Pierre Comte de Polignac

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Pierre de Polignac, Duc de Valentinois

Pierre Marie Xavier Raphael Antoine Melchior, Comte de Polignac (born October 14, 1895 in Château de Kerscamp, Morbihan ; † November 10, 1964 in Paris ), also Pierre Grimaldi, Duc de Valentinois or Prince Pierre de Monaco , was a French - Monegasque Nobleman and member of the Princely House of Grimaldi of Monaco .

Life

His parents were the French nobleman Maxence, Comte de Polignac from the house of the Ducs de Polignac , and the noblewoman Susana de la Torre y Mier, who was born in Mexico. During the First World War, Pierre de Polignac served in the French army. He achieved historical importance when he married the Hereditary Princess Charlotte of Monaco on March 19, 1920 .

One day before the wedding, he adopted the name and coat of arms of the Grimaldis by royal Monegasque decree and received the title of Duc de Valentinois in Primogenitur . Marcel Proust was in love with Pierre de Polignac at this time, which not only flowed into his novels, he also wrote countless letters to the now Duke of Valentinois. Finally there was a break between Proust and the Duke. Princess Antoinette of Monaco, born in Paris in 1920 , Baroness de Massy and future Prince Rainier, born in Monaco in 1923 , descended from the unhappy marriage with Charlotte, which was divorced on February 18, 1933 by virtue of an ordinance of Prince Louis II in Monaco .

The couple had separated in 1930. Prince Louis ruled from his estate in the north of Paris at the time, while Pierre Duc de Valentinois stayed with the children in Monaco and Princess Charlotte in Sanremo in Italy. Political unrest almost ensured that Pierre's father-in-law Prince Louis, who was in France, was deposed and Pierre took his place on the throne. Finally, the ruling prince was able to stay in power with the help of the Monegasque military.

After the divorce in 1933, Pierre de Polignac got his personal belongings back and a lifelong annuity from the Monegasque dynasty, financed from the Monaco's state budget, and 100,000 francs for maintenance costs each year for the two children, because grandfather Louis kept himself as the “princely head of the family and boss of the dynasty ”. The children were assigned to Pierre de Polignac, but he had to consult his princely ex-father-in-law Louis II on questions of upbringing. Officially, the Monegasque Prince's Palace remained his residence, but he was not allowed to stay or live in Monaco without Prince Louis' permission.

Official monogram of Prince Pierre of Monaco

"Prince Pierre de Monaco", as he was officially dubbed, lived during the reign of his son Prince Rainier in a villa near the Prince's Palace and was president of the "Conseil Littéraire" founded in 1951 from 1951 until his death in 1964. In 1976, for the 25th anniversary, a stamp with the portrait of Prince Pierre was issued in Monaco. In the same year 1951 "Le Prix littéraire Prince Pierre de Monaco" was founded, an annual prize for French-language literature, which is awarded at the suggestion of the "Conseil Littéraire" and in 2018 was endowed with 25,000 €.

In 1956, Pierre de Polignac sought in vain the Vatican for papal recognition of his divorce, which the American heiress Audrey Emery had made a condition for marriage to her.

In 1957, Prince Pierre of Monaco accepted the presidency of the National Commission of UNESCO and of the Monegasque Olympic Committee . After Prince Pierre died of cancer in 1964 in the American Hospital in Paris in the presence of his children, he was buried in Monaco in the old chapel "La Paix". In 1966 his son Prince Rainier honored him with the establishment of the "Fondation Prince Pierre".

Awards and prizes (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GHdA , Adelslexikon, Volume IX, Limburg an der Lahn 1998, p. 147.
  2. ↑ Marcel Proust: Lettres au duc de Valentinois (2016)
  3. ↑ Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time (2010), note 2.
  4. ^ New York Times: Monaco agein in an uproar; Divorce Suit of Prince Disturbs Politics of Little State Role of the Casino., March 9, 1930
  5. ↑ Bettina Grosse de Cosnac: The Grimaldis: History and Present of the Princely Family of Monaco, 2007, p. 93.
  6. ^ The Peerage: Person Page 20128
  7. ↑ ActuaLitté on October 5, 2018: Maurizio Serra reçoit le Prix Littéraire Prince Pierre de Monaco
  8. ↑ Der Spiegel , 46/1956
  9. ^ Homepage of the Prince Pierre Foundation
personal data
SURNAME Polignac, Pierre Comte de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grimaldi, Duc de Valentinois, Pierre; Monaco, Prince Pierre de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Monegasque nobleman, father of Prince Rainier III of Monaco
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Château de Kerscamp, Morbihan
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1964
Place of death Paris