House of Grimaldi
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The House of Grimaldi is the princely family of the Principality of Monaco, which it has ruled mostly continuously since 1297.
Before arriving at Monaco, the Grimaldi family was a prominent Guelphic family from Genoa which traced its ancestry to Otto Canella, taking its name from his son Grimaldo. Due to civil strife between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Grimaldis sought shelter in the Genoese settlements around the Rock of Monaco in 1270, only to be expelled to Provence by the Ghibelline inhabitants of Monaco in 1296.
In 1297, François Grimaldi led a party of his family members and other Guelphs which seized the Rock, and the fortress at its top, from the Ghibellines who controlled it; however, the family could not hold on to it, and the Genoese wrested control back in 1301. When the Guelphs returned to power in Genoa, Charles Grimaldi, thenceforth known as Charles I of Monaco, retook the Rock, and is generally considered the founder of the dynasty.
Until 2002, the stipulations of an agreement between Monaco and France stated that if the Grimaldi family ever failed to produce a lineal male heir that sovereignty over the area would revert to France. The 2002 agreement modified this to make provisions for a regency and continued Monegasque sovereignty if such an event were to occur.
The current head of the House of Grimaldi and Prince of Monaco is Albert II.
List of Grimaldis
- Otto Canella
- Grimaldo Canella, Otto's son
- Oberto Grimaldi, Grimaldo's son
- Grimaldo, Ingo, Oberto, and Nicolas Grimaldi, all sons of the elder Oberto
- Luchetto, Antoine, and Lanfranco Grimaldi, sons of Grimaldo Grimaldi
- Rainier I, Lord of Cagnes, son of Lanfranco
- Charles I, son of Rainier I; first Lord of Monaco
- Rainier II, son of Charles I
- Ambroise, Antoine, and Jean I, sons of Rainier II
- Catalan, son of Jean I
- Claudine, daughter of Catalan; married Lambert, who took the name Grimaldi
- Jean II, Lucien, and Augustin, sons of Claudine and Lambert
- Honoré I, son of Lucien
