Number 45

“Todas las cosas del mondo pasan presto su memoria sinon la fama i la gloria” [“All things are quickly forgotten in this world except fame and glory”]. This strange inscription, engraved in March 1548, mixing Italian, Latin and Spanish, is written on a door lintel in the alley of La Miséricorde, in Monaco-Ville. It is one of the very rare testimonies left by Spain, as a political protector from 1524 of the seigneury, then principality of Monaco. It was not until 1605 that it imposed a permanent garrison on the Rock. How did these soldiers, who stayed in the place until their expulsion in 1641, “put up” with the local population? And what reception was given to them by the inhabitants of the little city? Were the human links, which were created between “occupiers and occupied”, forced, without real collusion? Or were they established more durably, between men and women brought together by political issues that went beyond their daily lives?

This article attempts to identify these Spanish soldiers, who pass from the rank of foreigner to that of neighbour and, gradually, are perceived differently by those who welcomed them. Only the study of a few elements that enabled them to integrate into the local population (marriages, godparent, the practice of religion, transactions and work), and that of the values they shared with civilians such as poverty, language and solidarity, will lift the veil on a discreet, but anything but tasteless character.

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This article discusses the attribution of the portrait of Giovanna Grimaldi Trivulzio (Monaco, Princely Palace) to the Provençal painter Bernardin Mimault (1609-1673), affirmed in art-historical literature since the 1930s but not based on sound scholarly evidence. Compared with the small number of known works signed by Mimault – and bearing in mind an unpublished painting in the Franciscan Monastery of Saorge (département of Alpes-Maritimes) – the portrait of Giovanna clearly seems to be by a different hand. Though cropped, another likeness of the noblewoman, currently in a private collection (with a Trivulzio provenance), contains numerous parallels in style and iconography with the painting in Monaco, suggesting the same authorship. The two pictures are here connected with payments made between April and July 1620 to the Milanese painter Alfonso Pozzobonelli (1592-after 1620), and to his father Giuliano, for two portraits of Giovanna commissioned by the Trivulzio family (Giovanna, sister of Prince Onorato II, had married Gian Teodoro Trivulzio, future prince and cardinal). It seems legitimate to suppose that the two versions of the same portrait were painted by Alfonso Pozzobonelli, one to be sent to Monaco, the other remaining in the couple’s Milanese residence at Porta Tosa. In addition, the date in the documents, 1620, is the same as that inscribed along the lower edge of the canvas in Monaco.

Comparison with the few portraits attributable to Alfonso offers further support for this new attribution. Analysis of other archival documents, including some significant biographical data, make it possible to reconstruct the circumstances leading to the commission of the two paintings and, more generally, to focus on the extraordinary figure of Giovanna, educated by her maternal uncle Federico Landi, Prince of Valdetaro, in anticipation of potentially having to govern Monaco. She died very young in November 1620 of “acute fever”, having just given birth to the family heir Ercole Teodoro, only a few months after being immortalized in these two portraits.

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Prince Honoré III of Monaco (1720-1795) opted for a military career in the French Army, in line with the XVIIth century tradition of warrior sovereigns, and in accordance with the wishes of his father the duke of Valentinois. He became a musketeer in the King’s Guard in 1736, then an ensign in the King’s Regiment of Foot, in which capacity he was present at the camp at Compiègne in 1739, in the presence of Louis XV. In 1740, at last, he was able to purchase, by means of annuity purchase, the Tallard Infantry Regiment, which became the Monaco Regiment. This unit was known for its many officers from Dauphiné and its uniform, which the prince endowed with a distinctive purple colour. A great many officers of the regiment had fought in the wars of Louis XIV.

Honoré III took part with his regiment in the campaigns of the War of the Austrian Succession. He was at the camp at Dunkirk in 1742, and was involved in the attempted landing in Britain. In 1744, he followed Maurice of Saxony at the camp of Courtrai, and after that was under the command of the Prince of Conti in Germany in 1745. During the battle of Rocoux, the 11th October 1746, he was lightly injured and saved by sergeant Jean Vidal hitherto unknown to Historians. On the 2nd July 1747, at the battle of Laeffeldt, the Monaco Regiment suffered heavy losses, and Honoré III distinguished himself at some risk to his life. This military experience proved to be a source of assertiveness for him and a path towards learning how to rule as a prince.

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Prince Honoré V of Monaco (1778–1841) is a unique personality. Restoring in 1815 the sovereignity of the Grimaldi family over the principalty, after its disappearance during the Revotution and the Empire, he tries by every means possible to defend it and to develop the Monagasque economy, very poor at this time, in an interventionist approach, inspired by the enlightened despotism of the 18th century.

In a context of assertion of sovereignty, it is not surprising that he approved, at the end of his reign, the plan for an ambitious monetary project. Despite its failure, we’ve still got two medals struck on the fringe of it, at the monetary workshop of the palace, in 1838, one for the visit of the consul of France in Nice (and Monaco), M. de Canclaux, the other for the construction of a modern bridge over the Careï, in Menton, ensuring the territorial continuity of the Principalty, then ten times larger than today.

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This article is devoted to the French library of the castle of Lichtenstein in Germany which contains 1645 titles, listed in a catalog, and about 3 500 volumes. It focuses on describing the library in its current environment, to find out how it was set up and to analyze its cultural characteristics. This library, perfectly preserved in an exceptional place, largely comes from the legacy of Princess Florestine of Monaco’s father Florestan. It seems that after moving to Germany in 1863, following her marriage to duke William of Urach, Florestine enriched this library. True model of the aristocratic libraries of its time due to the number of its works, the high quality of the bindings and the wide cultural field it covers, the library is an exceptional monument of French culture in Germany.

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From 1897 and for nearly fifteen years, after many newspaper articles about the salient episodes of his maritime journeys, Prince Albert I devoted himself to the preparation of a book entitled La Carrière d’un navigateur which brings together all of these columns as announced almost from the beginning.

This article lingers over the conditions of this first edition printing. The gestation of the book with the Plon-Nourrit publishing company proved to be long and difficult, given the perfectionist nature of the prince, who intends to maintain control over corrections and formatting until the end.

After several unsatisfactory impressions in the sight of the prince, the book finally appeared in the fall of 1902. From then on, it has been the subject of many and various reactions. The prince, meanwhile, is already starting a second edition.

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The expulsion of the spanish garrison from Monaco the 17th November 1641 has been studied as yet from Italian and Monegasque documents. The publication of a French contemporary testimony, published the 18th December 1641, provides some new precisions, and supplies the « très chrétien » point of view in the context of french-monegasque entente after the alliance reversal of the Principality.

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