|
|
|
|
|
Duke Of ValentinoisDuke of Valentinois (French: Duc de Valentinois) is one of the many hereditary titles of the Prince of Monaco. King Louis XIII of France first created it, by letters patent signed in May 1642 and registered on 18 July 1642, as a conglomeration of several estates in the French province of Dauphin which he had previously given to the Prince. The first person to hold the title was Honor II, reigning Prince at the time of its creation; on his death it passed to his son Louis I, and thence to Louis's son Antoine. However, since the title's inheritance was restricted to male heirs, and because Antoine had only daughters and no sons, it was due to pass his brother, Franois-Honor Grimaldi, but became extinct on 22 July 1715 when Franois-Honor forfeited his right to succeed Antoine. On 20 October 1715, Antoine's eldest daughter and heiress Louise-Hippolyte married Jacques-Franois de Goyon-Matignon, who had signed a contract on 5 September 1715 by which he was obligated to take the surname Grimaldi. Louis XV thereupon recreated the title of Valentinois by letters patent, signed in December 1715 and registered on 2 September 1716, for Jacques, who was to succeed his father-in-law Antoine as Prince Jacques I; like the previous creation, its inheritance was restricted to male heirs. After Jacques's abdication in 1733, the title passed uninterrupted for several generations from Prince to Prince: from Jacques to Honor III, Honor IV, Honor V, Florestan I, Charles III, Albert I. Albert bestowed the title of Duchess of Valentinois upon his adopted daughter Charlotte, thenceforth known as Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois, on 20 May 1919, apparently as a form of courtesy title. On 20 March 1920, shortly after Charlotte's marriage to Pierre de Polignac, he, like Jacques-Franois de Goyon-Matignon, took the title of Duke of Valentinois, having already changed his surname to Grimaldi. Louis II succeeded Albert in 1922, apparently carrying the title of Valentinois concurrently with Princess Charlotte and her husband. At the death of Louis II in 1949, since he had no male heirs, and since his granting of the title to Charlotte did not indicate his having forfeited it himself, it became extinct in French law. However, Prince Rainier III still claimed it, possibly in the belief, as suggested by Franois Velde, that it was "implicitly recreated for Charlotte by the French Republic in 1919 when her adoption was approved". With the death of Prince Rainier on 6 April 2005, the title passed to his son, now Albert II of Monaco.
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|