Albert II, Sovereign Prince of
Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14
March 1958) is the head of the House
of Grimaldi and the current ruler of the Principality of Monaco
. He
is the son of
Rainier III,
Prince of Monaco and his princess consort,
Grace Kelly. His sisters are
The Princess of Hanover and
Princess Stéphanie of
Monaco.
Early life
Born in
the Prince's Palace
of Monaco
, Monaco, Albert
attended the Albert I High School, graduating with distinction in
1976. Albert was a camper and later a counselor for
six summers at Camp Tecumseh on Lake Winnipesaukee
, Moultonborough
, New
Hampshire
in the
1970s. He spent a year training in various princely
duties, and enrolled at Amherst College
in Massachusetts
in 1977 as Albert Grimaldi, studying political science, economics, music, and
English literature, and also
joined Chi Psi fraternity.
He spent the summer of 1979 touring
Europe
and the
Middle East with the Amherst
Glee Club and graduated in 1981 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in
political science.
Albert also undertook
an exchange program with the University of Bristol
, at the elite Alfred Marshall School of Economics
and Management in 1979. Albert was an enthusiastic
sportsman, participating in
cross
country,
javelin throwing,
handball,
judo,
swimming,
tennis,
rowing,
sailing,
skiing,
squash and
fencing. He is a patron of Monaco's
football teams. He competed in the
bobsled at the
1988,
1992,
1994,
1998, and
2002 Winter Olympics.
He has been a member
of the International Olympic Committee
since 1985. (His maternal grandfather
John B. Kelly, Sr., and maternal uncle
John B. Kelly, Jr., were both Olympic medal
winners in
rowing and were actively
involved in the Olympic movement.) The press reported the prince
refused any special treatment during his Olympic stints, and lived
in the same bare-bones quarters as all the other athletes .
On 25
October 2002, Albert visited Miami, Florida
for a World
Olympians Association fund-raiser at the Biltmore Hotel in
Coral
Gables
. The group's mission was to have the 100,000
Olympians get involved with their communities and talk to young
athletes about dedication and training.
Regency
On 7 March 2005, Albert's father
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
was admitted to a hospital in the principality; he was later moved
to an intensive care ward. The Prince was being treated for
breathing, kidney, and heart trouble.
On 31 March 2005, the
Palace of
Monaco announced that Hereditary
Prince Albert would take over the duties of his father as
Regent since Rainier was no longer able to
exercise his sovereign functions. This decision was reached
by the
Crown Council of
Monaco, a body made up of notable local figures with residual
powers to make judgments about certain constitutional matters. The
47-year-old prince spent his first day as regent of Monaco caring
for his critically ill 81-year-old father, who was Europe’s
longest-serving living monarch and the world's third-longest.
However, Albert's regency lasted barely a week.
Accession
On 6 April 2005, Prince Rainier III died and Hereditary Prince
Albert became Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco.
The first part of Prince Albert II's
enthronement as ruler of the Principality was
on 12 July 2005, after the end of the three-month
mourning period for his father. A morning
Mass at Saint Nicholas Cathedral presided
over by the
Archbishop of Monaco, the
Most
Reverend Bernard Barsi, formally
marked the beginning of his reign. Afterward Albert II returned to
the princely palace to host a garden party for 7,000 Monegasques
born in the principality. In the courtyard, the Prince was
presented with two keys of the city as a symbol of his
investiture. The evening ended with a
spectacular
fireworks display on the
waterfront.
The second part of his investiture was on 19 November 2005. Albert
was enthroned at Saint Nicholas Cathedral. His family was there in
attendance, including his elder sister (and now his heir)
Princess Caroline with her
husband
Ernst, Prince
of Hanover and three of her four children,
Andrea,
Pierre and
Charlotte; as well as his younger sister
Princess
Stéphanie, his paternal aunt
Princess Antoinette,
Baroness of Massy, his godson,
Baron Jean-Léonard
Taubert-Natta de Massy, and his cousin
Elisabeth-Anne de Massy. Royalty
from 16 delegations were present for the festivities throughout the
country.
The evening ended with an opera performance
in Monte-Carlo
.
Albert's reign
continues the policy, initiated by previous rulers of the
statelet, of using his position to draw the
world's attention to the need to protect the (marine) environment.
Just like
his great-great-grandfather Albert I he traveled to Spitsbergen
in July 2005. During this trip, he visited
the glaciers "Lillihöök" and "Monaco".
Prince Albert II also
engaged in a Russian
Arctic expedition, reaching
the North
Pole
on Easter, 16 April
2006. As a result, he is the first incumbent head of state
to have reached the North Pole.
Prince Albert is the Vice-Chairman of the American charity founded
in 1982, after his mother's death, the
Princess Grace Foundation-USA,
which supports, as Princess Grace did in her lifetime, emerging
artists in theater, dance and film.
Princess Grace Foundation-USA website
In 2006, HSH Prince Albert created the Prince Albert II of Monaco
Foundation which continues the Principality of Monaco's commitment
by supporting sustainable and ethical projects around the world
which focus on three main challenges: climate change and developing
renewable energies; combating the loss of biodiversity; and water
management (improving universal access to clean water) and fighting
desertification.
Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation website
HSH is also a Global Advisor to
Orphans International.
Bachelorhood
Over the years, there has been much discussion of the prince's
continual bachelor status. Although he has received much press
attention for dating well-known fashion models and actresses,
including
Angie Everhart,
Catherine Oxenberg,
Brooke Shields,
Claudia Schiffer, and
Victoria Zdrok, his apparent disinclination
to marry gave rise to rumors that he is
homosexual. Prince Albert has consistently denied
this suggestion, most notably in a 1994 interview published in the
French magazine
Madame
Figaro. "At first it was amusing," he said, "but it
becomes very irritating in the long term to hear people say that I
am homosexual." He has since confirmed that he is the father of two
children.
In October 2005, German magazine
Bunte reported that Prince Albert was dating
Telma Ortiz Rocasolano, a
sister-in-law of Spain's
Crown Prince Felipe. However, in
November, 2005 the Prince instructed his lawyer, Thierry Lacoste to
commence legal proceedings against French newspaper
France
Dimanche for violation of privacy and false information
regarding the story.
On 10 February 2006, at the
opening ceremony of
the
2006 Winter Olympics,
Prince Albert was accompanied by former South African swimmer
Charlene Wittstock. They were
seen again together at the
Monaco
Grand Prix. As of 2009, H.S.H. the Prince and Wittstock
continue to attend the "Bal de la Rose" and the Princess Grace
Awards Gala.
Children born out of wedlock
Jazmin Grace Grimaldi
In 1992,
a California
woman, Tamara Rotolo,
filed a paternity suit against the
prince, claiming that he was the father of her daughter, whom she
named Jazmin Grace
Grimaldi. Prince Albert was also listed as the father
on the child's Riverside County, California
, birth certificate. and the child was legally
surnamed Grimaldi. However, the case, which went to trial in
1993, eventually was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Graham
Anderson Cribbs, who claimed that there was "insufficient contact
between Albert and the state of California to justify hearing a
suit there" agreeing with an assertion by the prince's lawyer,
Stanley Arkin, that the California court had no jurisdiction.
In court
documents and legal depositions, Case#IND78459 in Riverside County
Superior Court Family Law Division under Superior Court Judge
Graham Anderson Cribbs, Prince Albert admitted that he had been
with Tamara Rotolo, who was traveling with a friend, Barbara Welker
(per her deposition filed with the court), in Monaco on "a couple
of occasions" in July 1991. (The child had been born
approximately nine months later, on 4 March 1992.) As reported by a
local newspaper covering the case, "Arkin asserted that the
Riverside County court had no jurisdiction in the case since the
romantic encounter supposedly occurred in Monaco and Albert has had
no contacts with California that relate to the issues in the
suit."
On 31 May 2006, after
DNA
test results confirmed the child's parentage, Prince Albert
admitted, in a statement from his lawyer, that he is Jazmin's
father. He also extended an invitation for the girl to study and
live in Monaco.
According
to Le Figaro, Jazmin Grace
Grimaldi is "mature, sweet and intelligent" and an honor student at
Junipero Serra Catholic High School in San Juan
Capistrano, California
.
Alexandre Coste
In May
2005, Nicole Coste, a former Air France flight
attendant from Togo
, claimed
that her youngest son, whom she calls Alexandre Éric Stéphane
Coste, is Prince Albert's son, proven by DNA
tests conducted by Swiss technicians working on orders from the
Monegasque government. She further claimed the prince had
signed a
notarized certificate
confirming paternity but that she had not received a copy of it.
The French weekly
Paris Match
published a ten-page interview with Coste and included photographs
of the prince holding and feeding the child. Coste also told
Paris Match that she was living in the prince's Paris
apartment and receiving an allowance from him while pretending to
be the girlfriend of one of his friends in order to maintain
privacy. She also said that the prince had last seen the boy in
February 2005. A spokesman for Prince Albert had no comment, though
upon news of Coste's claims, the prince's lawyer, Thierry Lacoste,
announced that "A judicial strategy will be determined within the
next few days."
In mid-May 2005, Lacoste announced that as a result of the
international publicity over the revelations of the prince's son,
Prince Albert is suing the
Daily
Mail,
Bunte, and
Paris
Match for delving too deeply into his private life.
On 6 July 2005, a few days before he was enthroned on 12 July,
Albert II officially confirmed via his lawyer Thierry Lacoste that
the 22-month-old was his biological son.
Additional paternity suit
An earlier paternity suit, brought by
Bea
Fiedler, a German topless model whom the
Daily Telegraph described as a
"sex-film star", reportedly was dismissed. A blood test, which was
refused by the judge, did not prove that the prince was the father
of Fiedler's son, Daniel.
Succession issues
As Rainier III's health declined, his son's lack of legitimate
children became a matter of public and political concern due to the
legal and international consequences if Albert were to die without
lawful heirs. Prior to 2002, Monaco's
constitution specified that only the
last reigning prince's "direct and legitimate"
male descendants could inherit the crown.
On 2 April 2002 Monaco promulgated Princely Law 1.249 which
provides that if a reigning prince dies without surviving
legitimate issue, the throne passes to his siblings and their
descendants of both sexes, according to the principle of
male-preference
primogeniture.
In
October 2005, (after Albert's accession to the throne) this law
took full effect when ratified by France
, pursuant to
the 2002 Franco-Monégasque Treaty regulating relations between the
Sovereign Principality and its powerful neighbour. His
sisters and their legitimate children thereby acquired the right to
succeed to the throne.
Under the current constitution, neither Jazmin nor Alexandre has a
claim to the throne of Monaco because they are not
legitimate. Alexandre would become Monaco's
heir apparent under current law if
Albert were to marry his mother in a legal marriage.
But in a 2005
exchange with U.S.
interviewer
Larry King, Albert stated that this will
not happen.
Albert's marrying Jazmin's mother would probably not legitimatize
her nor grant her a place in the line of succession, as she would
likely be considered an
adulterous child.
The man to whom Jazmin's mother had been married since 1987, David
Schumacher, filed for a divorce from Rotolo on 13 September 1991 in
California, according to a
San Diego Union-Tribune
article by Jeff Wilson of the
Associated Press, citing as grounds
"irreconcilable differences". Rotolo did not contest the petition,
the couple having been separated since April 1989.
Albert specified that neither of these children is eligible for the
throne in statements confirming his paternity. His older sister,
Princess
Caroline,
remains first in the
line of succession
to the Monegasque throne. Though she is only the
heiress-presumptive and not
heiress-apparent, Caroline is the Hereditary
Princess of Monaco, according to the Grimaldi
house law.
Until Albert II should have legitimate descendants born of a
recognized dynastic marriage, Caroline's eldest son,
Andrea Casiraghi, is second in succession
to the throne.
Environmental issues
Year of the Dolphin
The year 2007 was declared as
Year of the Dolphin by
the
United Nations and
United Nations Environment
Programme. Prince Albert served as the International Patron of
the 'Year of the Dolphin', saying "The Year of the Dolphin gives me
the opportunity to renew my firm commitment towards protecting
marine biodiversity. With this strong initiative we can make a
difference to save these fascinating marine mammals from the brink
of extinction."
Jardin Animalier
Monaco's Jardin Animalier, or
zoo, was founded
by Prince Rainier. Prince Albert has begun to return the animals to
the wild, and intends to convert the Jardin to a zoo for children.
This project, undertaken in conjunction with the
Born Free Foundation, started after the
Prince met the Foundation's founder
Virginia McKenna for lunch.
Expedition to Antarctica
In
January 2009, Prince Albert left for a month-long expedition to
Antarctica
, where he visited 26 scientific outposts and met
with climate-change experts in an attempt to learn more about the
impact of global warming on the
continent.
CITES and bluefin tuna
In June 2009, Prince Albert co-authored an open letter to the
Wall Street Journal
with
Charles Clover, the author of
The End of the Line, a
book about overfishing and ocean conservation issues that had
recently been made into a documentary by
Rupert Murray. In the letter, Prince Albert
acknowledges that
bluefin tuna has been
severely overfished in the Mediterranean, and decries the common
European Union practice of awarding inflated quotas to bluefin
fleets. He announced that Monaco would seek to award endangered
species status to the
Mediterranean bluefin Thunnus
thynnus, (also called the Northern bluefin ) under the
Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (
CITES). If upheld by the voting CITES delegates, this
proposal would effectively ban the international trade in
Mediterranean bluefin. This was the first time a nation had called
for the inclusion of Mediterranean bluefin under CITES since Sweden
at the 1992 CITES Conference, which was vehemently opposed by Japan
who eventually threatened retaliation through trade barriers.
Sweden withdrew its proposal.
On 16 July 2009, France declared that it too would seek to have
Mediterranean bluefin listed as an endangered species. Only hours
later, the United Kingdom followed suit.
Roger Revelle Prize
On 23 October 2009, Prince Albert was awarded the
Roger Revelle Prize for his efforts to
protect the environment and to promote scientific research.
This
award was given to Prince Albert by the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, California
. Prince Albert is the second recipient of
this prize.
Other roles
Titles
Albert has held two positions:
As the prince, his official shortened title is
His Serene
Highness The Sovereign Prince of Monaco; this does not
include the many other styles claimed by the Grimaldi family (see
Sovereign Prince of
Monaco for a complete list of titles).
Ancestry
Patrilineal descent
Albert's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to
son.
Patrilineal descent is the predominant
principle behind membership in royal houses - which means that
genetically Albert II belongs to the house of Chalencon
.
Early descent from
House of Chalencon
- Bertrand de Chalencon, mentioned 1179
- Guillaume de Chalencon, d. 1229
- Bertrand de Chalencon, d. 1272
- Bertrand de Chalencon, 1240 - 1295
- Guy de Chalencon, 1279 - 1324
- Guiot de Chalencon
- Guillaume III, Baron de Chalencon, d. 1411
- Pierre Armand, Baron de Chalencon, d. 1447
- Louis-Armand, Viscount of Polignac
- Guillaume-Armand, Viscount of Polignac, d. 1473
- Guillaume of Polignac
- Francois-Armand of Polignac, 1514 - 1582
- Louis-Armand of Polignac, 1556 - 1584
- Gaspard Francois of Polignac, 1579 - 1659
- Louis-Armand of Polignac, 1608 - 1692
- Scipion Sidoine of Polignac, 1660 - 1739
- Louis, Marquis of Polignac, 1716 - 1792
- Jules, Duke of Polignac, 1745 - 1817
- Camille Henri, Count de Polignac, 1781 - 1855
- Count Charles de Polignac, 1824 - 1881
- Count Maxence de Polignac, 1857 - 1936
- Pierre de Polignac, 1895 -
1964
- Rainier III, Prince of
Monaco, 1923 - 2005
- Albert II, Prince of Monaco, 1958 -
See also
As Monaco's head of state, Prince Albert is depicted on coins,
including collectors' coins, with very rare exceptions. One of the
most recent examples is the €5 silver
Prince
Albert II commemorative coin, the first commemorative coin with
his effigy on it, minted in 2008. On the obverse, the prince is
depicted in profile with his name on the top of the coin. On the
reverse, the Grimaldi coat of arms appears; around it, the words
"Principauté de Monaco" (Principality of Monaco) also appear along
with the nominal monetary value of the coin.
External links
References
- Titles of Sovereign Prince of Monaco - Website
of the late Prince Rainier III
- Biography of Prince Albert - Website of the
Palace of Monaco
- Albert, à nouveau père
- "Madame
Figaro", 1994; reported in Daily Mail, 13 August 1994, page 17
- according to the website of the Desert Sun, a newspaper in
Palm Springs
- Evening Standard article, 24 March 1993,
page 20
- Monaco prince admits love child, BBC News,
July 6, 2005. Accessed September 18, 2009.
- "Bea in His Bonnet," "Daily Telegraph", 29 July 1987. Also
"Sunday
Mirror", 8 March 1998, pages 1+
- International
Year of the Dolphin Website
- Gilchrist, Roderick. Leopards incredible journey to freedom,
Daily Telegraph, January 26, 2008. Accessed September 18, 2009.
- Monaco's Prince Albert Heads to Antarctica
Yahoo News, 5 January 2009
- Clover, Charles; Grimaldi, Albert. It's Not Too Late to Save the Tuna, The Wall
Street Journal, June
5, 2009. Accessed
September 18,
2009.
- http://www.outdoor.se/sportfishnews/articles/bluefin/
- France Supports International Trade Ban for
Endangered Bluefin Tuna, NatGeo News Watch,
July 16, 2009. Accessed September 18, 2009.
- Webster, Ben. Britain to support a ban on international trade in
blue-fin tuna, The Times, July 17, 2009.
Accessed September
18, 2009.
- San Diego gives Monaco's Prince Albert the royal
treatment
- Scripps to Honor Prince Albert II of Monaco for his
Environmental Efforts
- A Prize Fit for a Prince
- Albert to inherit lion's share
- Biography of Prince Albert - Website of the
Palace of Monaco
- The PEDIGREE of Guillaume-Armand I (Vicomte) de
POLIGNAC.
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