Talleyrand-Périgord

CHARLES MAURICE DE, (tahla-ron(g)-pa-re-gohr',) PRINCE DE BENEVENTE. A celebrated French statesman, B. in Paris, 1754. An accident in early life compelled him to dedicate his talents to the Church, but, being elected in 1788 to the bishopric of Autun, he was called upon, in virtue of his office, to take his seat in the Etats Généraux, from which event is to be dated the rise of that political distinction which made his name illustrious through the whole of Europe for 35 years. In 1835 he retired from political life, and D. 1838. [s. 877]