Monaco

Long before the Grimaldi, the deep natural harbour beneath the Rock of Monaco was known to the ancient world. The earliest surviving reference comes from the Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, who around 500 BCE described 'Monoikos, a Ligurian town'. The first inhabitants of the coast were the Ligurians, and the site's name is native and ancient. By Greek and later Roman times the place was firmly associated with the cult of Hercules: the name Monoikos was linked by ancient writers to the hero, and the harbour was understood as a place sacred to him.

The port lay on the busy maritime route between Italy, Gaul and Hispania, and archaeology confirms its integration into Mediterranean trade. The harbour saw intense activity around 300 BCE, and finds of coins, amphorae, anchors and shipwrecks attest to centuries of commerce. After Rome conquered the region in the second century BCE the port became Portus Herculis Monoeci, a refuge and waystation on the shipping lanes; Roman expeditions to Hispania passed this way from 137 BCE, and Julius Caesar is recorded to have used the harbour around 50 BCE on his way to confront Pompey.

With the decline of Roman power the coast fell into the long insecurity of the early Middle Ages, exposed to raiding and shifting overlordship. The Rock that commanded the harbour was a natural stronghold, and it was its strategic value, controlling a safe anchorage on a dangerous coast, that would draw the maritime republic of Genoa to fortify it in the thirteenth century, setting the stage for the principality to come.

Turning points

1. c. 550–500 BCEFormation

   Monoikos named by Hecataeus

   The Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus refers to Monoikos as a Ligurian town, the earliest known mention of the site that would become Monaco; later the Phocaeans of Massalia developed it as a port.

   [5] [17]

2. c. 300 BCEEconomy & Trade

   The harbour at its height

   The port of Monoikos, associated with the cult of Hercules, flourished as part of Mediterranean trade, as shown by coins and goods recovered from the harbour.

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   [5]

3. from 137 BCEWar & Rupture

   Portus Herculis Monoeci under Rome

   After Rome's conquest of the region the harbour became Portus Herculis Monoeci, a refuge on the route between Italy, Gaul and Hispania used by Roman expeditions.

   ↗See the data

   [5]

4. c. 50 BCEWar & Rupture

   Caesar uses the port

   Julius Caesar is recorded as having used the harbour of Monoeci around 50 BCE, a measure of its importance as a Roman anchorage on the Ligurian coast.

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   [5]

Figures of the era

The modern history of Monaco begins with stone. In 1215 a detachment of Genoese Ghibellines led by Fulco del Cassello began to build a fortress on the Rock, raising four great towers joined by a curtain wall to command the harbour. To people the new stronghold they offered land and tax exemptions to settlers, founding the town beneath the walls. The fortress was a Genoese military outpost, and its possession was bound up in the long struggle between Guelphs, who supported the papacy, and Ghibellines, who supported the emperor, that convulsed the Italian republics.

The Grimaldi were a leading Guelph family of Genoa, driven into exile when the Ghibellines seized control of the city. On the night of 8 January 1297 François Grimaldi, called Malizia, took the fortress of Monaco by stealth, entering disguised as a Franciscan monk with his sword hidden beneath the friar's habit. The audacity of the deed entered legend and heraldry alike: the supporters of the princely arms are two armed monks. The Grimaldi did not hold the Rock without interruption; possession was contested for decades, and in 1301 the family had to come to terms with Charles II of Anjou, count of Provence.

It was Charles I Grimaldi, in the first half of the fourteenth century, who is regarded as the true founder of the lordship. He secured the family's authority over the Rock, took the title of lord, and enlarged the domain by purchasing the neighbouring lordships of Menton in 1346 and Roquebrune in 1355, which would remain Monégasque until 1861. From this small but strategic territory the Grimaldi began the long effort, lasting centuries, to keep their independence intact between the greater powers of Genoa, France, Provence, Savoy and, later, Spain.

Turning points

1. 10 June 1215Formation

   Genoa fortifies the Rock

   Genoese Ghibellines under Fulco del Cassello began building a fortress of four towers on the Rock of Monaco, offering land and tax exemptions to draw settlers to the new stronghold.

   [6] [15] [1]

2. 8 January 1297Formation

   Grimaldi seizes the Rock

   François Grimaldi, called Malizia, took the fortress disguised as a Franciscan monk, beginning the Grimaldi presence in Monaco, an event commemorated by the armed monks of the princely coat of arms.

   [7] [6] [2] [13]

3. 1346Politics & Power

   Purchase of Menton

   Charles I Grimaldi, regarded as the founder of the principality, enlarged the Grimaldi domain by purchasing the lordship of Menton, which remained Monégasque until 1861.

   [1]

4. 1355Politics & Power

   Purchase of Roquebrune

   The Grimaldi added the lordship of Roquebrune to their possessions, completing the territory that, with Monaco and Menton, would define the principality for five centuries.

   [1]

Figures of the era

Through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Grimaldi consolidated their grip on the Rock and worked to have their independence acknowledged by their neighbours. Survival meant playing the great powers against one another. In the early sixteenth century, with France and Spain contending for mastery of Italy, the lords of Monaco placed themselves under the protection of Spain, whose Mediterranean power could shield the tiny state. The fortress was steadily transformed from a military stronghold into a princely residence; the architects employed by Honoré I and Honoré II turned it into one of the most remarkable seventeenth-century palaces in the region, the building that still stands above the harbour.

In 1612 Honoré II became the first of his line to assume the title Prince of Monaco, marking the transformation of the medieval lordship into a sovereign principality. But Spanish protection had become burdensome, and the wider conflict of the Thirty Years' War offered an opening. Cardinal Richelieu's France had been cultivating Monaco since around 1630, prizing the Rock as a bridgehead into Italy. In a carefully prepared move, Honoré II expelled the Spanish garrison and turned to France.

The realignment was sealed by the Treaty of Péronne, signed on 14 September 1641 between Honoré II and Louis XIII. The treaty removed Monaco from Spanish protection and placed it under that of France, while formally recognising the independence and sovereignty of the principality and the prince's rights over Monaco, Menton and Roquebrune. A French garrison, paid by the royal treasury but under the prince's orders, would guarantee the principality's security. Honoré II also received French titles and estates, including the duchy of Valentinois. For a century and a half the Péronne settlement defined Monaco as a small sovereign state living under French patronage.

Turning points

1. 1612Politics & Power

   Honoré II takes the title of Prince

   Honoré II became the first Grimaldi to call himself Prince and Lord of Monaco, marking the principality's emergence as a sovereign state out of the medieval lordship.

   [15] [1]

2. 14 September 1641Politics & Power

   Treaty of Péronne

   Honoré II and Louis XIII signed the Treaty of Péronne, shifting Monaco from Spanish to French protection while recognising the principality's independence and the prince's sovereignty.

   [8] [15] [1]

3. from 1642Politics & Power

   French titles for the Grimaldi

   Under the Péronne settlement the prince of Monaco received French titles and estates, including the duchy of Valentinois, binding the dynasty to the French crown.

   [8]

4. 17th centuryCulture & Ideas

   The fortress becomes a palace

   Honoré I and Honoré II employed leading architects to transform the Genoese fortress into a princely residence, creating one of the most remarkable palaces of the seventeenth century.

   [6]

Figures of the era

The French Revolution swept the principality away. In 1793 revolutionary France annexed Monaco, abolished the Grimaldi sovereignty and dispersed the palace's treasures; the Rock was turned to other uses and the dynasty driven out. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 restored the Grimaldi but placed Monaco under the protection of the Kingdom of Sardinia rather than France, an arrangement that satisfied no one. Discontent festered in the two larger towns of the principality, Menton and Roquebrune, whose people resented Grimaldi taxation.

In the revolutionary year of 1848 Menton and Roquebrune declared themselves free towns, banished the prince and his descendants, and sought union with Sardinia, which occupied them. The crisis was resolved only when France acquired Nice from Sardinia. By the Franco-Monégasque Treaty of 2 February 1861, Prince Charles III renounced all rights to Menton and Roquebrune, which passed to France, in return for a payment of four million francs and the promise of road and rail links. The cession cost Monaco the overwhelming majority of its territory, but France's recognition of Monégasque sovereignty was its enduring gain, and a customs union followed in 1865.

Shorn of its farmland and revenues, Monaco gambled on a new economy. Charles III had already, by royal decree of 1863, established the Société des Bains de Mer to develop a new quarter and a casino, leasing the gambling monopoly to the entrepreneur François Blanc, who had made the German spa of Homburg prosper. The venture flourished: by 1869 some 170,000 visitors a year were coming, and on 1 June 1866 the prince decreed that the new district be named Monte-Carlo in his own honour. So profitable was the casino that in 1869 the Grimaldi abolished direct taxation on residents, the origin of Monaco's enduring identity as a tax-free haven. The gambling revenues rebuilt the principality's finances and underwrote its survival as a state.

Turning points

1. 1793War & Rupture

   Revolutionary France annexes Monaco

   Revolutionary France abolished the Grimaldi sovereignty and annexed the principality, expelling the dynasty and scattering the palace's art collections.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [6]

2. 1848Politics & Power

   Menton and Roquebrune secede

   Amid the revolutions of 1848, Menton and Roquebrune declared themselves free towns, banished the prince and sought union with Sardinia, which then occupied them.

   [9]

3. 2 February 1861Politics & Power

   Cession of Menton and Roquebrune

   By the Franco-Monégasque Treaty, Prince Charles III ceded Menton and Roquebrune to France for four million francs; France recognised Monaco's sovereignty over its remaining territory.

   [9] [16] [1]

4. 2 April 1863Economy & Trade

   Founding of the Société des Bains de Mer

   Charles III established the Société des Bains de Mer to develop a casino quarter, leasing the gambling monopoly to François Blanc, who had previously enriched the spa of Homburg.

   ↗See the data

   [10]

5. 1 June 1866Economy & Trade

   Monte-Carlo named

   Prince Charles III decreed that the new casino district be called Monte-Carlo in his honour; its gambling revenues rebuilt Monaco's finances and let the principality abolish direct taxation in 1869.

   ↗See the data

   [10]

Figures of the era

The twentieth century saw Monaco become a constitutional state and tie its sovereignty ever more explicitly to France. Prince Albert I granted Monaco's first constitution in 1911, ending absolute princely rule. During the First World War a succession crisis loomed: the heir had no legitimate children, and the prospect that the throne might pass to a German cousin, a Duke of Urach, alarmed France. The result was the Franco-Monégasque Treaty signed on 17 July 1918, which placed Monaco's foreign policy in harmony with French interests and provided that, should the Grimaldi line die out, the principality would come under French protection. This treaty was noted in the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, giving Monaco's special status international standing.

After the Second World War Monaco's modern era opened with the reign of Rainier III, who succeeded in 1949. When he came to the throne gambling still provided the great bulk of state revenue. Rainier diversified the economy, reclaimed land from the sea to build the Fontvieille district, and in 1962 promulgated a new constitution that reduced the sovereign's powers, abolished capital punishment and granted women the vote. His marriage in 1956 to the American film star Grace Kelly, who became Princess Grace, brought Monaco worldwide glamour and helped transform it into a byword for wealth and luxury until her death in a car accident in 1982.

In its final decades the principality secured both its place in the world and the permanence of its independence. Monaco was admitted to the United Nations as its 183rd member state on 28 May 1993, a definitive assertion of sovereign statehood, and it adopted the euro under a monetary agreement with France. A new Franco-Monégasque treaty signed on 24 October 2002, accompanying a revision of the constitution and the succession law, removed the old provision by which Monaco would revert to France if the Grimaldi line failed: henceforth the principality would remain independent regardless of the dynasty's continuity. Prince Albert II succeeded his father Rainier III in 2005, the latest sovereign of a house that has reigned, with interruptions only by revolution, since 1297.

Turning points

1. 5 January 1911Politics & Power

   Monaco's first constitution

   Prince Albert I granted Monaco a constitution on 5 January 1911, ending absolute princely rule and beginning the principality's evolution into a constitutional state.

   [16] [14]

2. 17 July 1918Politics & Power

   Franco-Monégasque Treaty of 1918

   Signed amid a succession crisis, the treaty aligned Monaco's policy with French interests and provided that the principality would fall under French protection should the Grimaldi line end; it was noted in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

   [11] [1]

3. 19 April 1956Culture & Ideas

   Rainier III marries Grace Kelly

   Prince Rainier III married the American actress Grace Kelly, who became Princess Grace; their union brought the principality international glamour and helped drive its post-war revival.

   [3]

4. 1962Politics & Power

   The 1962 constitution

   Rainier III promulgated a new constitution that reduced the sovereign's powers, abolished capital punishment and granted women the right to vote.

   [3]

5. 28 May 1993Independence

   Monaco joins the United Nations

   Monaco was admitted as the 183rd member state of the United Nations, an unambiguous international recognition of its full sovereignty.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [11] [16]

6. 24 October 2002Independence

   Treaty of 2002 guarantees independence

   A new Franco-Monégasque treaty, with the revised constitution and succession law, ended the clause returning Monaco to France if the Grimaldi line failed, guaranteeing the principality's continued independence.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [11] [16]

Figures of the era