The Queens of Egypt exhibition produced by the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, which ran from 12 July to 10 September 2008, was a huge success with the public, attracting 73,000 visitors.
Queens of Egypt was seen by 10,000 more people than the 2004 summer exhibition Imperial Saint Petersburg, so becoming the Grimaldi Forum Monaco's second most popular exhibition, bested only by the phenomenal The Grace Kelly Years, Princess of Monaco that in 2007 beat all attendance records with 135,000 visitors.
The Principality's cultural centre created a sensation with its spotlight on the women who were Queens of Egypt, in an exhibition space covering almost 4000m2.
To illustrate the theme, exhibition curator Christiane Ziegler brought together around 250 masterpieces from the world's greatest museums in Cairo, New York, Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, Turin, Moscow and elsewhere. These exhibits are now returning to their respective museums.
The spectacular display design was the work of François Payet, who previously designed the Grimaldi Forum's 2004 Saint Petersburg exhibition chronicling the history of the city from the reign of Peter the Great to that of Catherine the Great.
Now the Grimaldi Forum Monaco makes a date with you for summer 2009, for an exhibition devoted to one of today's most renowned American artists: Jeff Koons.

 

For the first time in its world itinerary, the exhibition laid over in Paris, in the municipal hall, after its huge success in Grimaldi Forum in summer 2007 with its 135.000 admissions.
This location, so representative of Paris, made its biggest success for one of its exhibitions, considering that there were 75.000 visitors from 10th june to 16th august.
The next stage will be in Moscow, in the Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, from 10th October to 5th December 2008.The exhibition will be officially inaugurated by Pricess Stéphanie.
850 m2 organised on two floors making use of Nathalie Crinière set design.
Frédéric Mitterand, the exhibition commisioner, hopes for a further development of “Enchanted Reign” section by the inclusion of many paintings from Russian painters like Chialiapine and Sorine, as they portrayed many Russian noble families settled in Côte d’Azur.
A Russian edition of the catalogue published by Skira and Grimaldi Forum will be available in the Cultural Foundation Ekaterina.
“Princess of Monaco. Grace Kelly’s years” goes back over all moments and aspects of Her life. From Grace Kelly Hollywood star to Monegasque Princess involved in the international prestige of Monaco that adopted and loved her since her appearance on the “Rocher” in 1956.

 

“Basically I create a handmade work of art…” In her suite at the Hotel Hermitage, Princess Ira de Fürstenberg prepares her fabulous objects: ornamental cups and other pieces, all in Roche crystal. “This is a material that I adore, it revives me…” gushes the Princess as she has made objects for over ten years. Ira de Fürstenberg has travelled from Paris to Hong Kong via California selling her precious masterpieces. “One can find my ‘Pieces’ all over the world now and I gather materials to create them in different nations. I found a wooden elephant in South Africa and it was completely redone in Roche crystal in Madagascar and then mounted with various materials in Italy. Whether it be cups decorated with cherries or precious elephants, I have  devoted clients in the Principality.” This is a place that has appreciated her work for some time and her latest creation sold for 25,000 euros.                                                                                                                                                      

 

"The most stunning of civilisations", "magical and mysterious"... there's certainly no lack of adjectives to describe Ancient Egypt, a source of fascination and admiration

that never ceases offering up secrets hidden and treasures buried beneath several thousand years of history. Although endless exhibitions has been devoted to the subject, the Grimaldi Forum Monaco is going one unprecedented step further by being the first to turn the spotlight on those women who were Queens of Egypt through a 4000m² exhibition. The exhibition curator, Christiane Ziegler has collected together nearly 250 incomparable exhibits to illustrate the subject exhibits loaned by the world's most

important museums in Cairo, New York, Berlin, Munich, London, Turin, Moscow etc and of course by the Louvre, where until May 2007 Ms Ziegler ran the prestigious

Egyptian antiquities department. The spectacular display is designed by François Payet, who recreated Imperial Saint Petersburg for the Grimaldi Forum's 2004 exhibition chronicling the city's history from the reign of Peter the Great to that of Catherine the Great. So from 12 July prepare yourself for an unprecedented encounter with Egyptian

Women, those wives, mothers and daughters of Pharaohs who influenced three thousand years of Egypt's history, through portraits of exceptional figures –

Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Nefertari, Hatshepsut and many other female rulers – impatient to reveal themselves to the public.

 

The story unfolds theme by theme as visitors advance through the exhibition. Although the function of Egypt’s queens changed over the centuries, some features were unvarying: the status of women, the status of the royal family, women's living environment, their religious role, the symbols used in portrayals of them. These are the themes around which the main sections of the exhibition are built. But exhibition curator Christiane Ziegler also wanted to spotlight major figures such as Hatshepsut, Tiy, Nefertari and Cleopatra. They have found their place in the exhibition, along with the mythical aspect of Egypt's queens that still sets us dreaming. The exhibition starts with Cleopatra, the most popular Egyptian queen although she was actually of Greek origin. From the mythical image of Cleopatra now so familiar from films and advertising we move on to the historical figure revealed by archaeology and documents. The exhibition ends with another queen, less familiar to the general public: Queen Tausert whose tomb can now be visited in the Valley of Kings. She was the inspiration for Théophile Gautier’s well-known novel The Romance of a Mummy. Between these two, the exhibition takes visitors on a fabulous journey of discovery through Ancient Egypt and the many facets of its royal women. First, their social status. Their titles were based on their relationship to the reigning king: they were called “mother of the king” or “wife of the king”; in some cases a pharaoh gave the title of “wife of the king” to a daughter, otherwise princesses were “daughters of the king”. Visitors are shown how the pharaoh’s close links with several generations of women probably derive from Egyptian mythology, the mother/wife/daughter association being a symbol of perpetual creation. Thus the Egyptian queens played a fundamental role in the renewal of royal power and in the pharaoh’s survival in the afterlife. We then enter one of the most famous harems, at Gurob. Christiane Ziegler has entrusted this section to her assistant Marine Yoyotte, who is writing a doctorate thesis on the subject. The king had many secondary wives, some of whom were foreign princesses taken in marriage to strengthen alliances with neighbouring powers. Most of the royal household’s women and children lived together in institutions usually referred to as harems. A harem was both a centre of social

activity and an economic hub, by no means shielded from the turbulence of political life. Echoes of palace plots hatched there from the age of the pyramids on have come down to us through the centuries. The next section focuses on the image of the queen. Portrayals of queens extol their beauty according to an aesthetic ideal that varied from one era to another. With very few exceptions the queens are shown in the bloom of youth, the luxury and refinement that surrounded them reflected in their clothing, an abundance of jewellery and the toiletry items with which they enhanced their beauty. Like the pharaoh, the queen mother and the pharaoh’s “great royal wife” were distinguished from common mortals by symbols borrowed from the gods. The exhibition then shows the queens’ religious role. Scenes of worship show queens performing rites alongside their pharaohs; using all their charms to please the gods, they shake sacred musical instruments rhythmically to create sounds pleasing to divine ears. Their presence reflects a theology in which the royal wife is truly the “other half” of the pharaoh, guarantor of balance in the world. We discover the particular importance of the queens and princesses known as “divine adoratrices of the god Amun”. These priestesses of Amun in Thebes became increasingly important over time. In the first millennium BC they were the primary religious authority and possessed considerable wealth. At that period they took a vow of celibacy and the succession was passed down by adoption; each conqueror appointed his daughter to this strategic position. Lastly, some queens, including Ahmes Nefertari whom we meet here, were deified after death. Nefertari was worshipped during the time of the Ramses, mainly on the left bank at Thebes. She was often worshipped in the company of her son, Amenhotep I.

Did the queens exert a real influence on the governance of the country? This is the theme of the next section in the exhibition, addressed through several examples. Queen Tiy’s royal husband Amenhotep III seems to have listened to her advice and she conducted diplomatic correspondence with the greatest sovereigns of her time.

Aahhotep, mother of Ahmose, probably acted as regent during a time of political upheaval. Hatshepsut is one of the few queens to have held absolute power, adopting the titles and appearance of a pharaoh. The Nubian example of the Kandakes, or “black queens”, of Meroe in modern Sudan shows that during some periods there was genuine power-sharing in the Nile valley.

 

It’s the first exhibition ever to be devoted entirely to Egypt’s queens and it’s also unique in the number and quality of the masterpieces gathered together from the world’s greatest museums. It will display many superb items that have never before been seen in Europe. For example the lovely Princess of Abydos, the magnificent gold neck adornment attributed to Queen Tiy and the colossal statue of the same queen, just recently discovered at Karnak and which is being allowed out of Cairo's museum for the first time. Other museums have been equally generous, for example a large bas-relief showing Tuya, Ramses II's mother, has never previously left the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. But there are too many really important loans for me to list them all here.

It’s an idea I’ve been entertaining since my early years in Egyptology. Jean Leclant, my professor at the Sorbonne, gave me “The Iconography of Queen Tiy” as my Masters degree dissertation subject. There were almost no books about the queens and it was absolutely fascinating for me, a young student, to carry out that research. Then my research took other directions throughout my career at the Louvre, particularly when the dig I was leading at Saqqara turned up some outstanding finds. But I’ve always had a particular fondness for the queens and I still sometimes publish studies on them in learned journals. More recently I had the privilege of organising an international exhibition on the pharaohs, the first to focus on the Pharaonic institution. It was seen by more than two million people. While I was preparing the exhibition catalogue it struck me that the feminine aspect of royalty had never been shown to the public, although research in recent years has shed considerable light on the roles played by the

pharaohs’ mothers, wives and daughters. This exhibition also meets a real demand from the public and the media, as you can see from the media output since the exhibition was announced: a film about the Egyptian queens on French TV late last year, a coffee-table book about themì just published in Italy and other general-readership books in preparation.

No, it wouldn’t be accurate to talk of feminism. The exhibition doesn't set out to rehabilitate the image of Egypt's queens, even though the memories of certain queens were sullied by their successors for religious and political reasons. For example Hatshepsut was regarded as a usurper and Greek and Roman writers attributed every vice in the book to Cleopatra because she was an enemy of Rome. Apart from Nefertiti, whose modern beauty has charmed our contemporaries, most of the other queens were simply forgotten. Their tombs disappeared or were pillaged. Nonetheless, it’s a fact that women enjoyed a far more favoured position in Ancient Egypt than in many other societies. They could practise certain crafts and professions, be members of the priesthood, own property in their own right and bequeath it. The debate about the actual extent of their freedom is by no means settled. Woman’s role par excellence was defined as “mistress of the house”, the epithet applied to married women in respectable society. As for the queens, some of them exercised power right from the earliest periods and their presence alongside their pharaohs is well attested. But did they have a political role or a purely religious one? The queen mothers, for example, who guaranteed the divine origin of the pharaoh through a mystic union with the god, or the "great royal wife" who as divine counterpart to her husband ensured the proper balance of the world? What was the fate of secondary wives? The exhibition addresses all these questions.

It’s a very appealing subject but far more complex than it might seem. I wanted to address a wide audience while taking the most recent scientific findings into

account, so we had to construct a learned discourse nevertheless intelligible to as many people as possible. An exhibition is not like a book, it’s first and foremost a

visual medium so I looked for works that were both striking and significant, works with a powerful presence. The main problem was their rarity. It’s easy to illustrate themes like the pharaohs, Egyptian burial customs or daily life because there's plenty of material evidence. It was far more difficult with the queens. As the exhibition preparation progressed, I realised just how few items there were that would really “speak" to visitors. It’s very paradoxical. For example, everyone knows Nefertari, whose image has

become very widely known from the Abu Simbel colossus and the magnificent decorations in her tomb in the Valley of the Queens, but in fact there are few intact objects portraying her or bearing her name. The same is true of Cleopatra. It’s Egypt's great temples that display the most evocative images of the queens, shown in bas-reliefs on walls or sculpted on their husbands' colossal statues. The queens’ tombs have been pillaged or never found. In addition, many very famous works are so fragile they can't travel, as is the case of the superb head of Nefertiti that's the pride and joy of Berlin's Altes Museum. Then again, some important pieces had already been promised for other exhibitions − the public can't imagine just how much works of art move around the world today!

I hope they'll enjoy themselves while they’re there and leave with more knowledge and curiosity than when they arrived

 

By using a succession of dramatisations either poetic or figurative, by creating ambiences bathed in bright light or contrastingly plunged into semi-darkness, and by employing soft-hued then shimmering colours in different sections, the exhibition creates a truly epic experience for visitors, immersing them in the history of the lives of the Queens of Egypt. The exhibition is designed as a series of places: interiors (bedchambers, palaces etc), architectural exteriors, a barge on the Nile, a tomb hewn from the mountain – all the centres of social activity that reveal the many aspects of the personalities and histories of Egypt's queens. These dramatisations are designed to showcase and enhance the works displayed, genuine masterpieces of Egyptian art. In between the exhibition rooms are comfortable information areas dedicated to

displaying texts and diagrams that explain the theme of the following room. To explain the fundamental aspects of Ancient Egypt's history, the exhibition is interspersed with four projection rooms: Egypt and its territory, Egypt and its history (chronology of queens), Egypt and the daily life of its queens, Egypt and its gods. These rooms a

designed to provide visitors with the information needed to understand the main historical, geographical and social aspects of this civilisation along with the tools for comprehending and appreciating the exhibits. This system of information areas and projection rooms does not impinge on the display of exhibits and enables signage to be kept to a minimum in the display rooms.

The exhibition starts with the most enduring impression our imagination has formed of this Egyptian myth, the first that springs to mind: the Hollywood image of Cleopatra. The setting is a decor of red and gold with fringed curtains and a big film set representing a Roman chariot. An excerpt from Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is projected on the rear wall.

The next exhibition space represents the deck of an Egyptian barge. In its centre, Cleopatra gazes fixedly at Julius Caesar who, seen in profile, gazes back at her. A large statue of Cleopatra VII in a dignified stance, loaned by the Saint Petersburg museum, seems to be watching over the scene. This dramatisation refers to the Nile cruise Cleopatra and Julius Caesar actually took, probably in 47BC. Mother, wife or daughter of the king: the status of Egypt's queens

is arranged as a succession of three alcoves representing the interior of a queen’s apartment with stone walls painted in red ochre and some niches painted turquoise. Each of these "rooms" has a window looking onto the landscape of Giza and the pyramids.

represents an exterior with, in the background, the frontage of a large temple with imposing corner stones and an entrance portico. In front of this lie blocks of stone drenched in the fierce light of the Egyptian sun, on which are displayed a variety of jewellery items, ushebtis and colossi.

As visitors enter they are immediately struck by the pattern of a series of wells of light. The rays fall on tulle drapery that the light caresses and illuminates from the top down to the floor. These falling rays seem to flood the display cases with their light while the half-pyramid bases appear to rise out of the floor and reach towards the sky.

Following these evocations of the outside world, this room prolongs visitors’ wonderment by plunging them into the dense, cocooned atmosphere of a room in a

palace. We find ourselves among tall columns arranged in a peristyle. The impression is heavy and powerful, the space between the columns seems compressed, the

columns' dimensions seem to have something supernatural about them. The exhibits set out in the centre of this composition are like intense points of light that focus all attention: jewellery, statuettes, scribes’ stelae, papyri, crafted items – all the accoutrements of busy life in the harem, that maze-like selfcontained city in miniature.

Around the central room, further smaller, more intimate rooms show us other aspects of life in these human beehives: the education of the princes, diplomatic weddings, court intrigues and, in a tulle-draped alcove, discreet love scenes: “Akhenaton and Nefertiti kiss, in the presence of two of their daughters” (103); “relief showing Montuhotep II with a queen in his arms” (105). In the centre of this atmospherically lit cocoon, a “fragment of a colossus: two hands entwined” (107). Visitors progress through and wander around these rooms savouring the wealth of visual delights. Each display case holds a new treasure presented on its own stand so visitors can walk around it in wonderment.

VII − The queen's image : feminine beauty and divine attributes

As soon as we enter we are struck by the powerful evocation of beauty: the sculpted bodies and faces seem to leap out at us from the shadows. They are all here, illuminated, looking at the visitors, imprinting the entire room with their presence. Visitors look at them, walk around them and indeed have the impression of meeting them for their bodies and eyes are on the same level as ours. Their pedestals are in the form of basins bathed in shimmering light, arranged in a chequerboard pattern around the room.

This section evokes the places of ritual, with four sloping walls creating an impression of massiveness and power that engenders respect. The effect is impressively solemn. The layout is designed so that visitors feel they are entering a succession of increasingly private rooms, each more closed to common mortals than the last. In a niche in the last room sits the exhibition’s most emblematic exhibit.

This section comprises a long succession of thick walls creating a series of niches, with two or three works displayed in each. The rectilinear pattern of walls and angles evokes the strength of the dominant class’s power and respect for a mighty established authority.

TausertIn this last section, visitors find themselves back in the ambience and decors of the first part of the exhibition. But here, after slipping through an opening in a rock

wall, they discover the burial chamber of Queen Tausert.

 

Jeremy Williams, the architect, historian, artist, illustrator and advisor to the Irish Georgian Society, spoke on the subject of Irish Cottages at a conference held at the Princess Grace Irish library. Jeremy Williams is one of those rare architects who, together with the Irish Georgian Society, wish to preserve the patrimony of the Irish vernacular. This inspiring architect has designed many Neo- Palladian buildings, for example the Ritz Carlton Hotel at Powerscourt which is embellished with a circle of columns reminiscent of the style of Imperial Rome. For smaller more intimate commissions Mr Williams is inspired in the creation of neo traditional cottages characterised by the architectural features of the romantic period.

In his presentation the architect demonstrated, with the help of slides, how the Irish cottage has evolved into something more than four walls, it has become something more ornate. One of the most famous examples of this is the Swiss Cottage bought by Cahir, County Tiperary and built in 1810 and which now has been restored with the utmost care.   The original construction was attributed to John Nash, planner and engineer from the Georgian Period who was essentially a neo-classicist.

Mr Williams also spoke about the work of other architects in their quest to satisfy the demands of their clients in particular the ecological aspects that were first mooted by the French 18^th century philosopher Jean –Jaques Rousseau.  During the talk he showed slides of many different types of rustic cottage including that of Princess Grace (Drimurla, County Mayo) and John Fitzgerald Kennedy in New Ross, County Wexford.

 

Born in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) on 12 November 1929, Grace Kelly was of German and Irish descent:

 

German thanks to her mother, Margaret Majer (1899-1990), born in the United States from German parents who had settled in America, a gym teacher at the Philadelphia University;

 

and Irish thanks to her father, John Brendan Kelly, better known as Jack Kelly (1889-1960), a great sportsman (Olympic champion roarsman at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920 and the Paris Games in 1924), and a mighty building entrepreneur, nicknamed the “king of brick” thanks to his building company, “Kelly for Brickwork”, founded in 1919.

 

It was Jack’s father, John Henry Kelly, who had emigrated to the United States after leaving the County Mayo in Western Ireland, at the end of the 19^th C. Soon after he set foot in the new world he met with another Irish immigrant, Mary Costello. John Henry worked in the textile mills of the Philadelphia area. The couple had four daughters and six sons, including Jack.

 

Jack and Margaret Kelly, who married in Philadelphia in 1924, had four children: Margaret (also the mother’s first name) nicknamed Peggy (1925-1991), John Jr. (1927-1985), Grace Patricia (1929-1982), and Elisabeth, nicknamed Lizanne, born in 1933.

 

After a remarkable debut in advertining, at the theatre and on American television, Grace Kelly had a short yet brilliant film carrier before she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956: eleven motion pictures between 1951 and 1956, including three with Alfred Hitchcock, and one Academy Award for her role in “Country Girl”. Her lucky star enabled her to work with the greatest actors, directors and screenplay writers of her time.

In “Rear Window”, released during the summer of 1954, she was remarkably elegant. Two years before her wedding in Monaco, the future Princess was considered in her native country as an icon of style: her name was mentioned in many lists of the most elegant people, she had become the symbol of classic American style, which became known as the Grace Kelly look.

 

During the twenty-six years she spent with her husband Prince Rainier III from 1956 until her passing in 1982, she did so much for her new country. Her role and involvement in the international reputation of the Principality is primordial.

 

After their wedding, Prince Rainier III named her President of the Monaco Red Cross.

 

Grace of Monaco’s actions included the preservation of the Monegasque heritage: she was very interested by the traditions and history of Monaco. For example, she once supervised the preservation and restoration of the Hermitage Hotel. She also took care of the Rock, preserved the olive and fig-trees, and recommended the inhabitants to repaint their houses in pastel tones, after having the Prince’s Palace repainted in 1981, in the colours that we still see today, which became little by little the colours of the whole city. She also had mimosa trees planted on the cliffs surrounding the Palace.

 

She would often go to the Exotic Garden, which she liked very much, where the director, Marcel Kroenlein, would explain to her the growing of succulent plants. At the Palace, she would cultivate orchids from the whole world and was fond of the art of collage, using leaves and petals of flowers, making her own compositions and signing with her initials G.P.K. She would often pick these flowers herself and had them dry in old phone books… She also created the Garden Club of Monaco in 1968, now presided by her daughter, HRH Princess Caroline; the club teaches the art of flower bouquets and gardening, takes care of the flower decoration of the cathedral on Monaco’s National Holiday, and organises amateur competitions of flower arrangements.

 

She not only helped her husband presenting the first International Circus Festival but also created the International Television Festival in 1961 as well as the Princess Grace Foundation, which helps young artists of various arts to start their artistic life. Patroness of the arts, she made sure that Monaco’s calendar of events would be full of ballets, concerts, plays, literary meetings, etc. Princess Grace also created the Academy of Classical Dance in Monaco, the Ballet Festival as well as the A.M.A.D.E. (World Association of the Children’s Friends).

 

She supervised the restoration of the Prince’s Palace: she chose the furniture, colours as well as a great many details. Her husband Prince Rainier III had already started to renovate an aging Palace, where his predecessor, his grandfather Prince Louis II had only spent the last years of his life. The princely couple was the first to live in the Palace for about a hundred years: they had a hard work to do! The Princess commissioned the American interior decorator George Stacey, who had taken care of her apartment in New York, to decorate their private apartments.

 

Her agenda was always busy: she was member of honour or president of many Monegasque or international organisations for twenty-six years, for humanitarian, cultural and medical purposes. She also was a founding member of the Leche League, an association created in the 1970’s to encourage breast-feeding. Very fond of the humanitarian cause, she would take care of the poor, unhappy children, giving advice to young mothers and improving hospital conditions.

 

She accompanied her husband during many official journeys and met with five popes: Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul I and John-Paul II.

 

She remains in people’s minds a very elegant person, particularly during the great “soirées” for which she was dressed by the greatest fashion designers: Balenciaga, Grès, Givenchy, Saint-Laurent, Lanvin, and especially, from 1960 and on, Marc Bohan with Christian Dior, of whom she probably was the best ambassadress. She had an aura and elegance that would leave people breathless when she appeared somewhere.

Princesse Grace would also wear jewels, offered by her husband or lent by the great jewellers such as Cartier.

Originally, they were a rich Genoese family whose fortune was based upon maritime commerce, banking, armaments and city administration. Grimaldo Canella, the most ancient Grimaldi we know something about, was consul of Genoa (i.e. administrator of the city) during the first Crusades. His father, another Genoese consul, Otto Canella, had given him a first name that would become the family name of his descendants: Oberto Grimaldi, admiral at the end of the 12^th C, then Grimaldo Grimaldi, member of the Council of Genoa in the 13^th C, etc.

The Grimaldis of Genoa belonged to the city’s noble cast and, at the time of the struggle between Guelphs and Gibellines,  they had to leave Genoa because of their Guelph membership when the Gibellines took the power. They were looking for a new base for their vessels and probably saw in Monaco the best possible place. Since 1215, on the Rock, then a Provençal territory, stood a Genoese fortress ruled by the Gibellines.

 

On 8 January 1297, Francesco Grimaldi, nicknamed Malizia and great grandson of Grimaldo Grimaldi, disguised as a Franciscan monk, showed up at the gate of the Genoese fortress on the Rock of Monaco to ask for food and shelter. Once admitted inside, he and other “monks” pulled out their swords and became masters of the place.

On more than seven centuries, the history of the Monegasque dynasty is not simple. In the beginning, sometimes several members of the family (brothers, cousins) were the co-lords of Monaco. Expelled several times, they would always come back, particularly as of the early 15^th C.

Francesco Grimaldi’s cousin, Rainier I^st, born ca. 1267, who died in 1314, was admiral of France during the reign of king Philip IV; he is considered as the ancestor of the Grimaldi dynasty. From the House of Anjou, he received the city of Cagnes (known nowadays as Cagnes-sur-Mer). Among the legends concerning the Grimaldi’s, one dating back to that time tells about a Flemish girl who predicted her lover Rainier Ist, who had rejected her, that no Grimaldi would ever be happy in wedlock…

After Rainier I^st, his son Charles I^st bought Menton in 1346, and Roquebrune in 1355. He is considered as the first Lord of Monaco, even if some historians consider his grandson John Ist, Admiral of France, as the first acknowledged « seigneur » of Monaco. It was during the reign of Rainier II, son of Charles Ist, that the region of Nice separated itself from Provence and declared itself under the protection of the Duchy of Savoy in 1388.

 

The will of John I^st, son of Rainier II,  determined the juristic basis of dynastic right to the Monegasque throne with the preservation of the Grimaldi’s family name and coat of arms, in the middle of the 15^th C. The succession law gave priority to the first-born, legitimate male descendants, leaving the possibility to a first-born, legitimate Grimaldi heiress to succeed her father, as long as the man she officially marries keeps bearing the name and the arms of the Grimaldi’s. , so that her descendants keep the same family name and coat of arms. This testament remained the basis of the succession law of the House of Monaco for five centuries.

 

Deo Juvante, with God’s Help: in the Middle Ages, this was the favourite word of the Lambert Grimaldi (1420-1494), Lord of Monaco. This Christian motto, which can be found in his correspondence, is on the same page with the fact that Catholicism is the official religion of Monaco, whose Sovereigns are Princes « by the grace of God ». These two words have become the motto of the House of Monaco.

 

Among the Grimaldi’s that succeeded in Monaco, Honoré II remained in history as the first Lord of Monaco who bore the title of Prince as of  1612, during Monaco’s Spanish protectorate. He also signed the treaty of Péronne with Louis XIII of France in 1641, the basis of Franco-Monegasque relations. The French King granted him the rank of Foreign Sovereign Prince, Duke and Peer of the French kingdom.

 

Louis I^st, born in 1642, was the grand son of Honoré II. Louis XIV of France appointed him French Ambassador to Rome, at a time when the Royal succession was a major issue in Spain. The French king was willing to put his heir on the Spanish throne and to obtain the agreement of the Holy See,  he sent the Italian-speaking Prince of Monaco to negotiate with the Pope.  The Monegasque Prince was allied to four Italian families, who counted some cardinals. His arrival at the Eternal City on 27 June 1700 was quite spectacular: a convoy of carriages, servants and soldiers. A Monegasque legend tells that he had all his horses’ hooves fitted with silver horseshoes, fixed with only one nail, so that they would be dropped by the passing horses, enabling spectators to pick them up as the parade passed by…

 

It was at the time of the wedding, in Versailles, of the son of Louis I^st, Prince Antoine I^st, with Marie de Lorraine-Harcourt-Armagnac, in 1688, that the Grimaldi’s bore, for the first time and acknowledged by the French kingdom, the title of «Altesse Sérénissime».

 

The eldest daughter of Antoine I^st and Marie de Lorraine, Louise-Hyppolite Grimaldi, wed a noble Frenchman, Jacques-François Léonor de Goyon-Matignon, in Paris in 1715. The newly weds lived in the French capital until the death of Prince Antoine I^st  in 1731. Louise-Hyppolite became Sovereign Princess of Monaco, but she reigned for less than one year, dying of a serious disease at the age of 34. She remains in history as the only Princess of Monaco who acceded to the throne.

In Paris, the princely couple used to live in the magnificent townhouse that the Count of  Matignon, Jacques’ father had bought uncompleted in 1723, shortly before he died. Located at 57, rue de Varenne, this luxurious residence, the Hôtel de Matignon, is today the official residence of the French Prime Minister.

 

In 1731, with Louise-Hyppolite Grimaldi, sole heiress to the Monegasque throne, who married  Jacques-François de Goyon de Matignon : the Matignon’s then represented  the third branch of the House of Grimaldi until 1949 ;

In 1949, when Prince Rainier III acceded to the throne; he was the son of Princess Charlotte Grimaldi and Pierre de Polignac:  les Polignac’s represent the fourth branch of the House of Grimaldi.

 

Princess Louise-Hyppolite’s husband succeeded her under the name of Jacques I^st Grimaldi, but the Breton, a great French aristocrat, who had little interest in Monaco, where the Monégasques did not like him a lot,  abdicated after a two-year reign, in favour of his son  Honoré.

Honoré III (1720-1795), born in Paris, married Marie-Catherine de Brignole-Sale, from a rich Genoese family, in 1757 ; a funny but false anecdote : the bride was forced by her mother to marry the Prince, threatening her to become a nun should she refused.  The legend has kept one sentence, « o Monaco o monaca! », i.e. « either you marry the Prince of Monaco or you take the veil! » During the French revolution, in 1793, Monaco was annexed to the French republic. Honoré III remained in Paris, at the Hôtel de Matignon. The Grimaldi’s lost all their possessions in France, and especially their income.

 

Honoré V (1778-1841), born in Monaco, inherited the power from his ailing father, Honoré IV, a few years before he passed away, in 1819. He was the Prince of Monaco who, on 2 March 1815, met with Napoleon Ist in Cannes (others say at Golfe-Juan), the French emperor who had just landed at Golfe-Juan after escaping from Elba Island.

Where are you going, asked the emperor. I’m going home, to Monaco, answered the Prince. So am I, to the Tuileries, answered the emperor, naming his Parisian residence. A short conversation that history has kept.

The brother of Prince Honoré V, Tancrède Florestan I^st, born in Paris, who had a passion for the theatre, succeeded him at the age of 56, in 1841 and reigned over Monaco together with his spouse Princess Caroline, although the princely couple had not been prepared to take over.  When Honoré V died, Florestan and Caroline did not know Monaco ! They had lived until then in Paris. In 1856, the son of Florestan I^st (who died in the French capital) acceded to the throne under the name of  Charles III.

 

Charles III has remained in the Monegasque history as the Prince who created, back in the 1860’s ; the quarter bearing his name, Monte-Carlo, ensuring the vital metamorphosis of the Principality, with the opening of the most famous gambling casino in the world and the creation of a prestigious resort designed for aristocratic tourism. During his reign, he did everything he could to increase Monaco’s independence, particularly in terms of religious power. He created the national flag, the first honorific orders, the first Monegasque postage-stamps, built the Monaco Cathedral and created diplomatic representations all over the world, etc.

 

 

Prince Albert I^st succeeded his father Prince Charles III, in 1889, at age 40. Pioneer of ecology and preservation of marine life, he enabled certain aspects of oceanography make incredible progress during his 28 oceanographic campaigns between 1885 and 1915. We remember him as a man of science, a statesman, and, above all, a man of action. Albert I^st took care of his principality throughout his reign: he created the National Council, revised the civil code, the judicial organization and promulgated a Constitution in 1911.

He also was in favour of peace in the world and, before the Society of Nations and before the UNO he had founded, in 1903, the International Institute of Piece, the seat of which was on the Rock of Monaco near the Government building at the Chapel of Peace, , in which a few members of the princely family who have not reigned are buried. Prince Albert I^st died in Paris in 1922.

 

Prince Louis II acceded to the Monaco throne in 1922 upon the death of his father, whose work he continued throughout his reign. During the sad years of the Second world war he remained the Sovereign Prince in his principality. His grandson became the next Prince on 9 May 1949…

 

When he was born in Monaco, on 31 May 1923, Rainier was the first Prince born inside the Palace since Prince Honoré V back in 1778. Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi became Crown Prince when his mother, Princess Charlotte, renounced her dynastic rights in favour of her son in 1944, five years before his enthronement. In 1956, his marriage to US actress Grace Kelly attracted immediate world attention to the principality.

Well-known and acknowledged worldwide for his great human qualities, father of the present Sovereign Prince and of THS Princess Caroline and Princess Stéphanie, Prince Rainier III embodied Monaco. He did so many things, built so many buildings, struggled to increase the size of his territory as well as the sovereignty and independence of his country, like no other among his predecessors! He made out of a tiny country a State that is either respected, admired or criticized. And he did prepare his succession! Among his last major works, the Grimaldi Forum (2000), the revision of the Constitution in terms of succession law (2002), the semi-floating pier (2003), and the admission of Monaco to the Council of Europe (2004).

He had one of the longest reigns of the Monegasque dynasty, with more than 55 years. Only Prince Honoré III reigned longer than him in the 18th Century:  60 years, although his was under his father’s responsibility until 1739 (54 years as a Sovereign Prince). In the  17th C, Honoré II, Monaco’s first Prince, reigned 48 years, and Charles I^st, Lord of Monaco in the 14^th C, reigned 43 years over Monaco. In comparison, Prince Louis II, his grandfather,  only reigned 28 years and his great-grandfather, Prince Albert Ist, only 32 years. The length of Prince Rainier’s reign is also due to the fact that Princess Charlotte, his mother, renounced the throne in his favour.

 

HSH Prince Albert II succeeded his father on 6 April 2005. His inauguration (on 12 July) and enthronement ceremonies (on 17 November 2005) are the major theme of the book « Albert II », published by the Editions MC Monaco Culture, and available to purchase on line.

He has been ruling the principality for three years, continuing on the road traced by his forebears and especially his parents, Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco.

Apart from his action in favour of environment and humanitarian causes, he will soon build Monaco’s future with the future territorial expansion of his country on the sea.