Prince Pierre of Monaco
Duke of Valentinois
Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois
Predecessor	Alice Heine
Successor	Grace Kelly
Spouse	Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois
Issue
Princess Antoinette, Baroness of Massy Rainier III of Monaco
Full name
Count Pierre Marie Xavier Raphael Antoine Melchior de Polignac
House	House of Polignac House of Grimaldi
Father	Count Maxence de Polignac
Mother	Susana de la Torre y Mier
Born	(1895-10-24)24 October 1895 Château de Kerscamp, Morbihan, France
Died	10 November 1964(1964-11-10) (aged 69) American Hospital, Neuilly, Paris, France
Burial	Chapel of Peace, Monaco

Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois (Duc de Valentinois in French; 24 October 1895 – 10 November 1964) was the father of Rainier III of Monaco, and thus the paternal grandfather of Albert II of Monaco. He was a promoter of art, music, and literature in Monaco and served as the head of the country's delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and to the International Olympic Committee.^[1]

  Birth and family

Born at the Château de Kerscamp, Hennebont, Morbihan, France, as Count Pierre Marie Xavier Raphael Antoine Melchior de Polignac, he was the fourth son and youngest child of Count Maxence Melchior Edouard Marie Louis de Polignac (Château de Kerscamp 13 December 1857 - Château de Kerscamp 28 November 1936) and his Mexican ^[2] wife (m. Paris, 10 October 1881), Susana Mariana Estefania Francisca de Paula del Corazon de la Torre y Mier (Mexico, 2 September 1858 - Talence, France 15 August 1913).^[3] His mother, known as Suzanne, was a member of the Mexican nobility.

His seven siblings were:^[4]

• Joséphine de Polignac (1882–1976, married Amaury de Jacquelot, Comte du Boisrouvray, and cavalry officer.
• Marie Louise de Polignac (1884–1944, married General Eon Le Gouvello du Timat)
• Raymonde de Polignac (born 1885)
• Count Xavier de Polignac (1886–1961, married 1, Maria de la Torre y Formento, his first cousin; and 2, May Goowen)
• Anne de Polignac (1889–1970, became Sister Marie de St. Louis Bertrand of the Convent of the Helpers of the Holy Souls in New York City)^[4]
• Count Maxence de Polignac (1892–1963, married Laura de la Torre y Formento, his first cousin) [1]
• Count Bertrand de Polignac (1893–1910)

  Marriage

  Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois

He married civilly on 19 March and religiously on 20 March 1920 in Monaco, Princess Charlotte of Monaco (née Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet), the illegitimate but adopted daughter of Louis II of Monaco and Marie Juliette Louvet.^[5] Pierre de Polignac, member of a cadet branch of one of France's most renowned ducal families (noble at least since the 12th century, duke in 1780, peer in 1817) ^[6] and a descendant of Marie Antoinette's favourite, Yolande de Polatron, duchesse de Polignace), he changed his name and coat of arms to those borne by the House of Grimaldi by Monegasque ordinance issued on 18 March 1920, the day before his wedding.^[5] He had become a subject of the Sovereign Prince of Monaco, also by Monegasque ordinance, on 29 February 1920.^[5] From the date of the religious wedding the court of Monaco referred to him, jure uxoris, as Duke of Valentinois. That title had been conferred upon his wife as heiress presumptive on 20 May 1919.^[5] His surname and arms were altered by Monegasque ordinance shortly after he became a Monegasque citizen (to ensure that his dynastic issue would bear the surname of Grimaldi in compliance with Article I of Monaco's house law),^[7] Pierre remained in succession to the French title Duke of Polignac, as do his legitimate male-line descendants.

In the mid 1920s, the couple unofficially separated, with Prince Pierre preferring to live in his Paris apartment and on an estate near the city.^[8] Prince Pierre and Princess Charlotte were judicially separated on 20 March 1930 at Paris, and in a case titled "Princesse héréditaire Grimaldi de Monaco c. Prince Pierre Grimaldi de Polignac", were divorced by ordinance of Prince Louis II on 18 February 1933. The divorce was confirmed by a Paris tribunal in December of that year.^[5][9] "The union ended ... under circumstances which prompted the temperamental father-in-law to vow he would call out the Monégasque army if the prince ever set foot in the principality again."^[10] The couple's marriage, arranged and unhappy, was complicated by Prince Pierre's homosexuality, according to his friend, British writer James Lees-Milne, as well as Princess Charlotte's own affairs.^[11] The banishment from Monaco was lifted in April 1933, and Prince Pierre would receive an annuity of 500,000 francs a year.^[12][13]

He and his wife had two children:^[5]

• Princess Antoinette of Monaco (1920–2011)
• Rainier III of Monaco (1923–2005)

  Death

Prince Pierre of Monaco died on 10 November 1964, of cancer, at the American Hospital in Neuilly, Paris, France.^[1]

  Description

Life magazine in 1947 described Prince Pierre as "a slender and graceful gallant who wears his coat cape-fashion across his shoulders. His manners are exquisite; his voice so cultivated as to be practically inaudible".^[10]

  Honours

  Foreign honours

•  : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (03/11/1959)^[14]

  Ancestry

  References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Prince Pierre, 69, of Monaco is Dead", The New York Times, 11 November 1964.
2. ^ http://www.wargs.com/essays/lesbian.html Don Ricardo Ortega y Perez Gallardo, Historia Genealogica de las Familias mas Antiguas de Mexico, Tercera edicion, [Mexico: Carranza, 1910]
3. ^ Mother's full name cited in Revue des questions héraldiques, archéologiques et historiques (Conseil héraldique de France, 1905), page 48
4. ^ ^{a b} "Maxence de Polignac Dies in His Château", The New York Times, 1 December 1936
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Velde, Francois. The Succession Crisis of 1918. Heraldica.org. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
6. ^ Almanach de Gotha 1944. Polignac: maison de Chalençon. Justus Perthes, 1944, pp. 84, 508.
7. ^ Velde, Francois. Monaco: House Laws. Heraldica.org. Retrieved 19 June 2010
8. ^ "Monaco Again in an Uproar", The New York Times, 9 March 1930
9. ^ "Revue Critique de Droit International Privé", 1934, Volume 29, page 504
10. ^ ^{a b} Charles J. V. Murphy, "The New Riviera", Life magazine, 10 November 1947, page 152
11. ^ Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne: The Life (John Murray, 2009)
12. ^ "Monacan Ruler in Accord", The New York Times, 29 April 1933
13. ^ "Monaco Disputed on Annuity Figure", The New York Times, 11 April 1936
14. ^ Italian Presidency, S.A.S. Pietro Principe di Monaco

  Notes

  External links

• Princely and Ducal House of Polignac
• Princely House of Monaco