Florestan (Tancrède Florestan Roger Louis Grimaldi; 10 October 1785, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 20 June 1856) was

Prince of Monaco The sovereign prince (french: prince de Monaco) is the monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All reigning princes have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi, although some have belonged to other families (Goyon de Matignon or ...

and

Duke of Valentinois Duke of Valentinois (french: Duc de Valentinois; it, Duca Valentino) is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It is currently one of the many hereditary titles claimed by the Prince of Monaco despite its extinction in French law ...

from 2 October 1841 until his death. He was the second son of

Prince Honoré IV A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

and Louise d'Aumont Mazarin and succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother, Honoré V.

Early life, education, and military career

Brought up by his mother, he showed an early and strong aptitude for literature. At the age of eleven, he enrolled in the

School of Fontainebleau The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the No ...

, but did not stay there long. He entered the military, where he had many struggles and barely achieved the rank of

Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

. He was taken prisoner during the

French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

. He was not freed to return to France until 1814.

Marriage and children

Prince Florestan, age 29, married

Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz Marie Caroline Gibert de Lametz, (18 July 1793 – 25 November 1879), was a French stage actress and a Princess Consort and regent de facto of Monaco by marriage to Florestan I, Prince of Monaco. Life She was the daughter of Charles-Thomas G ...

Commercy Commercy () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The 18th-century Lorraine historian Nicolas Luton Durival (1713–1795) was born in Commercy. History Commercy dates back to the 9th century, and at that time ...

on 27 November 1816. Apparently, his family disapproved of the union, so they had to marry "quietly and modestly." Florestan received only a small income from his family, so, as it turned out, his marriage to an upper-bourgeois family member of the

province of Champagne Champagne () was a province in the northeast of the Kingdom of France, now best known as the Champagne wine region for the sparkling white wine that bears its name in modern-day France. The County of Champagne, descended from the early medieva ...

was, in fact, "financially favorable." The marriage produced the following: *

Charles III, Prince of Monaco Charles III (Charles Honoré Grimaldi; 8 December 1818 – 10 September 1889) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 20 June 1856 to his death. He was the founder of the famous casino in Monte Carlo, as his title in Monégasque dialect ...

(1818–1889) *

Princess Florestine of Monaco Princess Florestine Gabrielle Antoinette of Monaco (22 October 1833 – 4 April 1897) was the youngest child and only daughter of Florestan I, Prince of Monaco, and his wife, Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz. Florestine was a member of the Hous ...

(1833–1897)

Reign

Royal Monogram of Prince Florestan I of Monaco

Florestan was ill-prepared to assume the role of Sovereign Prince. Indeed, the British historian H. Pemberton wrote that, upon accession to the throne, Florestan was "a man utterly unsuited for the task before him." He had been an

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

in the

Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique The Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (, literally, Theatre of the Comic-Ambiguity), a former Parisian theatre, was founded in 1769 on the boulevard du Temple immediately adjacent to the Théâtre de Nicolet. It was rebuilt in 1770 and 1786, but in ...

. The real power during his reign lay in the hands of his wife, Princess Caroline, who possessed great intelligence and "excelled at social skills." According to the historian

Gustave Saige Gustave Saige (1838-1905) was a French archivist. He was the archivist of the Prince's Palace of Monaco from 1881 to 1905. Early life Gustave Saige was born on 20 August 1838 in Paris, France. He graduated from the École Nationale des Chartes in ...

, Princess Caroline's intelligence was required to figure out the affairs of state, which Honoré V had handled absolutely by himself, not trusting anyone to advise or assist him. For some time, she was able, by tax reform, to alleviate the difficult economic situation stemming from the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

assigning Monaco as a protectorate of the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

rather than France. At the time Monaco was surrounded by the Sardinian controlled County of Nice. As unprepared as Florestan was for the affairs of the Principality, his ascendance to power upon the death of his brother was largely welcomed by the populace. "He was given a particularly warm reception by the people of Menton," wrote Saige in French. Saige attributed the cause for this to the relief widely felt at having a prince who was not invisible to the public; unlike Honoré V, Florestan went out in public. He even established a school in Menton, albeit an expensive one from which the princely couple attempted to meet local demands for democratic reforms and offered two constitutions to the local population, but these were rejected, particularly by the people of Menton, who were offered something better by King

Charles Albert of Sardinia Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 until 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence ...

. When the Prince and Princess of Monaco saw that their efforts were doomed to failure, they handed over power to their son Charles (later Prince Charles III). This was, however, too little, too late. Encouraged by the

French Revolution of 1848 The French Revolution of 1848 (french: Révolution française de 1848), also known as the February Revolution (), was a brief period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation ...

, the towns of

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

and Roquebrune revolted and declared themselves independent. Worse, the King of Sardinia garrisoned Menton, Florestan was dethroned, arrested, and imprisoned. Florestan was restored to the throne in 1849, but Menton and Roquebrune were lost forever.

Death and succession, 1856

Despite his good intentions, by the time of Florestan's death in

in 1856, Monaco was a country divided with few prospects for financial prosperity. His son Charles succeeded him.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Florestan, Prince Of Monaco 1785 births 1856 deaths 19th-century Princes of Monaco House of Grimaldi Monegasque princes Princes of Monaco Hereditary Princes of Monaco Burials at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate Monegasque people of Italian descent Monegasque male actors People of Ligurian descent Marquesses of Baux Dukes of Valentinois Monarchs taken prisoner in wartime French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars