Charlotte's Adoption and Status As Heiress-presumptive
See also: List of heirs to the Monegasque throneCharlotte was formally adopted by her own father Louis at the Monégasque embassy in Paris on 16 May 1919, in the presence of her grandfather Albert I, the French president Poincaré, and the mayor of Monaco. There is a doubt on the legality of the adoption. The Monégasque civil code (articles 240 and 243) required that the adopting party be of at least age fifty and the adoptee of at least age twenty-one. The 1918 ordinance changed the adoptee's minimum age to eighteen (Charlotte was twenty at the time of adoption) but not the other age limit, Prince Louis then being only aged forty-eight.
Charlotte was created Duchess of Valentinois by Albert I on 20 May 1919, and on 1 August 1922, following Louis II's accession on 22 June of that year, she was officially designated the Hereditary Princess of Monaco as her father's heiress presumptive. In 1920 she married comte Pierre de Polignac, who belonged to a junior branch of a prominent French ducal family. Prior to the wedding, a Monégasque ordinance of 18 March 1920 had changed Pierre's name and coat of arms to those of Grimaldi. On 20 March, he was allowed to take the title of Duke of Valentinois (his French prefix of comte was, in fact, a courtesy title). Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois and Pierre Grimaldi had a daughter, Princess Antoinette, baroness de Massy, and then a son, Rainier, marquis des Baux.
Duke Wilhelm von Urach, along with the other adult descendants of Princess Florestine, renounced their dynastic rights in 1924, but did so in favor of a French cousin, the comte de Chabrillan, who was descended from Prince Joseph of Monaco. The count was a more remote, female-line descendant of the Grimaldi dynasty, and was next in line to the Monégasque throne after the Urachs according to the pre-1920 order of succession. Thus, while the duke voluntarily withdrew as a claimant to Monaco's throne (he had also been considered for the thrones of Lithuania and Alsace-Lorraine, although these monarchical opportunities never materialized), he did not choose to recognize Monaco's selected heir – perhaps unsurprisingly, since the 1918 law and treaty directly intruded upon his hereditary rights, excluding him from a throne for no personal act of dereliction on his part, and without compensation (cf. Prince Ingolf of Denmark).
In 1930 the Chicago Daily Tribune reported that Wilhelm's third son Albrecht had met with French officials in Paris, hoping to be approved by them as Louis' heir. 'He believes that the scandal surrounding Princess Charlotte's divorce "will help him win his case." He is now in Paris in "an attempt to make good his claim". .. The Urach branch of the family assert "that according to the Monaco constitution such an adoption becomes illegal until all members of the family approve it." The Urachs, a "German branch of the family," said they were never asked for their approval and "never approved of the adoption".'
Read more about this topic: Monaco Succession Crisis Of 1918
Famous quotes containing the words charlotte, adoption and/or status:
“Last night, party at Lansdowne-House. Tonight, party at Lady Charlotte Greville’s—deplorable waste of time, and something of temper. Nothing imparted—nothing acquired—talking without ideas—if any thing like thought in my mind, it was not on the subjects on which we were gabbling. Heigho!—and in this way half London pass what is called life.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Frankly, I adore your catchy slogan, “Adoption, not Abortion,” although no one has been able to figure out, even with expert counseling, how to use adoption as a method of birth control, or at what time of the month it is most effective.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“The censorship method ... is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)