When Napoleon was succeeded by Louis XVIII in April 1814, Talleyrand was one of the key agents of the
restoration of the
House of Bourbon, although he opposed the new legislation of Louis's rule. Talleyrand was the chief French negotiator at the
Congress of Vienna; earlier that same year he signed the
Treaty of Paris. It was due in part to his skills that the terms of the treaty were remarkably lenient towards France. As the Congress opened, the right to make decisions was restricted to four countries: Austria, the United Kingdom, Prussia and Russia. France and other European countries were invited to attend, but were not allowed to influence the process. Talleyrand promptly became the champion of the small countries and demanded admission into the ranks of the decision-making process. The four powers admitted France and Spain to the decision-making backrooms of the conference after a good deal of diplomatic maneuvering by Talleyrand, who had the support of the Spanish representative,
Pedro Gómez Labrador, Marquis of Labrador. Spain was excluded after a while (a result of both the Marquis of Labrador's incompetence as well as the quixotic nature of Spain's agenda), but France (Talleyrand) was allowed to participate until the end. Russia and Prussia sought to enlarge their territory at the Congress. Russia demanded annexation of Poland (already occupied by Russian troops); this demand was finally satisfied, despite protests by France, Austria and the United Kingdom. Austria was afraid of future conflicts with Russia or Prussia and the United Kingdom was opposed to their expansion as well—and Talleyrand managed to take advantage of these contradictions within the former anti-French coalition. On 3 January 1815, a secret treaty was signed by France's Talleyrand, Austria's
Metternich and Britain's
Castlereagh. By this tract, officially a secret treaty of defensive alliance, the three powers agreed to use force if necessary to "repulse aggression" (of Russia and Prussia) and to protect the "state of security and independence". Talleyrand, having managed to establish a middle position, received some favors from the other countries in exchange for his support: France returned to its 1792 boundaries without reparations, with French control over the
papal Comtat Venaissin,
County of Montbéliard, and
Salm, which had been independent at the start of the French Revolution in 1789. It would later be debated which outcome would have been better for France: allowing Prussia to annex all of
Saxony (Talleyrand ensured that only part of the kingdom would be annexed) or the Rhine provinces. The first option would have kept Prussia farther away from France, but would have needed much more opposition as well. Some historians have argued that Talleyrand's diplomacy wound up establishing the fault lines of
World War I, especially as it allowed Prussia to engulf small German states west of the Rhine. This simultaneously placed the
Prussian Army at the French-German frontier, for the first time; made Prussia the largest German power in terms of territory, population and the industry of the
Ruhr and
Rhineland; and eventually helped pave the way to
German unification under the Prussian throne. However, at the time Talleyrand's diplomacy was regarded as successful, as it removed the threat of France being partitioned by the victors. Talleyrand also managed to strengthen his own position in France (
ultraroyalists had disapproved of the presence of a former "revolutionary" and "murderer of the
Duke d'Enghien" in the royal cabinet). Napoleon's return to France in 1815 and his subsequent defeat, the
Hundred Days, was a reverse for the diplomatic victories of Talleyrand (who remained in Vienna the whole time). The
second peace settlement was markedly less lenient and it was fortunate for France that the business of the Congress had been concluded. Having been appointed foreign minister and president of the council on 9 July 1815, Talleyrand resigned in September of that year, over his objections to the second treaty. Louis XVIII appointed him as the
Grand Chamberlain of France, a mostly ceremonial role which provided Talleyrand with a steady income. For the next fifteen years he restricted himself to the role of "elder statesman", criticizing and intriguing against Minister of Police
Élie, duc Decazes, Prime Minister
Duc de Richelieu and other political opponents from the sidelines. In celebration of the birth of the
Duc de Bordeaux, Louis XVIII made Talleyrand a knight of the
Order of the Holy Spirit. In December 1829, Talleyrand funded the foundation of the
National newspaper. The newspaper was run by his personal friend
Adolphe Thiers, alongside
Armand Carrel,
François Mignet and
Stendhal. Its first issue appeared on 3 January 1830, quickly becoming the mouthpiece of the
Orléanist cause and gaining popularity among the French liberal bourgeoisie. Following the ascent of
Louis-Philippe I to the throne in the aftermath of the
July Revolution of 1830, Talleyrand reluctantly agreed to become ambassador to the United Kingdom, a post he held from 1830 to 1834. In this role, he strove to reinforce the legitimacy of Louis-Philippe's regime. He played a vital role in the
London Conference of 1830, rebuking a
partition plan developed by his son
Charles de Flahaut and helping bring
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to the throne of the newly independent Kingdom of
Belgium. In April 1834, he crowned his diplomatic career by signing the
treaty which brought together as allies France, Great Britain, Spain, and
Portugal. After resigning from his position as ambassador in London in November 1834, Talleyrand stopped playing an active role in French politics. He split his time between Château de Valençay and
Saint-Florentin, where he hosted frequent banquets and played
whist with his visitors. His physical health began to steadily deteriorate and he began using an armchair on wheels provided to him by Louis Philippe I. He spent most of his time in the company of the
Duchess Dino and concerned himself with the education of her daughter
Pauline. Talleyrand suffered from bouts of recurring depression which were caused by his concern over his legacy and the development of the Napoleonic myth. To that end he ordered that his autobiography, the
Memoirs, be published 30 years after his death. He also sought to gain the friendship of people he believed would shape public opinion in the future, including
Honoré de Balzac,
Lady Granville and
Alphonse de Lamartine. During the last years of his life Talleyrand began planning his reconciliation with the Catholic Church. On 16 May 1838, he signed a retraction of his errors towards the church and a letter of submission to
Pope Gregory XVI. He died the following day at 3:55 p.m., at Saint-Florentin. By a
codicil added to his will on 17 March 1838, Talleyrand left his memoirs and papers to the duchess of Dino and
Adolphe de Bacourt. The latter revised them with care, and added to them other pieces emanating from Talleyrand. They fell into some question: first that Talleyrand is known to have destroyed many of his most important papers, and secondly that de Bacourt almost certainly drew up the connected narrative which we now possess from notes which were in more or less of confusion. The were later edited by the
duc de Broglie and published in 1891. ==Private life==