Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in 1965, he was appointed professor at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and the Sciences Po Paris in 1981.

Because of his family origins (his parents were both senior civil servants at the Préfecture de Police, and his mother was director of the Préfecture de Police museum), Jean Tulard devoted his doctoral thesis to the history of the administration in Paris (Paris et son administration, 1800-1830).

After completing his thesis, which covered the period of the First French Empire, he became a lecturer at the Sorbonne in 1967 and began to devote himself to Napoleonic studies.

In 1965, Michel Fleury, director of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), under whose supervision he wrote a thesis on the Prefecture of Police under the July Monarchy (republished by the CNRS under the title "La Police Parisienne entre Deux Revolutions - 1830-1848)"), created a new research department, the "Chair of History of the First Empire".

Scientists using DNA samples from Queen Anne of Romania, and her son André de Bourbon-Parme, maternal relatives of Louis XVII, and from a strand of Marie Antoinette's hair, proved the young royal's identity.

In 1989, he was the "historical adviser" for the film La Révolution française, directed by Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron, in a co-production with French, Italian, German, Canadian and British investors.

Jean Tulard is a member of the jury for the Prix des Hussards, created by Food critic Christian Millau.

Jean (Claude, Fernand) Tulard spent his childhood in Albi in the region of Occitania in the Southern France, and developed a passion for cinema.