One man against the world

Timely lessons for the Trump era from the careers of Talleyrand ... and Napoleon

Bust of Talleyrand at his estate at Valençay, photo by Gerd Eichmann.

From the beginning, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord’s life was a struggle. Born with a club foot and raised at a distance from his aristocratic parents, the young Talleyrand was dealt a stern fate: his younger brother would inherit the family name and title while Talleyrand, too lame to serve in the army, would become a priest.

The church, with its required celibacy for clergy, was not a natural home for the young man. That became clear when he met a woman while he was a seminary student.

“A chance encounter in a church, an offer to share his umbrella in the rain, led to an intimacy that lasted for two years,” wrote Duff Cooper, the English politician whose 1932 Talleyrand biography is a classic. “She was a young actress whom her parents had forced to go upon the stage against her will; he against his will was in process of becoming a priest. … the priest who could not love the Church found consolation in the ar…