King Charles has sent a special message to Prince Albert II of
Monaco as the tiny principality marks its National Day. This year’s
celebrations have an added poignancy as Albert is actually marking
20 years since he became Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the death of
his father, Prince Rainier III.
The start of his reign was officially marked on Monaco’s
National Day in 2005 even though he had taken the throne seven
months earlier. As Monaco celebrated with Albert, King Charles sent
a message marking the moment. In it, The King said he was ”so
pleased that our countries share such strong ties”. He hinted at
those ties in the same message, noting the shared passion that he
and Albert II have for tackling climate change.
But there are dynastic ties between the Windsors and the
Grimaldi. It means that King Charles is very loosely related to
Prince Albert II, only son of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.
And those links go back to an unhappy princess whose name is all
but lost to history.
The connection between the House of Windsor and the House of
Grimaldi begins in the 19th century when Albert I,
Prince of Monaco, married a beautiful and willful British
aristocrat called Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton. Her father was
the 11th Duke of Hamilton and her mother was a
German princess, Marie of Baden. Marie provides the first link
between the Grimaldis and the Windsors.
Marie Amelie Elisabeth Caroline of Baden, born in 1817, was the
daughter of Charles, Grand Duke of Baden and, through him, was the
great, great, great granddaughter of Jan Willem, Prince of
Orange. One of Jan Willem’s great, great, great, great
granddaughters was Queen Mary – the great-grandmother of our
present King. It’s this 17th century ruler of
Holland who connects the current Royal Families of Great Britain
and Monaco.
But there is another, even older link between the two houses and
again it comes from Lady Mary Victoria. Her father William
was an important Scottish peer, and descended from Mary, eldest
daughter of James II of Scotland (1437 – 1460). James II’s
son, James III, was the direct ancestor of all later Scottish
monarchs including Mary, Queen of Scots whose son, James VI, in
1603 united his country’s crown with that of England where he was
known as James I. His direct descendant is Charles III.
The woman who provides these links, Lady Mary Victoria, actually
spent very little time in Monaco. Her marriage to a prince
called Albert was an arranged one and the couple met for the first
time around a month before their wedding, which took place at
the fabulously romantic Chateau de Marchais in France. Their
only child, Louis, was born a year later, but Mary Victoria began
to dislike her life in Monaco, and she eventually left her
husband. Their marriage was annulled in 1880, nine years
before Albert became Monaco’s Sovereign Prince.
But while Mary Victoria may never have been consort of Monaco,
she does ensure that the current royal house has links to the
British Crown.
Which means that the ties that King Charles III spoke about have
dynastic echoes too and link the House of Windsor to the royal
family made so famous by Albert II’s mother, Princess Grace.
