ABSTRACT
Charles Maurice Prince de Talleyrand and those who renounced their oaths of loyalty for one regime to work for another were political opportunists without moral scruples. During the Revolution, Talleyrand was one of those deputies who attempted to mediate between the monarchy and the revolutionaries. For Talleyrand, 'the administration is the intermediary which brings the government and the governed closer together; it is the crux where individual interests meet with the public interest; it is the point of contact and union of public authority and individual liberty'. Talleyrand, because of his noble heritage and in the tradition of the grand seigneur of the Ancien Regime who revolted against the monarchy, was perfectly capable of conspiring against governments when they had gone beyond their use-by date. Talleyrand placed his faith in the regime he believed was the guarantee of the social order that protected his daily existence.
