Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918 - Birth and Recognition of Charlotte

Birth and Recognition of Charlotte

Louis, while serving in the French army, befriended the laundress of his regiment, who asked him to look after her daughter, Marie Juliette Louvet. Subsequently, Louis and Marie had a daughter out-of-wedlock, Charlotte Louvet, who remained in the custody of her mother during her minority. Nonetheless, Louis recognised her as his child in 1900.

A Monégasque ordinance of 15 May 1911 acknowledged the child as Louis' daughter, and admitted her into the Grimaldi dynasty. However this was discovered to be in procedural violation of the statutes of 1882. The ordinance was therefore invalid, and the sovereign prince was so notified by the National Council of Monaco in 1918. As a consequence, an amendment of 30 October 1918 modified the law to allow the reigning prince or, with the monarch's consent, the Hereditary Prince of Monaco (the heir presumptive, whether a child of the reigning prince or not), to adopt a child, from within or without the princely dynasty, in the absence of legitimate issue of his own. The law stipulated that the adopted child would fully inherit all the rights, titles and prerogatives of the person who adopted him, including succession rights to the crown. The amendment also provided that, should the prince have legitimate issue after such an adoption, the adopted child would follow such issue in the order of succession. Another ordinance of 31 October 1918 stated the conditions for an adoption.