THE MAKING OF MONACO

DYNASTY WARS

The Rock of Monaco's strategic and easily defensible position on the French coast made it a small but pivotal element in the ongoing dynastic power politics that ravaged this area of Europe in the pre-Renaissance era. Though archaeological evidence exists of human occupation dating back to 400,000 BC, little exists in the way of definitive written records. It's likely that the name Monaco derives from a tribe known as the Monoïkos, colonists of Greek descent, who occupied the area in the sixth century BC.

Occupation is a tenuous concept at best, because for many years this area notionally belonged to the Romans, who erected the Tropaeum Alpium — also known as the Trophy of Augustus — in nearby La Turbie during the summer of 6 BC. This monument to Octavius, Julius Caesar's nephew and the future Emperor Augustus, today stands partially intact at what was the border between Rome and Gaul (ancient France). Restored in the 1930s, the monument is believed to have stood at nearly 50 meters (164 feet) high when first built; a stone, transcribed by Pliny the Elder, lists the forty-four Ligurian tribes that Octavius forcefully prevailed upon to cease and desist from interrupting lucrative trade routes through the region. Even then, it seems, this area of the coastline had a reputation for banditry.

Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, this region lapsed into chaotic squabbling. What is now known as Italy was a loose and frangible network of constantly maneuvering city-states and republics — one of which, Genoa, absorbed Monaco and its surrounding areas as it expanded aggressively between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. Trade and sea power extended Genovese influence east wards as far as northern Egypt and what we now know as Israel and Lebanon, as well as into the Black Sea and onwards to Crimea; westwards along the French coast into the Iberian peninsula; and southwards to Carthage and other pockets of the north African coastline.

Though the Holy Roman Emperor (a title invented by Charlemagne three centuries after the fall of the empire itself, and the subject of considerable ongoing political dispute and outright warfare) notionally ruled over Genoa, with the city's Bishop acting as president, in practice the real power resided with elected consuls — a system imitating the glory days of Rome. And, just as it had in Rome, this system enabled wealthy trading families to access, wield, and extend power for themselves. Fault lines naturally developed between these families, including the Adorno, the Fieschi, the Spinola, the Doria, and the Grimaldi, as they sought to maximize their own wealth and influence at the expense of the others.

Over the course of centuries, control of Genoa swung between these plotting dynasties, and occasionally tensions between them and their wider allies would reach the point where swords were drawn. Thus, it was that in 1271 the Grimaldis and their allies were expelled from Genoa, and although five years later the Pope brokered a peace enabling them to return, not all of them did, and the factional rancor continued.

The fragmented nature of historical records at this time means the actual evidence for Monaco's official origin story is patchy. Nevertheless, officially, modern Monaco's history begins on the night of January 8, 1297, when Franceso Grimaldi and his cousin Rainier launched a sneak attack on Spinoza-held Monaco. Gaining free admittance to the castle while disguised as a Franciscan monk, Grimaldi drew his sword once inside, threw the door open for his men, and overpowered the garrison.

The moment is enshrined in the Monegasque coat of arms, which features two monks bearing swords.

Swashbuckling, sneaky, and with a flair for the dramatic — whether Monaco's preferred narrative of its origin is true or not is almost beside the point. Barring a few interruptions, for over seven centuries Grimaldi and his anointed successors (not all biological) have clung to the rock. After the family were forced to flee in 1301 by Genovese forces, Rainier's son Charles spent thirty years plotting to acquire Monaco once more; having done so, he took advantage of territorial disputes between Genoa and the Crown of Aragon (now part of Spain) to extend Grimaldi rule to neighboring Menton and Roquebrun.

Monaco's growing power — not to mention a growing reputation as a haven for pirates — drove the Genovese to invade it again in 1357. Charles and his son Rainier II were driven out and never returned.

Yet, still the Grimaldis coveted their rock, growing their wealth through trade until Rainier's sons Antoine, Ambrose, and Jean bought Monaco, by then owned by the Crown of Aragon, in 1419. It was Jean who enshrined in the Principality's constitution that the royal title's succession would pass to the reigning prince's born male child — an article that would require considerable fudging through the years as various princes failed to deliver legitimate male heirs.

Small and economically fragile, yet strategically important to trade, Monaco was defensible thanks to the castle on the rock, but not invulnerable. Neighboring powers coveted it as they consolidated their own territory and warred with each other; Genoa faded, but Gaul completed its transformation into what we now know as France under a succession of ambitious monarchs. Likewise, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, followed by some strategic dynastic unions, led to states such as the Crown of Aragon coalescing into what we now know as Spain, ambitious to conquer worlds both old and new. To survive, the Grimaldis had to hustle, strategically divesting themselves of Menton and Roquebrun to forge allegiances with their neighbors. Until the seventeenth century, Grimaldi rulers would not dare adopt royal nomenclature, styling themselves as lords rather than princes.

In 1489, the King of France officially recognized Monaco's independence, but this was just a small victory in the state's ongoing struggle to assert its identity. Perhaps it was for the best that its rulers had acquired a reputation for hot blood, combative temperament, and always carrying a sword in hand ...

THE PRINCE SANCTIONS A RACE

INDEPENDENCE AND REBELLION

Popular folklore has it that when Honoré II died in 1662, forcing his grandson Louis I and free-spirited wife Catherine Charlotte de Gramont to depart the French king's court and return to Monaco, Catherine Charlotte cried throughout the journey while one of her lovers shadowed the couple south wearing heavy disguise. For all the rich artworks within the castle, it still had the austere external aspect of a fortress, presiding over a plain-looking...