King of Italy, Overlord of Monaco?

Royal titles can, at times, be a confusing subject, obscure to most but representing a great deal of fascinating history. For example, how many people are aware that among the titles of HM King Juan Carlos I of Spain are Duke of Milan, Count of Flanders and kingship over Gibraltar and even the "Ocean Sea"? Among the titles of HM Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands are those of Viscount of Antwerp (in Belgium), Lord of Montfort (in France) and Lord of Daasburg (in Germany). Likewise, back in the days when there still was one, the King of Italy had a long and illustrious list of titles which included the kingship of Sardinia, Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia but, interestingly enough, also the rather unique titles of "Overlord of Monaco, Roquebrune and 11/12 of Menton". In my own experience it seems quite unusual for a royal title to include fractions!

This, of course, was an historical 'leftover' from the Congress of Vienna following the downfall of Napoleonic France. The House of Savoy, at that time the Kings of Piedmont-Sardinia, replaced the French as protectors or, in the old feudal language, Overlords of Monaco which, at that time, included considerably more territory than the modern principality we know today. So, the Kings of Piedmont-Sardinia (who after 1861 became the Kings of Italy) were the overlords of Monaco. At least according to them. Actually, by the time the House of Savoy gained the Italian crown the French were back being the protectors of Monaco as well as by that time having gained Savoy, Nice and surrounding areas from Piedmont-Sardinia in exchange for supporting their struggle against Austria. King Vittorio Emanuele I of Piedmont-Sardinia was the first to gain the overlordship of Monaco, which was then passed to his successor King Carlo Felice and then to King Carlo Alberto and finally to King Vittorio Emanuele II who later became the first King of Italy.

King Carlo Alberto had at first hoped to bring Roquebrune and Menton into his own kingdom and sent troops into these towns during the uproar of the reign of HSH Prince Florestan. As we know, Prince Florestan did have a very monarchial temperment but his son, Prince Charles III, came to a new agreement with the French Emperor Napoleon III. After the 1848 Revolutions, Menton and Roquebrune took up the Italian tricolor and were officially placed under the direct protection of the Piedmontese monarch. That is where the fractions come in. However, King Carlo Alberto met with defeat in his fight with the Austrians and it was his son King Vittorio Emanuele II who himself came to an agreement with Napoleon III, giving up Nice and Savoy in exchange for French friendship and these areas have remained a part of France ever since. Grimaldi rule over Menton and Roquebrune was sold to France, which had the area already anyway, and that is when Monaco took on the shape we know it today, reducing the size of the principality considerably.

Control of areas come and go but titles are rarely changed, even if they are only a reminder of historic glories. The Princes of Monaco, likewise, still have many titles left over from their former place in the aristocracy of the Kingdom of France. Anyway, that is the background of why the Kings of Italy were, on paper at least, still titled Overlord of Monaco, Roquebrune and 11/12 of Menton.

King Carlo Alberto and Monaco

It was during the reign of HSH Prince Florestan, aided by his ever-diligent wife Princess Caroline, that the crisis over Menton and Roquebrune reached its height. The one royal figure on the other side of that crisis was HM King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont-Sardinia, head of the House of Savoy which held a partial protectorate over the Principality of Monaco since the Napoleonic Wars, including Menton and Roquebrune. When liberal outbursts began to sweep Europe, and the southern areas particularly, some royals tried to suppress the spread of such sentiments while others tried to get out in front of them. King Carlo Alberto tried to get out in front, perhaps belatedly, but quite successfully. It was a course of action that put him on a path to conflict with the Prince of Monaco. However, King Carlo Alberto was not quite the scheming man of ambition many of his enemies make him out to be. At the outset he was simply following the example seemingly being set by other monarchs and even the Holy Father in Rome. The difference was, having set out, he refused to change course. The two driving forces behind this movement were constitutional government and nationalism. This is the background.

In 1846 His Holiness Pope Pius IX was elected to the Throne of St Peter and came with a reputation for being something of a liberal, a man known for the demands he had made for governments to care for their people and for his recognition of the people of the Italian peninsula as one nation. Naturally, liberals rejoiced when he was elected and further thrilled when he released from the prisons in Rome all of those jailed for sedition or revolution or any sort of what we would call political prisoners. He appointed progressives to positions of leadership and began the unheard of process of introducing constitutional government in the Papal States with a leadership made up entirely of laymen. King Carlo Alberto followed the example of the Pope and soon in the Principality of Monaco, particularly Menton, there were cheers for Pope Pius IX and King Carlo Alberto by those hoping for the same innovations to be handed down from their Prince. However, the Pope who was so celebrated by liberals and even Protestant governments eventually became horrified by the effects of his progressive changes and ultimately became known as one of the most ardently conservative or even reactionary of pontiffs.

King Carlo Alberto, on the other hand, did not change course. His convictions may have even been strengthened by the sight of the Pope being forced to flee Rome in disguise and then brought back only by the intervention of the French army. The King of Piedmont-Sardinia would stay on the more liberal track and came to be hailed by Italian nationalists as the one monarch who never betrayed them. This meant clashes with other crowned heads, most significantly the Austrian Hapsburgs rather than the relatively powerless Prince of Monaco but it would also mean that, in the end, the House of Savoy would become the Royal Family of the unified Kingdom of Italy in the not too distant future. So, King Carlo Alberto enacted many liberal changes, including constitutional government, a system which hearkened back to the Code Napoleon but which also modeled itself somewhat on the constitutional monarchy of Great Britain which seemed to work quite well. New rights and liberties were granted and troublesome elements in Menton seized on this to demand the same in the Principality of Monaco. Many residents, even in Monaco itself as late as the 1940’s, continued to think of themselves as Italians in ethnic terms and the nationalist drive toward creating an Italian nation-state had its supporters in the Principality of Monaco.

This put Prince Florestan in a terrible position. He was no reactionary himself and, indeed, Monaco would eventually put all the demanded changes into effect, but he did not want to see his country divided or taken over by a foreign power. The problem was that the power he most feared, Piedmont-Sardinia, was the only one he was supposed to appeal to for help. Charles Trenca, a leading liberal, was an early flashpoint. He had served the House of Grimaldi since 1819 and in 1841 he had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Turin along with the Duke of Valentinois (future Prince Charles III) and King Carlo Alberto had been impressed with him. On a subsequent mission the King chose him to act as go-between with the court in Monaco on the subject of annexing Monaco to Piedmont-Sardinia. Needless to say, Prince Florestan and Princess Caroline were less than impressed with this suggestion and Trenca was eventually dismissed for his plotting on behalf of Turin.

King Carlo Alberto had showed his hand and his desire to include Monaco or at the least Menton and Roquebrune in his kingdom was now known. However, the agitation in those areas only increased even after reforms were made and Prince Florestan had no choice but to appeal to the King for Piedmontese troops to restore order. When soldiers were dispatched under General Claudio Gonnet to Menton they were met by a crowd of citizens carrying a large bust of their own beloved King Carlo Alberto. They could not bring themselves to shoot down a mob cheering their own monarch and when the crowd approached, carrying the bust before them, they simply saluted the image of their King and allowed them to pass at which point the crowd burst into cheers. General Gonnet declared that there was no trouble in Menton and marched his troops on to Monaco to report as much to the Prince. This did not go over well at the palace and they assumed, probably correctly, that General Gonnet was on the side of the protestors in wishing for annexation.

When the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, Menton and Roquebrune declared their secession from Monaco as “Free Cities” when similar uprisings were breaking out across Italy. Within two years they would be formally placed under the protection of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. However, King Carlo Alberto would not live to see that. Following his defeat at the hands of the Austrians in the First Italian War for Independence, he abdicated in favor of his son, Vittorio Emanuele II, in 1849 and died later that same year. Piedmont-Sardinia would not hold the former Monegasque towns for long though. As we know, in 1860, as part of a treaty to gain French support for the unification of Italy by the House of Savoy, the County of Nice, with Menton and Roquebrune included, were ceded to the Second French Empire after a referendum, disputed by some as being less than honest. Nonetheless, aside from a brief period during World War II, Menton and Roquebrune have remained a part of France ever since then.

Speaking of the Italians

Today is a sad day for Italian monarchists as it was on this day in 1900 that King Umberto I "the Good" of Italy was assassinated by an anarchist. However, the House of Savoy is still going on and, rather fitting given their long shared history, are close friends with their Grimaldi neighbors. TRH Prince Emanuele Filiberto and Princess Clotilde of Venice (seen here at the recent Princely wedding) recently gave an interview to talk about the possibility of having a reality TV show in the United States and the subject of the media-induced scandal over the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Monaco came up. Prince Emanuele Filiberto is the grandson of the last King of Italy (King Umberto II) and his wife, Clotilde Courau, is a French actress quite famous in her own right. The two actually first met, in part at least, thanks to Prince Albert and the Sovereign Prince of Monaco was "Best Man" at Prince and Princess of Venice's wedding. So, suffice it to say, they are all pretty good friends and when asked about all the controversy surrounding the Monegasque marriage, the Prince of Venice said, well, you shouldn't believe everything you read. Knowing Prince Albert as he does he said he never had any doubt, seeing him and Charlene and listening to Albert talk about her that this was anything less than a genuine romance. Princess Clotilde also joined in to say that she had talked to Princess Stephanie about Charlene joining the family and she had nothing but kind words to say about her. Princess Clotilde also noted that this carried considerable weight with her since, as we all know, Princess Stephanie is a very authentic, honest, "what you see is what you get" sort of person and would not have said such things if she did not mean them. Now it only remains to be seen if Christophe Barbier will call for a French invasion of Italy in response to this...

The Houses Savoy and Grimaldi

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the unification of the Kingdom of Italy under the royal house of Savoy. It is no wonder, both being powerful names in southern France and northern Italy, that there is a very long, sometimes friendly and sometimes troubled history between the Savoy and Grimaldi families. Rainier I had dealt with the House of Savoy in border disputes between Piedmont and Monaco. Lord Lucien of Monaco was the first to officially ally himself with the Duke of Savoy (seeking the help of the King of France at the same time) during one of the most serious efforts of the Republic of Genoa to conquer Monaco. However, the friendship turned sour when the Duke sent troops to occupy La Turbie which Lucien took as much as a threat as a guardian. The Lady Claudine was so upset over the experience that she set it down in her will that any Grimaldi who did homage to the Savoy should be deprived of their hereditary rights. A little harsh perhaps? However, the two families could not ignore each other forever, though they made a good effort to do so for quite a while.

Relations, did, of course, warm up over the years. As we have mentioned, Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy (later King of Sardinia) was quite infatuated with the Grimaldi Princess Louise-Hippolyte though she did not feel quite the same about him. It was also Victor Amadeus II who obtained Nice from France and tried to obtain Monaco but was not successful there. He did, however, obtain feudal rights over 11/12 of Menton and Roquebrune which Prince Antoine I contested but an arbitration by Britain and France found in favor of the House of Savoy in 1714. The ceremony of homage to the Duke of Savoy (by then also King of Sardinia and Sicily) from 1716 to 1841. The idea that a sovereign principality would be a protectorate of one kingdom and a vassal of another kingdom in at least one portion of its territory might give someone a better understanding of why the Monegasque have always been so protective of their independence. It was something they had to fight hard to obtain and have constantly struggled to keep amidst the changing designs of the great powers of Europe surrounding them. Monaco under the Grimaldis were trying to hold fast but the for the House of Savoy, their star was clearly on the rise.

King Vittorio Emanuele I came to the throne of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1802. Obviously this was during the French Revolutionary period and the territories of the Savoy had suffered like all the other neighbors of the French Republic. However, things would turn around under the firm rule of Vittorio Emanuele I. The Congress of Vienna set him back on his throne in Turin (he had by then also inherited the legitimist -Jacobite- claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland and France) and his family holdings were enlarged by the Congress to include the former territories of the Republic of Genoa. Meanwhile, the Grimaldis had been restored to Monaco mostly thanks to Prince Tallyrand, otherwise the Allies might have found it easier to give Monaco to the Savoys altogether while they were at it, just to keep things simple. However, Tallyrand intervened and ensured Monaco remained under Grimaldi rule.

However, what the Allies did do, was to tear up the treaty with France first signed by Prince Honore II. Henceforth, Monaco would be a protectorate of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia under the House of Savoy. Prince Honore IV predicted there would be trouble over this given the long rivalry that had existed between the two houses. The public was not happy about the change, having been used to the relationship with France, but King Vittorio Emanuele I tried to make a good impression. However, relations only worsened when Sardinian troops occupied Monegasque territory and people were really outraged when Turin forbid the fabrication, trade or import of tobacco in the principality as this had been a lucrative local business. As tensions increased over the years and trouble began brewing in Menton and Roquebrune in particular the Monegasque blamed the Savoy government for being behind it as this was when the drive toward Italian unification was starting to get underway.

That drive got underway during the reign of King Vittorio Emanuele II, son of King Carlo Alberto, who did finally succeed in bringing together the Italian nation, creating the united country of Italy as we know it today and he became the first King of Italy. During this ambitious enterprise the King needed the support of Emperor Napoleon III of the French. Piedmont-Sardinia, in the wake of the uprisings in Menton and Roquebrune, had claimed those areas but in working out their relationship with France surrendered control of these areas (along with their own ancestral homeland) and Prince Charles III of Monaco agreed to sell these towns to France. So ended the period when Monaco was a protectorate of the House of Savoy but there were still some in Italy who longed for the territory as well as Nice and Savoy to be included in greater Italy. It is also worth remembering that, at this stage, the Monegasque, although unique, considered themselves rather more Italian than French due to their long history going back to Genoa and the Ligurian region. In World War II, following the Italian declaration of war on France and the occupation of Savoy, Nice, Corsica and Tunisia, Monaco was occupied as well and for the last time was within the Savoy sphere of influence.

It was not long, however, before the fortunes of war shifted. Monaco's brief stint as part of Mussolini's 'new Roman Empire' did not last very long. In 1943 King Vittorio Emanuele III dismissed the dictator and withdrew to the Allied camp, later abdicating in favor of his son King Umberto II. Monaco was liberated and Prince Louis II could breath a little easier. Things were not so happy for the House of Savoy. In 1946 a fraudulent referendum brought down the Italian monarchy and the House of Savoy was forced into exile. Despite sometimes have trouble in their long history together, the two houses remained friendly in spite of everything and when King Umberto II, the last reigning member of the Savoy royal house and last King of Italy, died in exile, Prince Rainier III attended his funeral to pay his respects to the man who represented the end of an era.

Victor Amadeus II of Savoy

Having recently noted the anniversary of the tragically premature passing of HSH Princess Louise-Hippolyte of Monaco it should be noted that her death was a sad occasion for many people far beyond the boundaries of Monaco. One of those who certainly took notice was Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. Born in Turin in 1666 he was quite advanced in age for the time when he became infatuated with the lovely and lively Princess Louise Hippolyte, Duchess of Valentinois. During his life he would be, at various times, King of Sicily and King of Sardinia as well as Duke of Savoy. In 1684 he married Princess Anne-Marie of Orleans, daughter of Prince Philippe of France (brother of King Louis XIV) and Princess Henrietta of England. The early years of his reign saw a crackdown on the Protestants in his domain but this was eventually eased up when political considerations forced him into an alliance with the Protestant Dutch and English. Whereas Savoy had previously been very friendly with France, Victor Amadeus II broke with this tradition and fought with Empire against France in the Nine Years War and War of Spanish Succession. Though Monaco itself was neutral this effectively put him at odds with the towering Prince Antoine of Monaco (father of Louise-Hippolyte) who was very pro-French and fought in the service of the King of France.

His first wife died in 1728 and in 1730 he married a local woman, beneath his station but with the permission of Pope Clement XII. However, even though his first wife was very devoted Victor Amadeus II was not a faithful husband. He would certainly have jumped at the chance of an affair with Princess Louise-Hippolyte as well, but she was not too wild on the idea. She found the old gentleman rather boring and in any event was herself quite devoted to her own husband. Victor Amadeus liked to drop in on the princess at Monaco for “surprise” visits but Louise-Hippolyte caught on and proved too clever for him. With her extensive social network she was instantly informed as soon as he set foot in Nice, which surely meant he would then be on his way to Monaco. As secretive as he thought he was being, he was watched the entire time and the Princess knew every step of his progress. He never quite figured out how it happened that as soon as he crossed the Monegasque border for one of this “unexpected” visit’s the local artillery would fire off an earth-shattering salute.

In any event, Victor Amadeus, influential figure though he was, did not have a very happy end to his life. In 1731 Princess Louise-Hippolyte of Monaco died, which certainly distressed him, and he was not to live very much longer himself. The year before he had abdicated in favor of his son Charles Emanuel III. However, he later tried to go back on his decision and his son had him arrested. He suffered a stroke and blamed his wife for his misfortunes. He died in 1732, only a year after the early loss of the Princess of Monaco he so wished to have.