In 1297 the Grimaldis who had been forced from their castle home, Monaco by their rivals, the Spinola family, later entered into some territorial alliances, that would enable them to take back Monaco forcibly. It was the turn of the Spinola family, to be banished from the City. This is, therefore, where the story of Francesco Grimaldi and his faction, who had conquered the castle of Monaco under the disguise of friars as well as the so-called Grimaldi curse, had originated from.
The Curse
Prince Ernst August of Hanover, the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, was rushed to hospital while her late father, Prince Rainier, who had passed away, was yet to be buried at the time. This had lent credence to the belief in the curse on the dynasty of Prince Ranier Grimaldi.
Caroline’s third husband, 51-year-old, Prince August, was admitted to intensive care at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, he was diagnosed with an acute pancreatic disorder, a condition frequently associated with heavy drinking. The prince whose unruly behavior often landed him in the tabloids and court.
The prince’s illness revived the strange notion of the curse on Grimaldi that has supposedly hung over the Grimaldi lineage during its seven centuries of rule in Monaco. After the first Grimaldi, Francesco the Spiteful in 1297, who had tricked the principality’s defenders, the Spinola clan, by disguising himself as a monk seeking sanctuary, only to slaughter all of them, the curse decrees that the family would have short, unhappy marriages.
Conduct Unbecoming A Royal Prince
Prince Ernst August broke protocol by kissing the Queen at a state banquet in Berlin. He also broke away from the Bild tabloid which published pictures of him, where he was urinating in public, against the Turkish Pavilion in Hanover. A German court, a year later, handed him eight months’ probation and a hefty fine for kicking a photographer in the buttocks and beating a Kenyan hotel owner.
The late Prince Rainier, whose marriage in 1956 to the Hollywood star Grace Kelly, was seen as a fairytale wedding, but the marriage was also strewn with bad luck.
Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982, Caroline’s second husband in 1990, was killed in a motorboat accident. She married Ernst August in 1999 at Monaco’s royal palace and gave birth six months later to a daughter, Alexandra. Between them, they already had five children from previous marriages.
Princess Stephanie, meanwhile, had two children with her bodyguard Daniel Ducruet, before marrying him. She had a third child after their divorce, by another bodyguard, then she married a circus acrobat, which also ended in divorce.
Charlene Tries To Escape Days Before Wedding
Prince Albert, who had succeeded his father Prince Rainier in 2005, showed no sign of marrying or producing an heir at that time This would have led to Monaco becoming part of France once again. This was of course thwarted, five and a half years later by his glittering wedding, to Charlene Wittstock,33 of South Africa, last Saturday which included a guest list of scores of European royals, heads of state, and several fashion icons, actors, and sports idols.
The French press cited sources on Sunday, that Charlene had sought refuge in the South African embassy in Paris, in an attempt to get out of the wedding. This had resulted in her passport being confiscated by senior Palace officials and then persuading her to take part in the nuptials on the weekend.” Several sources have even confirmed that an arrangement was reached between the future bride and groom,” said a report in Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), the French national newspaper, which provided no further details.
It followed confirmation by palace sources that Albert, 53, was due to undergo DNA tests because of claims by at least one unnamed woman that he has fathered yet another illegitimate child.
Select a list of Grimaldi’s
- Grimaldo, consul of the Republic of Genoa, founder of this House.
- Hubert Grimaldi, first to bear the Grimaldi patronymic name.
- Rainier I, lord of Cagnes, admiral of France
- Charles I, Lord of Monaco, Cagnes, and Menton
- Anthony, lord of Monaco, admiral of Genoa
- Luc and Marc Grimaldi of Antibes, lords of Menton, Cagnes, and Antibes
- Lambert of Antibes and Claudia of Monaco
- Augustin, archbishop
- Nicolas, prince of Salerno
- Louis I, Prince of Monaco, ambassador of Louis IV
- Giraloma Created a Cardinal in 1527. He married Francisca Cattaneo of Genoese and had five children. After her death, he entered holy orders. He was a Senator of Genoa.
- Domenico, Archbishop of Avignon and uncle of Girolamo Grimaldi-Cavalleroni (see below)
- Girolamo (1597 – 1683). Cardinal and Archbishop of Aix.
- Giraloma (1674-1733). Created a Cardinal 1731
- Alexander, doge of Genoa
- John Baptist, doge of Genoa
- Peter Francis, doge of Genoa
- Honoré II, Prince of Monaco (1597-1662)
- Jacques François Leonor Grimaldi – Prince of Monaco and father of Honoré III, Prince of Monaco
- Nicola ((1645-1717) Created cardinal deacon in the consistory of May 17, 1706
- Louise-Hippolyte, Princess of Monaco – mother of Honoré III, Prince of Monaco
- Honoré III, Prince of Monaco (1720-1795)
- Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco (1758-1819)
- Honoré V, Prince of Monaco (1778-1841)
- Florestan I, Prince of Monaco (1785-1856)
- Charles III, Prince of Monaco (1818-1889)
- Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi (1848-1922)
- Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi (1870-1949)
- Prince Pierre de Grimaldi, Count of Polignac (1895-1964)
- Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi (1923-2005)
- Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi (born 1958)
- Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth Grimaldi (born 1965)
- Princess Caroline Louise Marguerite (born 1957)
Footnote :
The House of Grimaldi is associated with the history of the Republic of Genoa and the Principality of Monaco. The Grimaldi family descends from Grimaldo, a Genovese statesman at the time of the first Crusades. He was the son of Otto Canella, a Consul of Genoa in 1133, and in turn, Grimaldo became a Consul in 1160, 1170, and again in 1184. His numerous grandsons and their children led maritime expeditions throughout the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and soon the North Sea, and quickly became one of the most powerful families of Genoa.
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