A virtueless man in an age of virtue? : a re-examination of the political virtu of Charles-Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord in the French Machiavellian moment

This thesis examines the Machiavellian virtu of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord during what has been termed by J.G.A. Pocock a "Machiavellian Moment." This struggle to exercise his political virtu to provide France with a constitutional monarchy required Talleyrand to make many apparent shifts of his allegiance. This in turn has resulted in biographers and historians of Talleyrand to consider him an immoral or amoral diplomat. The ambiguity of his virtu in the French Machiavellian Moment is studied in detail in two significant episodes in his career. The first involves his apparent abandonment of church traditions when he proposed the confiscation of church lands to the National Assembly. The second is his betrayal of Napoleon during the Bourbon Restoration.

Talleyrand consistently strove to provide France with a constitutional monarchy which would prevent foreign invasion or domestic anarchy. The virtu demanded of a prince by Machiavelli was at the heart of his actions. The cases studied exhibit his political virtu in light of this ultimate principle.