History UsefulNotes / TheFrenchRevolutionMajorFigures

Marat's journal, ''L'Ami du Peuple''[[note]]The Friend of the People[[/note]] became (along with its SpiritualSuccessor ''Le Père Duchesne''[[note]]Father Oak[[/note]]) became the most contoversial journal of its days. Marat's tone as a journalist, combined fiery explosive language, the tone of a watchdog against conspiracy as well as denunciations of prominent political figures from the UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette to Mirabeau. Marat was even declared a criminal by the government at one point, forcing him to go underground and even hide in the sewers. His time spent there proved an ill effect since it gave him eczema that required constant hydrotherapy. This led to him residing long hours in a medicinal bath that eventually became quite iconic. Marat was a member of the Cordeliers club along with Jacques Hebert and Danton, but he was largely a figure who did not align to a single party.\\\

'''Camille Desmoulins'''(1760-1794) is one of the most renowned French Revolutionaries. Born to a middle-class family in a provincial region, he studied at the Louis-le-Grand school where he befriended Robespierre and other future scholarship boys who would bite the hand that fed them. In the years before the Revolution, he had a career in law (in the same practice as Danton's) but a pronounced stammer would make it hard for him to speak in public. He then began a more successful career as a political journalist and indeed Creator/AlbertCamus (also a former journalist) regarded him as the best political journalist of his generation.\\\

The actors, figures, leaders and thinkers who held the stage in the French Revolution.

Several members on hearing this, quickly rose and got out and made plans to attack the Bastille. Desmoulins subsequently became an active journalist and pamphleteer of the Revolution. In his newspaper, Desmoulins was one of the very first revolutionaries to publicly advocate for a Republic. He and Danton formed the Club des Cordeliers and played key roles in the Champs de Mars protest (which ended when soldiers led by La Fayette shot the protesters, killing dozens at least) and the Storming of the Tuileries. In 1792, he entered the National Convention of the First French Republic and along with the rest of the Montagne, voted for the execution of the King. He did become increasingly upset at the course of events, especially the purge of the Girondins and the ReignOfTerror. This subsequently led to a falling out with Robespierre with whom he was friends with. He and Danton would later be sent to the guillotine. Camille's wife, Lucille was arrested during his trial and she would follow a week later, leaving Desmoullins son to be raised by his grandmother.

When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and backchannel envoy to Britain in the hopes of securing neutrality. (Under the National Assembly's self-denying decrees, which forbade members of the National Assembly from taking posts in the royal ministry, he could not be appointed France's official ambassador to the Court of St James's, but everybody knew he was the actual representative of France in London.) He technically succeeded, inasmuch as Britain never did declare war during his missions, but this was mostly because the Prime Minister, UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheYounger, had no interest in a Continental war. Talleyrand himself was unpopular with the British court and Cabinet, and his presence in London did little to advance French interests (though given the circumstances, it's unlikely that anyone else could have done any better). However, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including (perhaps uniquely) both UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton and Aaron Burr.[[note]]He stayed in Burr's house when he arrived in New York, but also befriended Hamilton, possibly because of their similar interests and outlook on politics. Years later, Burr, then in exile in Europe, asked Talleyrand to return the favor, but Talleyrand refused--by that time, Burr had killed Hamilton in their infamous 1804 duel, and Talleyrand could not forgive Burr for murdering his friend.[[/note]] \\\

* UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLafayette

The actors, figures, leaders and thinkers who held the stage in UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.

The actors, figures, leaders and thinkers who held the stage in the Revolution.

[[folder:Georges Danton]]

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Danton and the circumstances of his death remains among the most enduring images of the Revolution. Famously chronicled in the play ''Danton's Death'' and the 1983 film ''Danton''.[[note]]Ironically enough, an adaptation of a Polish play, ''The Danton Case'' which defended Robespierre's actions by casting him as a TragicHero. Wajda heavily modified the text to present a heroic Danton and a villainous, though still understandable, Robespierre.[[/note]]

[[folder:Georges-Jacques Danton]]

'''Georges Danton''' (1759-1794) is perhaps the most popular and well-liked of all the French Revolutionaries. Someone whom moderates and conservatives regard as a positive figure while at the same time being praised by UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin as "the greatest tactician of the French Revolution."[[note]]Lenin personally inaugrated a statue of Danton in Moscow. While he admired Robespierre, Danton was his favorite and the one who he repeatedly invoked in his popular exhortations.[[/note]] Paradoxically, for someone who is so popular, Danton is highly mysterious since he did not write any speeches, nor did work as a journalist or a writer. As such its very difficult to know what (if any) ideas, Danton really had for the Revolution. It also lends his life to a lot of {{Applicability}} and mystery. In other words, [[AllAccordingToPlan exactly]] as how Danton planned it. The little we know of Danton's life suggests a charismatic BoisterousBruiser, a man who was impeccable at cultivating a common touch despite living a lavish lifestyle, who publicly stated one thing while privately tried to negotiate alliances and compromises, in other words a pragmatist and peacemaker who was a median between revolutionary and peacetime politician.\\\

He gained prominence [[CassandraTruth for the fact that several of his statements and wild harangues eventually came true]] - Mirabeau was corrupt, France's war with Austria proved self-destructive to the revolution, General Dumouriez eventually defected. He became a member of the National Convention when the First French Republic was formed but contributed little to the debate outside of voting for the King's execution. His constant criticisms of Girondins eventually led to him being the first person brought to the Revolutionary Tribunals. Marat coolly answered his questions and turned the trial against his accusers who carried him away out of Paris in triumph. His illnesses eventually led to him being confined after the insurrection against the Girondins. This led him to become vulnerable to Charlotte Corday's blade when she arrived with a list of purported counter-revolutionary agitators. Upon his death, Marat became the martyr of the Republic, celebrated in the most famous portrait of the Revolution, given an ornate funeral, his busts replacing Jesus in churches and even being interred into the Pantheon for a few months before being disinterred again.\\\

When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and backchannel envoy to Britain in the hopes of securing neutrality. (Under the National Assembly's self-denying decrees, which forbade members of the National Assembly from taking posts in the royal ministry, he could not be appointed France's official ambassador to the Court of St James's, but everybody knew he was the actual representative of France in London.) He technically succeeded, inasmuch as Britain never did declare war during his missions, but this was mostly because the Prime Minister, UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheYounger, had no interest in a Continental war. Talleyrand himself was unpopular with the British court and Cabinet, and his presence in London did little to advance French interests (though given the circumstances, it's unlikely that anyone else could have done any better). However, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including (perhaps uniquely) both UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton and Aaron Burr.[[note]]He stayed in Burr's house when he arrived in New York, but also befriended Hamilton, possibly because of their similar interests and outlook on politics. Years later, Burr, then in exile in Europe, asked Talleyrand to return the favor, but Talleyrand refused--by that time, Burr had killed Hamilton in their infamous 1804 duel, and Talleyrand could not forgive Burr for killing his friend.[[/note]] \\\

When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and backchannel envoy to Britain in the hopes of securing neutrality. (Under the National Assembly's self-denying decrees, which forbade members of the National Assembly from taking posts in the royal ministry, he could not be appointed France's official ambassador to the Court of St James's, but everybody knew he was the actual representative of France in London.) He technically succeeded, inasmuch as Britain never did declare war during his missions, but this was mostly because the Prime Minister, UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheYounger, had no interest in a Continental war. Talleyrand himself was unpopular with the British court and Cabinet, and his presence in London did little to advance French interests (though given the circumstances, it's unlikely that anyone else could have done any better). However, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.\\\

When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and backchannel envoy to Britain in the hopes of securing neutrality. (Under the National Assembly's self-denying decrees, which forbade members of the National Assembly from taking posts in the royal ministry, he could not be appointed France's official ambassador to the Court of St James's, but everybody knew he was the actual representative of France in London.) He technically succeeded, inasmuch as Britain never did declare war during his missions, but this was mostly because the Prime Minister, UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheYounger had no interest in a Continental war. Talleyrand himself was unpopular with the British court and Cabinet, and his presence in London did little to advance French interests (though given the circumstances, it's unlikely that anyone else could have done any better). However, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.\\\

When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and ambassador to England in the hopes of securing neutrality. He largely failed in this, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.\\\

In the National Assembly, Talleyrand played a major role in calling for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Talleyrand welcomed state intervention of Church matters largely for the political opportunities it provided him. As a bishop, he officiated the first Anniversary of the Revolution at the Fête de la Fédération, which included a Mass (which, again, he had no idea how to do, but nobody noticed because nobody could hear him). When the Civil Constitution passed, he was one of the few bishops who took the Civic Oath; for this reason, the National Assembly instructed him to ordain the first handful of new bishops under the Civil Constitution, thereby allowing those bishops to ordain the rest of the constitutional bishops while preserving Apostolic Succession. The fact that Talleyrand had resigned his episcopate a few months earlier was conveniently ignored.[[note]]It's also not 100% clear that even mattered under canon law, since Catholic doctrine doesn't provide for Holy Orders to cease their effect once validly conducted unless the cleric is formally laicized by the heirarchy. Rome didn't formally defrock Talleyrand until 1802--11 years after he resigned as Bishop of Autun in 1791. As a result, the orthodox Catholic objection to the constitutional bishops was not for defect of Apostolic Succession but rather because they were chosen contrary to the wishes of the Pope.[[/note]]\\\

In the National Assembly, Talleyrand played a major role in calling for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Talleyrand welcomed state intervention of Church matters largely for the political opportunities it provided him. As a bishop, he officiated the first Anniversary of the Revolution at the Fête de la Fédération, which included a Mass (which, again, he had no idea how to do, but nobody noticed because nobody could hear him). When the Civil Constitution passed, he was one of the few bishops who took the Civic Oath; for this reason, the National Assembly instructed him to ordain the first handful of new bishops under the Civil Constitution, thereby allowing those bishops to ordain the rest of the constitutional bishops while preserving Apostolic Succession. The fact that Talleyrand had resigned his episcopate a few months earlier was conveniently ignored.[[note]]It's also not 100% clear that even mattered under canon law, since Catholic doctrine doesn't provide for Holy Orders to cease their effect once validly conducted unless the cleric is formally laicized by the heirarchy. Despite his resignation as bishop, Rome didn't formally defrock Talleyrand until 1802. As a result, the orthodox Catholic objection to the constitutional bishops was not for defect of Apostolic Succession but rather because they were chosen contrary to the wishes of the Pope.[[/note]]\\\

In the National Assembly, Talleyrand played a major role in calling for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Talleyrand welcomed state intervention of Church matters largely for the political opportunities it provided him. As Bishop, he officiated the first Anniversary of the Revolution at the Fête de la Fédération. When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and ambassador to England in the hopes of securing neutrality. He largely failed in this, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.\\\

'''Honoré Gabriel Riqueti''', comte de Mirabeau (9 March 1749 – 2 April 1791) is one of the key political figures of the 18th Century. The son of the economist, Victor Riqueti, Mirabeau was an EnfantTerrible who rebelled against aristocratic conventions, spending most of his time engaging in controversial love affairs. He perhaps had an affair with his sister (as per Francois Furet). His own father sent him to prison to discipline his son, a popular method in 18th Century France. He was TheGadfly who failed at practically everything in his earlier life and made a living by becoming a writer. He would travel widely and be imprisoned in different nations and his first major work was "Essai sur le despotisme", a critique of UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat and the concept of an Enlightened Monarch. He also worked as a writer of erotic works, though this was not necessarily separate from his main vocation as a political activist and thinker. As per Robert Darnton, in his book ''The Literary Underground of the Old Regime'', several intellectuals of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment used the popular form of erotic works and pornography to secret spread anti-establishment beliefs and ideas since it fell BeneathSuspicion (whereas the Encyclopedists who went over-the-counter ran into problems with Catholic censors), this played no small part in maintaining literacy and spreading ideas (Paris had an almost completely literate male population at the time of the Revolution).

Mirabeau was already quite well-known for the prowess of his oratory. In one of the many sham trials he was brought to face for his libertine lifestyle, his spirited self-defense won him his freedom and renown, as well as much scorn from the Establishment. It also gave him an innate sense of the injustice of absolute monarchy and the need for change. As such he travelled widely, outside France and to England and was highly interested in its political institutions. When the King called the Estates-General in May 1789, Mirabeau got elected from his native Provence. At the time, Mirabeau was stripped of his ranks and titles, and so he initialy arrived as Honoré Gabriel Riqueti and got elected in the Third Estate (rather than the Second Estate of Nobility where he belonged nominally). He was also poor at this time, and deeply in debt, practically disowned by his family. It was only with the fame of his leadership during the National Assembly, that he finally retained his family title and became for all time, Comte de Mirabeau.

When the Estates General convened, Mirabeau had a wealth of experience and age on his side, a life of rebellion and bohemianism that gave him first hand insight into the injustice of the government. The other major revolutionaries - Robespierre, Danton, Saint-Just - were largely conformists in the old regime, never straying or challenging the system until the Revolution opened doors from them. Mirabeau on the other hand was defiantly rebellious. His position as an ImpoverishedPatrician, wide political experience derived from travel to other countries, his reputation of libertinage made him simultaneously endearing to both the nobility and the common people. He was called ''The Orator of the People'' and ''The Torch of Provence''. He became the leading figure in the early stages of the Revolution and won fame for his defiant speech in June 23, 1789, where he told royalist ministers that the Third Estate will not stop meeting until a new constitution is ready. Furthermore, he told the Royal Minister to give a message to "your master", which Creator/VictorHugo noted was itself RefugeInAudacity, since he was stating he was not the King's subject anymore.

'''Georges Danton''' (1759-1794) is perhaps the most popular and well-liked of all the French Revolutionaries. Someone whom moderates and conservatives regard as a positive figure while at the same time being praised by UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin as "the greatest tactician of the French Revolution."[[note]]Lenin personally inaugrated a statue of Danton in Moscow. While he admired Robespierre, Danton was his favorite and the one who he repeatedly invoked in his popular exhortations.[[/note]] Paradoxically, for someone who is so popular, Danton is highly mysterious since he did not write any speeches, nor did work as a journalist or a writer. As such its very difficult to know what (if any) ideas, Danton really had for the Revolution. It also lends his life to a lot of {{Applicability}} and mystery. In other words, [[AllAccordingToPlan exactly]] as how Danton planned it. The little we know of Danton's life suggests a charismatic BoisterousBruiser, a man who was impeccable at cultivating a common touch despite living a lavish lifestyle, who publicly stated one thing while privately tried to negotiate alliances and compromises, in other words a pragmatist and peacemaker who was a median between revolutionary and peacetime politician.

In his youth, he didn't do especially well in school, largely because he had difficulty reading; had he been raised in the 20th century, he would almost certainly have been diagnosed with dyslexia (the description of his trouble reading is almost textbook), but as it was his teachers simply called him lazy. Nonetheless, when he left school, a Parisian law firm hired him to apprentice despite an atrocious writing sample, possibly seeing his natural gift for oratory. Recognizing that he was not going to be any good writing pleadings and briefs, his employers sent him to observe trials and arguments before the various law courts of Paris to educate himself on the finer points of oral presentation in the courts and to report back to the firm if anything interesting happened. Danton absorbed this education fully, and after passing the bar, he embarked on a successful practice focusing on trial and argument. His practice included Camille Desmoulins, Robespierre's childhood friend--who, conveniently enough, was an excellent writer but had a stammer that made him kind of crap at getting up on his hind legs and talking at a judge.

When the Revolution broke out, Danton began his political career forming the ''Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen'' or the Club des Cordeliers, which had a more populist base than the Jacobins. It was the Cordeliers who played key roles in the public events of the Revolution. Especially the protest at the Champs du Mars that led to the first massacre of French citizens by government troops.

'''Jean-Paul Marat''' (1743-1793) was a doctor, a would-be scientist, a political thinker, a journalist and finally a RabbleRouser. Before the Revolution, Marat, born in Switzerland but settled in Paris, embarked on a career as a public intellectual and scientist. He briefly befriended Creator/BenjaminFranklin and courted the support of Voltaire to become a member of the Academy of Science but he was rejected. Thereupon, he travelled to England and Switzerland, serving as a wandering physician, becoming interested in political matters but generally unengaged. When the Revolution broke out, Marat became the most famous, notorious and controversial journalist of his day. His headlines, pamphlets and notices were often filled with wild passionate discourses. He famously called for the deaths of "500 aristocratic heads" noting that doing so would be more merciful than the deaths of millions.

Marat's journal, ''L'Ami du Peuple''[[note]]The Friend of the People[[/note]] became (along with its SpiritualSuccessor ''Le Père Duchesne''[[note]]Father Oak[[/note]]) became the most contoversial journal of its days. Marat's tone as a journalist, combined fiery explosive language, the tone of a watchdog against conspiracy as well as denunciations of prominent political figures from the UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette to Mirabeau. Marat was even declared a criminal by the government at one point, forcing him to go underground and even hide in the sewers. His time spent there proved an ill effect since it gave him eczema that required constant hydrotherapy. This led to him residing long hours in a medicinal bath that eventually became quite iconic. Marat was a member of the Cordeliers club along with Jacques Hebert and Danton, but he was largely a figure who did not align to a single party.

He gained prominence [[CassandraTruth for the fact that several of his statements and wild harangues eventually came true]] - Mirabeau was corrupt, France's war with Austria proved self-destructive to the revolution, General Dumouriez eventually defected. He became a member of the National Convention when the First French Republic was formed but contributed little to the debate outside of voting for the King's execution. His constant criticisms of Girondins eventually led to him being the first person brought to the Revolutionary Tribunals. Marat coolly answered his questions and turned the trial against his accusers who carried him away out of Paris in triumph. His illnesses eventually led to him being confined after the insurrection against the Girondins. This led him to become vulnerable to Charlotte Corday's blade when she arrived with a list of purported counter-revolutionary agitators. Upon his death, Marat became the martyr of the Republic, celebrated in the most famous portrait of the Revolution, given an ornate funeral, his busts replacing Jesus in churches and even being interred into the Pantheon for a few months before being disinterred again.

'''Louis Antoine de Saint-Just''' (1767-1794) was 21 years old at the outset of the French Revolution. He was the son of a family who were slightly well-off in the province of Aisne. Saint-Just was by several accounts a trouble-maker, rumoured to have advocated starting a fire at school as a young man, running away from home after stealing money from his mother in his adolescence and indulging in other hijinks. Towards the end of his teenage years he became more disciplined and started a career in literature, even publishing a long erotic poem called ''L'Organt'' of little merit. When the Revolution broke out, Saint-Just became a member of the National Guard and quickly rose up its ranks becoming known for being a strict disciplanarian and a born leader. However, he was already ambitious and yearned to be part of the center of events in Paris, fearing that it would end without him making his mark on the stage. He was finally elected to the National Convention after the First Republic was formed in August 1792. He immediately became an associate of Robespierre and ultimately proved to be his most loyal friend even as Saint-Just established a political career independently of his mentor. Saint-Just quickly made up for last time by making what is perhaps the most stunning debut speech of that age. For his first speech, Saint-Just defiantly laid out to the National Convention, the reasons why Louis XVI was not only guilty of treason but also why it was necessary for the Revolution to have him executed.

'''Lazare Carnot''' (1753-1823) was an engineer, mathematician, soldier, revolutionary and politician. In other words, a child of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment. He was born in Nolay, Côte-d'Or and studied at various engineering institutes. He initially entered service in the army as part of an engineering corps and wrote several treatises on defense fortifications. On the basis of his work, ''Essay on Machines'', Carnot earned admittance to several provincial literary societies. On account of his middle class provincial origins, Carnot did not find advancement in the Old Regime despite his obvious merit. This also resulted in private heartbreak when a woman he was in love with was forbidden to marry him by her conservative family. As such, Carnot had several professional and [[ItsPersonal personal]] reasons for participating in the Revolutionary struggle. He got his chance thanks to his election in the Legislative Assembly. When war broke out and the First Republic was formed, Carnot served the military in several capacities, reporting on army conditions from the field.

'''Camille Desmoulins'''(1760-1794) is one of the most renowned French Revolutionaries. Born to a middle-class family in a provincial region, he studied at the Louis-le-Grand school where he befriended Robespierre and other future scholarship boys who would bite the hand that fed them. In the years before the Revolution, he had a career in law (in the same practice as Danton's) but a pronounced stammer would make it hard for him to speak in public. He then began a more successful career as a political journalist and indeed Creator/AlbertCamus (also a former journalist) regarded him as the best political journalist of his generation.

'''Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès''' (1748-1836) was a clergyman and a political writer. He had initially planned to become a soldier, but his weak health consigned him to a career in the clergy. Sieyès was by most accounts not a believer, he saw the Church as a career and spent most of his years studying and perusing books of prominent authors of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment, reading up on political theory and philosophy, becoming a brilliant scholar and intellectual. When Louis XVI planned to convoke a meeting of the Estates-General, he asked several writers for their opinion. Sieyès published a pamphlet that became the Manifesto of the Revolution: '''What is the Third Estate?'''

In that he pointed out that the Third Estate was large enough to provide a government without the first two estates and yet had been consistently denied representation by an archaic political structure and obsolete form of government. Sieyès was among several delegates of the Third Estate who took the Tennis Court Oath. He played a major role in the National Assembly which framed the Constitution. Temperamentally, Sieyès was more of a statesman rather than a Revolutionary. He was not a good public speaker but as an intellectual he yielded considerable influence. He was excluded from the short-lived Legislative Assembly thanks to Robespierre's self-denying ordinance but returned during the National Convention. Alongside Condorcet, Thomas Paine and other Girondins, he was a member of a committee which drafted a "girondin" constitutional project. Sieyès voted for the Execution of the King but otherwise kept a low profile during the Reign of Terror, neither participating in the events or the Thermidorian Reaction. He regained his prominence in the Directory period. Sieyès disliked the Directory government, believing it was highly unstable though he played a major part in ousting the final remnants of the Jacobins in this period. He plotted to oust the government via a military coup, famously noting, "I need a sword" and he searched for sympathetic generals to enlist in this cause. The one who was, conveniently, available, was none other than UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte. Napoleon consented to Sieyès' plans but upon taking power on 18 Brumaire, remodelled Sieyès' plans for a new Constitution, pulling off a coup-within-a-coup and establishing his dictatorship.

Sieyès subsequently retired from public life to a rather large estate gifted to him by Napoleon. He would live long, and see the end of Napoleon, face exile during the Bourbon Restoration(for being a regicide) and returning during the July Monarchy.

Before the Revolution '''Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord''' was the son of one of France's oldest aristocratic families. A weak foot prevented him from participating in his hoped for military career; he was therefore disinherited and sent to seminary school. A brilliant student and genuinely curious mind with an interest in Enlightenment philosophy, he also had a penchant for drinking, gambling, and womanizing that was entirely in keeping with what was expected of a young noble of his day; he was also a pretty much an atheist. The church was corrupt enough that his lack of religious belief was no real barrier for rise up the ladder. Talleyrand got an opportunity to showcase his talent for management and interest in reform early in his career, when he was appointed one of two Agents-General of the French clergy--i.e. the main administrator of the French Church's vast landholdings. He ended up becoming Bishop of Autun around the time the Estates-General was convened. He made his only trip ever to his diocese in 1789, where he managed (barely) to convince the clergy of the diocese to elect him their representative to the Estates-General--and then promptly slipped out of town just before Easter so as to avoid having to celebrate Mass (which he had no idea how to do).

Throughout the Revolution, Talleyrand's signature style was to be one step behind the course of events, always joining the winning team ''just'' after it started winning, whatever that might mean. This pattern (which has been criticized as a lack of conviction but also defended as [[LoyalToThePosition a means of ensuring he always served the national interest]]) began early, where, after the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath and declared itself to be the National Assembly, he was ''not'' one of the first few First Estate delegates who joined the Assembly, but rather a little after, when he figured that the National Assembly was going to be the locus of power, but before the majority of First and Second Estate delegates had come to the same conclusion.

In the National Assembly, Talleyrand played a major role in calling for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Talleyrand welcomed state intervention of Church matters largely for the political opportunities it provided him. As Bishop, he officiated the first Anniversary of the Revolution at the Fête de la Fédération. When the Legislative Assembly declared war, Talleyrand was entrusted as a diplomat and ambassador to England in the hopes of securing neutrality. He largely failed in this, political events in France subsequently took a turn for the worse and by November 1792, Talleyrand was effectively exiled from France with a warrant from his arrest issued by the National Convention in November 1792. Talleyrand however did not defect like the other exiles and emigres and was essentially stateless in England until the Pitt government ordered him to leave. He travelled to America where he engaged in several businesses while befriending many of the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

Before the Revolution '''Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord''' was the son of one of France's oldest aristocratic families. A weak foot prevented him from participating in his hoped for military career; he was therefore disinherited and sent to seminary school. A brilliant student and genuinely curious mind with an interest in Enlightenment philosophy, he also had a penchant for drinking, gambling, and womanizing that was entirely in keeping with what was expected of a young noble of his day; he was also a pretty much an atheist. The church was corrupt enough that his lack of religious belief was no real barrier for rise up the ladder. Talleyrand got an opportunity to showcase his talent for management and interest in reform early in his career, when he was appointed to administer some Church lands. He ended up becoming Bishop of Autun around the time the Estates-General was convened. He made his only trip ever to his diocese in 1789, where he managed (barely) to convince the clergy of the diocese to elect him their representative to the Estates-General--and then promptly slipped out of town just before Easter so as to avoid having to celebrate Mass (which he had no idea how to do).

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: He appears quite often, including a memorable cameo (played by Vincent Cassell) in the Merchant-Ivory film ''Jefferson in Paris''. The popular novel, ''A Place of Greater Safety'' features him and his love life as a crucible to explore the events.