Alexandre Angélique de Talleyrand-Périgord (16 October 1736,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 20 October 1821, Paris) was a French churchman and politician. He was the paternal uncle of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838).

Life

Education

Alexandre Angélique de Talleyrand-Périgord attended the Jesuit school of La Flèche en Sarthe. He continued at the Saint-Sulpice seminary in Paris, where he graduated with a degree in theology, and at the law faculty at Reims where he obtained a license in ''utroque jure'' that is to say, jointly in both canon law and civil law.

Early ecclesiastical career

Talleyrand-Périgord was ordained a priest in 1761. He returned to the service of the vicar general of the diocese of Verdun in 1762. He was elected bishop in partibus of Trajanopolis and was appointed Bishop coadjutor of Reims on December 27, 1766. He was also

Grand Almoner of France {{other uses, Almoner The Grand Almoner of France (french: Grand aumônier de France) was an officer of the French monarchy and a member of the ''Maison du Roi'' ("King's Household") during the ''Ancien Régime''. He directed the religious branch of ...

. He was elevated to the Archbishopric of Reims on October 27, 1777 and became Abbot commendatory of the abbey Notre-Dame de Cercamp from 1777 to 1789. Talleyrand-Périgord was a member of the Assembly of the Clergy from 1780 to 1788, member of the Assembly of Notables in 1787 and deputy of the clergy to the

Estates General of 1789 The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom o ...

Exile

After the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, he emigrated in 1790 and stayed successively in

Aix-la-Chapelle Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

and Brunswick. During this time, he had the Abbé Nicolas Baronnet (1744–1820), vicar of

Cernay-en-Dormois Cernay-en-Dormois () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Marne department The following is a list of the 613 communes in the French department of Marne. The communes cooperate in the f ...

(Marne), as his secretary. In 1801, he refused to submit to the Concordat between the Pope and Napoleon Bonaparte and did not resign his position as Archbishop of Reims. In 1803 he became the representative of the Bourbon heir,

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

, who was exiled in Poland. Together they came to England, living at

Gosfield Hall Gosfield Hall is a country house in Gosfield, near Braintree in Essex, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The house was built in 1545 by Sir John Wentworth, a member of Cardinal Wolsey’s household, and hosted royal visits by Queen Eliz ...

in Essex and

Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire Hartwell House is a country house in the parish of Hartwell in Buckinghamshire, southern England. The house is owned by the Ernest Cook Trust, has been a Historic House Hotel since 1989, and in 2008 was leased to The National Trust. The Grade I ...

. In 1808, Louis appointed him Grand Almoner, a position he would continue to occupy after the Restoration and until his death.

Restoration

In 1814 he returned to France upon the first

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

, and in 1815 he followed Louis XVIII back into exile during the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...

. After the second Restoration, he became a Peer of France. He finally resigned the Archbishopric of Reims on November 8, 1816. He was one of the main architects of the

Concordat of 11 June 1817 The Concordat of 11 June 1817 was a concordat between the kingdom of France and the Holy See, signed on 11 June 1817. Not having been validated, it never came into force in France and so the country remained under the regime outlined in the Conco ...

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...

created him cardinal during the consistory of July 28, 1817. Talleyrand-Périgord was then named Archbishop of Paris on October 1, 1817, but was not installed until 1819.

Distinctions

*Commander of the

Order of the Holy Spirit The Order of the Holy Spirit (french: Ordre du Saint-Esprit; sometimes translated into English as the Order of the Holy Ghost), is a French order of chivalry founded by Henry III of France in 1578. Today, it is a dynastic order under the House of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talleyrand-Perigord, Alexandre 1736 births 1821 deaths

Alexandre Alexandre may refer to: * Alexandre (given name) * Alexandre (surname) * Alexandre (film) See also * Alexander * Xano (disambiguation) Xano is the name of: * Xano, a Portuguese hypocoristic of the name "Alexandre (disambiguation) Alexandre may re ...

Archbishops of Reims Archbishops of Paris 19th-century French cardinals 18th-century peers of France Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Bourbon Restoration Cardinals created by Pope Pius VII