The Princes of Monaco

[ 1 ] - [ 2 ] - [ 3 ] - [ 4 ]

Louis I, son of Hercule (accidentally deceased) succeeded his grandfather Honore II. Husband to Catherine- Charlotte de Gramont, he followed his wife to the courts of France It is he who built the monumental gates of the Palace and the horseshoe stairways of the Cours d'Honneur. He published the statutes of Monaco (the legislative codes remarkably liberal in nature) At the time when the question of who was to succeed to the throne of Spain, Louis XIV named him his Ambassador to the Holy See. After accomplishing his mission with both ostentation and dedication, Louis I dies in Rome in 1701. The son of Louis I, Antoine I, who frequented the high aristocratic society, distinguished himself by engaging in the military. His size and courage in the battlefields of Fleurus, Mons and Namus earned him the nickname Goliath. He threw magnificent parties in the palace which he restored and fortified. A distinguished musician, he conducted his orchestra with the conductors stick bequeathed to him by Lully. He kept up a rich correspondence with the great composers of the times : Couperin, Destouches... His eldest daughter, Louise-Hippolyte, married Jacques de Goyon-Matignon. She reigned but for a few months. Following her premature passing away, her husband became Prince of Monaco under the name of Jacques I. However, it was not long before he abdicated in favor of his still minor son Honore Ill. After a brilliant military career, during which he participated in the battles of Fontenoy and of Raucoux, Honore Ill enjoyed a long period of peace and economic prosperity leaving the reigns of governing in the hands of the man who had been his tutor, the Knight of Grimaldi. His long reign which had started in most opportune conditions and happy auspices, sadly ended up in exile. The French revolution erased the Principality from the map of Europe and was renamed Fort-Hercule. The palace was pilfered, and Honore Ill was incarcerated in Paris. His daughter-in-law, Francoise de Choiseul-Stainville was guillotined at the age of 27. She was amongst those in the last cart with Andre Chenier. Honore Ill died without recovering his rightful authority. His son Honore V retrieved his sovereignty only after the first Treaty of Paris. Whiles ill, Honore Ill delegated his sovereign powers to his son Honore V who after the second Treaty of Paris, was faced with great financial difficulties to re-establish Monaco, and was also faced with the supposed claim by the king of Sardegna as new protector of Monaco. Florestan I, succeeded his brother Honore V. His reign was tainted by the relinquishing of Menton and Roquebrune which due to the French revolution of 1848, declared themselves as (free cities, placed under Sarde protection ". This disguised annexation, in 1860 resulted in their reattachment to France at the time of the plebiscite organized by the Savoie and the county of Nice. The Principality, amputated of nine-tenths of its territory, experienced a formidable expansion during the reign of Charles Ill. Efficiently helped to begin with by his mother, the Princess Caroline, Charles Ill signs on February 2, 1861, a treaty with Napoleon which addressed the Menton and Roquebrune issues, planned for the construction of the Moyenne Corniche, and for the placement of the railway tracks through Monaco on the Nice-Genova railway links, and above all, the creation of a customs union between Monaco and France to facilitate the liaisons between the two countries. Prince Charles Ill renewed the economy, created the required infrastructures to launch tourism, urbanized the Spelugues quarters to which he gave the name Monte-Carlo in 1866 (in Italian, the Mount Charles), inaugurated the coastline road and the train stations of Monaco and Monte-Carlo, created the Post and Telegraphy Office, assured religious independence of the Principality by creating the bishopric, opened legations and consulates abroad, instituted the Order of Saint-Charles, pressed gold coins and printed the first Monegasques stamps.

Prince Albert I already had a long naval career and pursued scientific research atthe time he succeeded his father, Prince Charles Ill. Without abandoning the work he was committed to, particularly in the field of oceanography, of paleontology, anthropology and botany, he favored international encounters, created the International Peace Institute, reformed the institutions, granted a constitution to the Monegasques, developed diplomatic relations and was patron to the arts in a period of brilliant and intense artistic life marked by the great operas at the Monte-Carlo Opera and by the establishment in Monaco of the famous Russian Ballets. The Oceanographic Institute of Paris, the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, the Human Paleontology Institute of Paris, the Prehistoric Anthropology Museum of Monaco, the Exotic Gardens, the International Hydrographical bureau, are the major testimonies of Prince Albert l's endeavors. Prince Louis II succeeded his father in 1922. During World War I, he enrolled as a voluntary in the French army. He was cited at several occasions for his heroic conduct which later merited him with amongst others, the War Cross, and the grade of Division General. During the challenging period of his reign which began at the end of World War I, and ended at the end of World War II, Prince Louis II was successful despite the world economic crisis which plagued the 30's, and despite the two periods of foreign occupation, to safeguard and complete the endeavors of his predecessors.