ABSTRACT
Reinstated in the ministry for foreign affairs shortly after the coup, Charles Maurice Prince de Talleyrand was eventually able to eliminate most of his rivals so that he was one of the few men in Napoleon's Bonaparte entourage with unlimited access to the person of the First Consul. During the war of the Third Coalition, however, what started out as a difference of opinion as to the best way to build peace after the Battle of Austerlitz, eventually resulted in Talleyrand working against Napoleon and the regime after the Treaty of Tilsit. Napoleon gave in to Talleyrand's repeated urgings and agreed to attempt a negotiated peace with Britain. Talleyrand was considered to be one of the promoters of the question of establishing hereditary power in France, but he was only one of a number of people who had formed a conservative faction around Napoleon to urge the establishment of monarchical forms and institutions.
