Hello, and welcome to Revolutions.

Supplemental 3.21a, tallyrand.

So I was in fact able to carve out some time to produce this little gift before I officially

come back next week.

And while I'm here, I'd also like to say that I'm glad to see everyone buying gifts for

themselves at RevolutionsPodcastfundracer.com.

It closes up shop in just about three weeks, so now is the time to buy.

But the supplemental is also a gift to myself, because as I mentioned once upon a time, one

of my favorite great men of history is the brilliant duplicitous, far-sighted, amoral,

treasonous, brutally cold-hearted, seductively passionate, pragmatic, womanizing, excommunicated,

atheist, ex-bishop, and greatest diplomat of all time, charlée Maurice de Talleyrand.

But tragically, though he has been around for everything that has happened so far in

the French Revolution, he's always been just off to one side, and hard to wedge directly

into the story when other men around him are just a little bit more central to the narrative

at any given moment.

It's been bugging me that I haven't gotten to talk more about the man whose name has become

a byword for both amoral double-dealing and unrivaled diplomatic prowess.

So here today I give you the early life and times of Talleyrand.

Talleyrand was born in Paris in 1754 into an old noble family that held a position at

court.

He was the oldest child of a younger son of that noble family, however, so Talleyrand's

parents weren't themselves particularly rich or prominent.

...