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| George Frederick Ernest, 13th Marquess Grimaldi and his wife Kathleen Elizabeth, Marchioness Grimaldi |
He was the younger brother of Prince Antonie I of
Monaco (1661-1731) who was succeeded by his daughter Princess Louise-Hippolyte
(1697-1731) and her husband Jacques Goyon de Matignon (1689-1751) who adopted
the Grimaldi name and arms and ruled Monaco as Prince Jacques I, firstly
alongside his wife then after her death alone until his abdication in 1733 in
favour of their son Honoré III.
Their descendants were known in the Almanach de
Gotha as the House of Goyon de Matignon-Grimaldi and reigned until the death of
Prince Louis II in 1949 when the succession passed via his 1919 legitimised
daughter Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (1898-1977) to her son
Prince Rainer III (1923-2005). He and
his son, the present prince of Monaco, Albert II (born 1958), belong to the
House of Poliginac in the paternal line (Poliginac-Grimaldi) via Count Pierre
de Polignac (1895-1964) the husband of Princess Charlotte, who like the husband
of Princess Louise-Hippolyte had also assumed the Grimaldi name and arms and
was created a prince of Monaco.
On account of the break with the male line in
1731 with the succession of Princess Louise-Hippolyte, the surviving branches
of the House of Grimaldi have at various times publicly asserted a claim to the
Principality of Monaco believing salic law should have been adhered too as it
was in France, and the succession should therefore not have passed via the
female line.
One such surviving branch of the House of
Grimaldi are the Marquesses Grimaldi, the title having been created in Genoa in
August 1529 for Luca Grimaldi (died 1580) by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V,
in his capacity of King of Italy. The 1st Marquess’ descendant Alessandro, 6th
Marquess Grimaldi (1659-1732) commanded the Spanish forces during the French
bombardment of Genoa and as a consequence was exiled in 1685 by edict of King
Louis XIV of France. The exiled 6th Marquess settled in England and married the
granddaughter of Sir Francis Anderson MP, his descendants form the English
branch of the House of Grimaldi.
In 1834 Stacey Grimaldi, a descendant of the 6th
Marquess, noted with the publication of House of Grimaldi’s pedigree that "The Principality of Monaco is now claimed
from the reigning Prince of Monaco by the Marquess Luigi Grimaldi della Pietra
on the ground that it is a male fief and ought not to have descended to heirs
female and this Pedigree has been compiled to show at Genoa and Turin that the
Grimaldis of England are the eldest branch and have a prior claim."
Stacey Grimaldi (1790-1863) however belonged to
the junior line of the English Grimaldi’s descending from William Grimaldi (1751-1830),
a son of Alexander, 7th Marquess Grimaldi (1714-1800) via his second marriage,
while there was also a senior line descending from Alexander Grimaldi
(1742-1780), the son of the 7th Marquess’ first marriage. In 1834 and for many
decades after, the senior line were either uninterested in their claim to
Monaco or without the means to pursue it. Stacey Grimaldi and his younger son
Alexander Beaufort Grimaldi (1839-1925) were therefore the initial driving
force behind the English Grimaldi’s claims to Monaco and as such this junior
line have adopted (or at least been attributed by various sources) the Marquess
title and been numbered as though they succeeded on the death of the 7th Marquess.
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| Descent of the senior and junior lines from the 7th Marquess Grimaldi |
In 1913 the senior line of the English Grimaldi’s registered their pedigree with the College of Arms, having had it verified by the Norry King of Arms, Sir Henry Farnham Burke. The head of the senior line and the rightful 11th Marquess Grimaldi was George Frederick Grimaldi who had been born 18 February 1857 in Islington the son of Alfred, 11th Marquess Grimaldi (1833-1885) and his wife Ann Birch (1833-1885).
The 11th Marquess was the owner of a successful
firm of Aberdeen butchers and supplied meat for the coronation of King Edward
VII. He was married twice, first in 1883 to Lavina Thomas (1859-1887) with whom
he had a son Ernest George Grimaldi (1885-1953), and secondly in 1890 to
Elizabeth Darling, nee Devine (1853-1913). Haven proven his ancestry the 11th Marquess
pursued an active and serious claim to the throne of Monaco; he left London and
moved to the nearby French city of Nice from where he could distribute pamphlets
in the principality promoting his claim. In 1916 Messrs Canottieri et Cie, a
Nice based firm, placed an advert in a British newspaper stating that a widowed
nobleman from an ancient family was looking to re-marry with a lady of any age
from a good family who could bring a dowry of between £500,000 and £600,000 to aid
his struggle against a "usurper". The nobleman in question was the 11th Marquess,
nothing ever came from it though as he would never remarry.
The 11th Marquess’ big push for the throne came
in 1922 on the death Prince Albert I of Monaco. As the late prince’s marriage
to Lady Mary Hamilton had been annulled in 1880, the 11th Marquess sensed a weakness
and argued that the late prince’s son and heir Hereditary Prince Louis was illegitimate
and so ineligible to succeed and lobbied the British government and newly
formed League of Nations to intervene. He was in Monaco at the time of Prince
Albert’s death before being forced to return to his base in Nice due to ill
health. With his claims having fallen on death ears and the late Prince Albert’s
son declared Prince Louis II, when the 11th Marquess attempted to return to
Monaco he was barred from entering by the gendarmerie. His meticulous tracing
of his ancestry and pursuit of the throne cost around £1.7 million in today’s money
and exhausted the family fortune. He died on 20 September 1924 in Nice and was succeeded by his only son Ernest
George Grimaldi as the 12th Marquess Grimaldi.
Ernest George, 12th Marquess Grimaldi was born 3
December 1885 in Highgate but he grew up in Aberdeen where his talent as a cricketer
and rugby player saw him play for the Aberdeenshire Cricket Club and the
Aberdeen Nomads Rugby Club. He was educated at Edinburgh University before
serving an engineering apprenticeship and training as an accountant, before finally
establishing himself as a car salesman. The
12th Marquess was married in Aberdeen to Mabel Joss Gray (1885-1951) with whom
he had three sons George Frederick Ernest Grimaldi (1908-1979), John Derek
Grimaldi (1914-1992) and Geoffrey Brian Grimaldi (1915-1942).
After succeeding his father he recognised his rights
to Monaco, despite having neither the money nor the time to pursue an active
claim with the same vigour that his father had done. In 1930 he stated "I grew up to learn the full facts of our
unfortunate history. It is now my turn to attempt to establish our rights, but
I put my claim forward more as a matter of form than anything else, for what
more proof can be submitted than that which was received by the College of Heralds?
I am probably a fatalist, but it seems we can do nothing more to establish our
rights." On his death in St Albans on 17 February 1953 his eldest son,
George Frederick Ernest Grimaldi, succeeded as the 13th Marquess Grimaldi.
George Frederick Ernest, 13th Marquess Grimaldi was
born 23 June 1908 in Highgate. He served
in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and went on to have a varied
career working as an exhibition organiser, a hotelier in Kent, a petrol station
owner in Sussex and a car salesman in Bognor Regis. He married Kathleen
Elizabeth Cordon (1909-1991) in 1937 and had two daughters Vanessa Grimaldi
(born 1944) Anne Serena Grimaldi (born 1946).
Like his father he recognised his claim stating in
1962 "I have more right than Prince
Rainer to be ruler of Monaco", however also like his father he could do
little to advance it "A
tremendous amount of money would be needed to do anything and I just haven’t
got it. And it would also need some support from within Monaco". However he
expressed his hope that "If I don’t live
to become Prince of Monaco I certainly hope that one of my successors will."
The 13th Marquess visited Monaco just the once, which was while on holiday rather than to claim the throne, his visit taking place in
1949, the year Prince Rainer III succeeded. Following the
prince’s wedding to Grace Kelly in 1956 the 13th Marquess acting "as head of the family" sent his congratulations and the two corresponded for a time after.
Having only two daughters on the death of the 13th Marquess in 1979 he was
succeeded by his younger brother John Derek Grimaldi.
John Derek, 14th Marquess Grimaldi was born 26
February 1914 in Edmonton and followed in his father’s footsteps into the car
industry working as an engineer. He was married twice, first in 1942 to Frances
Margaret Grundy (1914-1946), and secondly in 1947 to Thelma Louise Diffley (1917-1988).
His only child was a son who predeceased him,
John Patrick Michael Grimaldi (1955-1983) a musician and a guitarist in the
English rock band Argent between 1974-1976 who died unmarried and childless.
The 14th Marquess, who never seemed to publicly assert any claim to Monaco,
died on 21 September 1992 in Fraddon, Cornwall at which point the male line of
the 11th Marquess Grimaldi died out.
In a future post I may revisit the family tree of the English Grimaldi's to explore who succeeded as the 15th Marquess Grimaldi, of Genoa.
