DIPLOMATS from France

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary French Diplomats of all time. This list of famous French Diplomats is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 - 1838)

With an HPI of 75.23, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord is the most famous French Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 67 different languages on wikipedia.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (; French: [ʃaʁl mɔʁis də tal(ɛ)ʁɑ̃ peʁiɡɔʁ, – moʁ-]; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty and cynical diplomacy. He was Napoleon's chief diplomat during the years when French military victories brought one European state after another under French hegemony. However, most of the time, Talleyrand worked for peace so as to consolidate France's gains. He succeeded in obtaining peace with Austria through the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville and with Britain in the 1802 Treaty of Amiens. He could not prevent the renewal of war in 1803 but by 1805 he opposed his emperor's renewed wars against Austria, Prussia, and Russia. He resigned as foreign minister in August 1807, but retained the trust of Napoleon. He conspired to undermine the emperor's plans through secret dealings with Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the Austrian minister Klemens von Metternich. Talleyrand sought a negotiated secure peace so as to perpetuate the gains of the French Revolution. Napoleon rejected peace; when he fell in 1814, Talleyrand supported the Bourbon Restoration decided by the Allies. He played a major role at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815, where he negotiated a favorable settlement for France and played a role in unwinding the Napoleonic Wars. Talleyrand polarizes opinion. Some regard him as one of the most versatile, skilled and influential diplomats in European history, while some believe that he was a traitor, betraying in turn the ancien régime, the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the Bourbon Restoration.

2. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1894)

With an HPI of 69.42, Ferdinand de Lesseps is the 2nd most famous French Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 55 different languages.

Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps (French: [də lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia. He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as beset by financial problems, and the planned Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea level canal with locks. It was completed in 1914.

3. Lucien Bonaparte (1775 - 1840)

With an HPI of 69.13, Lucien Bonaparte is the 3rd most famous French Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 and as the president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799. The third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino, Lucien was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. As president of the Council of Five Hundred, he was one of the participants of the Coup of 18 Brumaire that brought Napoleon to power in France.

4. Édith Cresson (b. 1934)

With an HPI of 61.44, Édith Cresson is the 4th most famous French Diplomat.  Her biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Édith Jeanne Thérèse Cresson (French pronunciation: [edit kʁɛsɔ̃]; née Campion; born 27 January 1934) is a French politician of the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so and only woman until Élisabeth Borne's appointment in 2022. Her political career ended in scandal as a result of corruption charges dating from her tenure as European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology.

5. Jules Cambon (1845 - 1935)

With an HPI of 51.05, Jules Cambon is the 5th most famous French Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Jules-Martin Cambon (5 April 1845 – 19 September 1935) was a French diplomat and brother of Paul Cambon. As the ambassador to Germany (1907–1914), he worked hard to secure a friendly détente. He was frustrated by French leaders such as Raymond Poincaré, who decided that Berlin was trying to weaken the Triple Entente of France, Russia and Britain and was not sincere in seeking peace. The French consensus was that war was inevitable.