The bed has wooden wheels underneath that, combined with two large handles on the front posts, allow the bed to be pulled out from the wall to facilitate its making. However, it is not certain that Talleyrand actually slept in this bed. He had other more modest beds in his residence that would have been more convenient for him to sleep in. He was also reputed to be terrified of falling out of bed, perhaps a consequence of his disability. This bed is set very high, puffed up by no fewer than three mattresses, so Talleyrand would have needed steps to get in and out. We also know that he required his valets de chambre to make a deep hollow in the middle of his bed to cocoon him.
Talleyrand did not get to enjoy his prized chateau for long. Suspecting Talleyrand’s disloyalty, Napoleon punished his minister by billeting the Spanish princes at Valençay from 1808. The emperor had kidnapped these members of the Spanish royal family, whom he lured across the border as a pretext for negotiations, at Bayonne in southwestern France. Although Spain had loyally supported France’s revolutionary wars by supplying troops (the only European state to do so willingly), Napoleon embarked on the so-called Peninsula campaign, invading Spain and Portugal in 1808. By this stage, realizing that Napoleon was never going to stop his relentless conquests across Europe, Talleyrand resigned as foreign minister. Although Talleyrand had counseled the emperor to halt his advances and consolidate his power in Europe, thus establishing the worthy principles gained from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, Napoleon continued to pursue his campaigns—even though France was exhausted and nearly bankrupt. At this critical time, Napoleon had his famous scatological outburst (mentioned above “de la merde dans un bas de soie”) in front of his marshals in 1809 to which Talleyrand responded privately “pity that so great a man should have been so badly brought up”. Talleyrand had already opened secret negotiations with the tsar of Russia and the emperor of Austria by this time, which would position him as the prime negotiator for France at the Congress of Vienna when Napoleon eventually fell in 1814.
The Spanish princes were provided with many luxuries at Valençay, including expensive Breguet watches and whole new suites of furniture suitable for royalty. A theater was built for their entertainment and Talleyrand imposed strict royal etiquette. The new furniture included grand beds, so we assume that the princes did not occupy Talleyrand’s bed, however imposing it was. Talleyrand was surprised that the young Spanish princes were so poorly educated and that they had been taught neither to dance or hunt, two skills considered essential to the conduct of royalty. After the princes returned to Spain in 1813, Talleyrand was angry to discover that illustrations had been torn out of the precious books in his library by the princes’ tutor. Talleyrand effectively got full use of his chateau only after the fall of Napoleon.