Raniero Grimaldi

Raniero Grimaldi

Raniero Grimaldi (also known as Rainier I or Rainer I of Monaco in the French form of the name ) (* 1267 in Genoa or Nice ; † 1314 ) was a Genoese politician, French admiral and from 1297 to 1301 the first lord of Monaco from the family the Grimaldi .

Life

Raniero was probably born in 1267 - according to other sources around 1272 - as the son of Lanfranco Grimaldi († 1293) in Genoa - according to other sources in Nice . According to the unlikely information of the most important genealogist of the Grimaldi, Ch. De Venasque-Farriol, his father was allegedly a Raniero, his grandfather Francesco Grimaldi detto Malizia (called “malice”) or il furbo (“the cunning”), the conqueror of the rock of Monaco in 1297. The two Ranieros are likely to be identical, otherwise the generation gap would be too small, and Francesco was his cousin.

In the raging battles between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs in the 13th century , the Grimaldi sided with the Guelphs. In 1293 Raniero was already a galley captain and captured a ship near Messina . He returned to Genoa, but was driven out of Genoa by the supporters of the Ghibellines in 1295, like the other partisans of the Guelphs. In 1296 he fitted out a ship at his own expense and led pirate trains in the Tyrrhenian Sea from Nice . On January 8, 1297 Raniero succeeded with the help of his cousin Francesco Grimaldi, who - disguised as a Franciscan - gained access to capture the Neapolitan fortress of Monaco and to take it over for the Grimaldi family and the Guelfs.

On July 23, 1298, Charles II of Anjou organized a food and news blackout against Monaco and the Grimaldi, but was initially unsuccessful. However, the situation worsened so that Rainier had to hand over the fortress to the King of Naples on April 11, 1301. Monaco became Ghibelline again, Raniero was compensated with a sum of about 6000 pounds and got his property in Genoa back.

In the following years Raniero fought as a condottiere on the side of Philip the Fair of France and became famous throughout Europe. As commander of the French fleet, he won the decisive victory of the French over the numerically superior Flemish fleet under the Count of Namur at Zierikzee in 1304 . In the same year Philipp made him admiral ( Renerius de Grimaudis, admirandus noster ) for his services and awarded him an annual pension of 1000 pounds ( lire tornesi ). As an admiral, he also received the Seigneurie de Cagnes , a royal castle in Villeneuve de Veuve and the Barony (Freiherrschaft) San Demetrio Corone in Calabria . Joint naval operations in the Mediterranean with the Venetians failed, however, because they regarded him as a pirate. In 1307 he returned to Genoa. In 1308 he was again given command of ships from Charles II of Anjou, at whose court in Naples he spent the last years of his life. In 1312 he was once again given command of the Pisan fleet and defeated a Pisan fleet at Meloria .

Raniero was married twice, first to his cousin Speciosa Del Carretto, then to Margherita Ruffo, daughter of the Prince of Sinopoli . With her Raniero had a son Carlo or Charles ( Charles I of Monaco ), who succeeded him as head of the family and later Lord of Monaco. This marriage also resulted in two other sons and a daughter: Antonio († 1358), who in 1348 received the rule of Prat as a fief, from which the rule of Antibes was derived, Vinciguerra († before 1348), who owned the barony of San Demetrio in Calabria, and Luciano, a pirate in the service of John I of Anjou , last mentioned in 1351.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Riccardo Musso: GRIMALDI, Raniero , in: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 59: Graziano – Grossi Gondi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2002. Online
2. ↑ See Musso.
3. ↑ See Musso.
4. ↑ See Musso.

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Lord of Monaco 1297–1301	Ghibelline or Genoese rule