Monaco and the Napoleons: intertwined destinies

The exhibition — far too short, lasting only a month and a half! — organized by the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is unquestionably magnificent, thanks to the quality of the objects on display and the successful exhibition design [1]. But the subject matter is quite limited: the relationship between the Grimaldi family and the two Napoleonic emperors. Limited, first, because — without meaning any offense to the Grimaldis — the two families simply do not belong to the same league; and second, because the connections between them are extremely tenuous.

Consider the following: the exhibition begins with a meeting said to have taken place between Honoré V and Napoleon I on 1 March 1815, on the beach at Golfe-Juan, where the Emperor landed upon returning from Elba at the beginning of the Hundred Days, while the Monegasque heir was traveling back from Paris to Monaco to reclaim the principality, following the decision of the Congress of Vienna to restore it to him. The meeting — a version disputed by the prince — was recounted by Alexandre Dumas.

Prior to this, Honoré had served courageously in Napoleon’s armies, before being somewhat discredited in a strange affair during which, as Josephine’s chief equerry (after her separation from the Emperor), he acted as supplier of the fodder he was supposed to be procuring for the former sovereign. She is even said to have stated: “In truth, if this is not fraud, it certainly looks like it.” The prince was then reinstated in the army, but only with the rank of…