:reward for helping on the winning cause was the See also:ministry for foreign affairs, which heheld from the close of See also:December 1799 on to the summer of 1807. In the great work of reconstruction of France now begun by the First See also:Consul, Talleyrand played no unimportant part. His great aim was to bring about peace, both international and See also:internal. He had a hand in the pacific overtures which Bonaparte, early in the year 1800, sent to the court of London; and, whatever may have been the motives of the First Consul in sending them, it is certain that Talleyrand regretted their failure. After the See also:battle of See also:Marengo an Austrian envoy had come to Paris in response to a proposal of Bonaparte, and Talleyrand persuaded him to sign terms of peace. These were indignantly repudiated at See also:Vienna, but peace was made between the two Powers at I.uneville on the 9th of February 18o1. As regards French affairs, Talleyrand used his influence to help on the See also:repeal of the vexatious See also:laws against emigres, nonjuring priests, and the royalists of the See also:west. He was also in full sympathy with the policy which led up to the See also:signature of the See also:Concordat of 1801-2 with the pope (see CONCORDAT) ; but it is probable that he had a hand in the questionable intrigues which accompanied the closing parts of that complex and difficult negotiation. At the end of June 1802 the pope removed Talleyrand from the ban of See also:excommunication and allowed him to revert to the See also:secular state. On the loth of September 1803, owing to pressure put on him by Bonaparte, he married Madame See also:Grand, a divorcee with whom he had long been living. During the See also:meeting of See also:Italian notables at See also:Lyons early in 1802 Talleyrand was serviceable in manipulating affairs in the way desired by Bonaparte, and it is known that the foreign minister suggested to them the desirability of appointing Bonaparte See also:president of the Cisalpine Republic, which was thenceforth to be called the Italian Republic. In the negotiations for peace with England which went on at See also:Amiens during the 'See also:winter of 1801–2 Talleyrand had no direct share, these (like those at See also:Luneville) being transacted by Napoleon's eldest brother, See also:Joseph Bonaparte (q.v.). On the other hand he helped the First Consul in assuring French supremacy in Switzerland, Italy and See also:Germany. In Germany the indemnification of the princes who lost all their lands west of the See also:Rhine was found by secularizing and absorbing the ecclesiastical states of the See also:empire. This unscrupulous proceeding, known as the Secularizations (February 1803), was carried out largely on lines laid down by Bonaparte and Talley-See also:rand; and the latter is known to have made large sums of See also:money by trafficking with the claimants of church lands. While helping to establish French supremacy in neighbouring states and assisting Bonaparte in securing the See also:title of First Consul for life, Talleyrand sought all means of securing the permanent welfare of France. He worked hard to prevent the rupture of the peace of Amiens which occurred in May 1803, and he did what he could to prevent the See also:sale of See also:Louisiana to the United States earlier in the year. These events, as he saw, told against the best interests of France and endangered the gains which she had secured by war and diplomacy. Thereafter he strove to moderate Napoleon's ambition and to preserve the See also:European system as far as possible. The charges of duplicity or treachery made against the foreign minister by Napoleon's apologists are in nearly all cases unfounded. This is especially so in the case of the execution of the due d'See also:Enghien (March 1804), which Talleyrand disapproved. The See also:evidence against him rests on a document which is now known to have been forged. On the See also:assumption of the imperial title by Napoleon in May 1804, Talleyrand became grand See also: There Talleyrand secretly advised that potentate not to join Napoleon in putting pressure on Austria in the way desired by the French emperor; but it is well known that Alexander was of that opinion before Talleyrand tendered the See also:advice. Talleyrand disapproved of the See also:Spanish policy of Napoleon which culminated at See also:Bayonne in May 1808; and the stories to the contrary may in all See also:probability be dismissed as idle rumours. It is also hard to believe the statement in the Talleyrand See also:Memoirs that the ex-foreign minister urged Napoleon to occupy See also:Catalonia until a maritime peace could be arranged with England. On Talleyrand now fell the disagreeable task of entertaining at his new See also:mansion at Valen9ay, in See also:Touraine, the Spanish princes virtually kidnapped at Bayonne by the emperor. They remained there until March 1814. At the close of 1808, while Napoleon was in See also:Spain, Talleyrand entered into certain relations with his former See also:rival Fouche (q.v.), which aroused the solicitude of the emperor and hastened his return to Paris. He subjected Talleyrand to violent reproaches, which the ex-minister See also:bore with his usual ironical See also:calm. After the Danubian See also:campaign of 1809 and the See also:divorce of See also:Josephine, Talleyrand used the influence which he still possessed in the imperial council on behalf of the choice of an Austrian See also:consort for his master, for, like Metternich (who is said first to have mooted the proposal), he saw that this would safeguard the interests of the Habsburgs, whose influence he See also:felt to be essential to the welfare of Europe. He continued quietly to observe the course of events during the disastrous years 1812–13; and even at the beginning of the See also:Moscow campaign he summed up the situation in the words, " It is the beginning of the end." Early in 1814 he saw Napoleon for the last time; the emperor upbraided him with the words: " You are a See also:coward, a traitor, a thief. You do not even believe in See also:God. You have betrayed and deceived everybody. You would sell even your own father." Talleyrand listened unmoved, but afterwards sent in his resignation of his seat on the council. It was not accepted. He had no share in the negotiations of the See also:congress of See also:Chatillon in February-March 1814. On the surrender of Paris to the See also:allies (3oth of March 1814), the Emperor Alexander I. took up his See also:abode at the hotel Talleyrand, and there occurred the See also:conference wherein the statesman persuaded the victorious potentate that the return of the Bourbons was the only possible See also:solution of the French problem, and that the principle of See also:legitimacy alone would See also:guarantee Europe against the aggrandizement of any one state or See also:house. As he phrased it in the Talleyrand Memoirs: " The house of See also:Bourbon alone could cause France nobly to conform once more to the happy limits indicated by policy and by nature. With the house of Bourbon France ceased to be gigantic in order to be great." These arguments, reinforced by those of the royalist agent de Vitrolles, convinced the tsar; and Talleyrand, on the 1st of April, convened the French See also:senate (only 64 members out of 140 attended), and that See also:body pronounced that Napoleon had forfeited the See also:crown. Ten days later the fallen emperor recognized the inevitable and signed the Act of See also:Abdication at See also:Fontainebleau. The next effort of Talleyrand was to See also:screen France under the principle of legitimacy and to prevent the scheme of See also:partition on which several of the German statesmen were See also:bent. Thanks mainly to the support of the tsar and of England these schemes were foiled; and France emerged from her disasters with frontiers which were practically those of 1792. At the congress of Vienna (1814–15) for the settlement of European affairs, Talleyrand, as the representative of the restored house of Bourbon in France, managed adroitly to break up the See also:league of the Powers (framed at Chaumont in February 1814) and assisted in forming a secret alliance between England, Austria and France in order to prevent the See also:complete absorption of See also:Poland by Russia and of See also:Saxony by Prussia. The new triple alliance had the effect of lessening the demands of those Powers, and of leading to the well-known territorial See also:compromise of 1815. Everything was brought into a state of uncertainty once more by the escape of Napoleon from See also:Elba; but the events of the See also:Hundred Days, in which Talleyrand had no share—he remained at Vienna until the loth of June—brought in the Bourbons once more; and Talleyrand's plea for a magnanimous treatment of France under Louis XVIII. once more prevailed in all important matters. On the 9th of July 1815 he became foreign minister and president of the council under Louis XVIII., but See also:diplomatic and other difficulties led him to resign his See also:appointment on the 23rd of September 1815, Louis, however, naming him high chamberlain and according him an See also:annuity of See also:loo,000 francs. The See also:rest of his life calls for little notice except that at the time of the July Revolution of 1830, which unseated the elder See also:branch of the Bourbons, he urged Louis Philippe, See also:duke of See also: He lived to see the See also:triumph of his principles; and no Frenchman of that age did so much to repair the See also:mischief wrought by fanatics and autocrats. In the opinion of enlightened men this will mitigate the censures that must be passed on him for his laxity in matters financial. If he enriched himself, he also helped to See also:save France from ruin at more crises than one. In private life his ease of bearing, friendliness, and, above all, his inexhaustible fund of See also:humour and See also:irony, won him a large circle of friends; and See also:judges so exacting as Mmes de Stael and de Remusa.t and See also:Lord See also:Brougham avowed their delight in his society. By a See also:codicil added to his will on the 17th of March 1838 Talley-rand left his memoirs and papers to the duchess of Dino and to M. de Bacourt. The latter revised them with care, and added to them other pieces emanating from Talleyrand. They were not to be published until after the See also:lapse of thirty years from the time of Talleyrand's death. For various reasons they did not see the See also:light until 1891. This is not the place in which to discuss so large a question as that of the genuineness of the Memoires, which, indeed, is now generally admitted. There are, however, several suspicious circumstances which tell against them as documents of the first importance, notably these: first that Talleyrand is known to have destroyed many of his most important papers, and secondly that M. de Bacourt almost certainly See also:drew up the connected narrative which we now possess from notes which were in more or less of See also:con-See also:fusion. For this question see articles by M. Chuquet in Rev. critique d'histoire et de litterature, 25th of May 1891 (Paris) ; also articles by others in the Rev. historique, vols. xlviii. and xlix. (Paris) ; also in the Quarterly See also:Review, No. 345 (London, 1891), and See also:Edinburgh Review, vol. 174 (London, 1891) ; by P. Bailleu in the Historische Zeitschrift, vol. lxviii. (See also:Munich, 1892), and by See also:Albert See also:Sorel in his Lectures historiques (pp. 70-112).
The Talleyrand Memoires were edited by the duc de See also:Broglie in 5 vols. (Paris, 1891—2). They have been translated into See also:English by A. See also: Pallain, La mission de Talleyrand a Londres en 1792 (Paris, 1889), and Le ministere de Talleyrand sous le Directoire (Paris, 1891); P. See also:Bertrand, Lettres inedites de Talleyrand a Napoleon, 180o- (Paris, 1889) ; G. Pallain, Talleyrand et Louis X VIII. (Paris, 1881, and Ambassade de Talley-rand a Londres (1830—4), 2 vols. (Paris, 1891). Among the See also:biographies, or See also:biographical notices, of Talleyrand the following are, on the whole, hostile to him: G. Touchard See also:Lafosse, Talleyrand, histoire politique et See also:vie intime (Paris, 1848) ; G. See also:Michaud, Hist. politique at privee de Talleyrand (Paris, 1853) ; A. Pichot, Souvenirs intimes sur Talleyrand (Paris, 187o) ; Sainte-Beuve, Talleyrand," in Nouveaux lundis, No. iii. ; and Villemarest, Talleyrand. The estimate of him of See also:Sir H. L. E. Bulwer See also:Lytton in his Historical Characters, 2 vols. (London, 1867) and that of Lord Brougham in Historical Sketches of Statesmen, 3 vols. (London, 1845, new edition), are better balanced, but brief. Of recent biographies of Talleyrand the best are See also:Lady Blennerhasset's Talleyrand. (See also:Berlin, 1894, Eng. See also:translation by F. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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