Background
Sieyès was born on 3 May 1748 as the fifth child of Honoré and Annabelle Sieyès in the town of Fréjus in southern France.
(This book, "Qu'est-ce que Tiers état? Précédé de L'Essai ...)
This book, "Qu'est-ce que Tiers état? Précédé de L'Essai sur les privilèges", by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, is a replication of a book originally published before 1888. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/5519110670/?tag=2022091-20
Sieyès was born on 3 May 1748 as the fifth child of Honoré and Annabelle Sieyès in the town of Fréjus in southern France.
Educated by the Jesuits, he studied theology at the University of Paris, and though he followed an ecclesiastical career he also interested himself in political and social theory, studying social theorists from Locke to Condillac
Shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolution, Abbé Sieyès published several pamphlets on social questions, the last of which, What Is the Third Estate? (1789), had a sensational success. He was instrumental in the division of France into departments, and dreamed of a perfect constitution for his country. Dissatisfied with the new constitution worked out after the downfall of Robespierre, Sieyès in 1798 accepted the diplomatic representation of France at the Prussian court, but was called back in May of the following year to replace a member of the Directory. He prepared Napoleon Bonaparte's coup d'état of the following November, which overthrew the Directory. Sieyès hoped that under the Consulate his constitution would be enacted. Napoleon did have a new constitution written, but it did not follow Sieyès' ideas to any great extent. Sieyès was made a senator and a count and was given an estate. After the Restoration of 1815 Sieyès was exiled because he had voted in the Convention for the death of Louis XVI. He lived in Brussels, but returned to France after the Revolution of 1830, and died in Paris, June 20, 1836.
(This book, "Qu'est-ce que Tiers état? Précédé de L'Essai ...)
Sieyès became a member of the States-General, of the National Assembly, and of the National Convention in 1792.
Sieyès was always considered intellectual and intelligent by his peers and mentors alike. Through the virtue of his own thoughts, he progressed in his ideologies from personal experiences.
Quotes from others about the person
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord remarked that "Men are in his eyes chess-pieces to be moved, they occupy his mind but say nothing to his heart. "