Dynastic Dilemma
Louis' nearest legitimate next of kin was Prince Albert I's first cousin Wilhelm, 2nd Duke of Urach (1864–1928). He was born in Monaco in 1864, and was largely raised in Monaco as a francophone Roman Catholic by his mother after her widowhood in 1869. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles. He was, however, a Kingdom of Württemberg national. His adult domicile and main assets (including Lichtenstein Castle) were all in Württemberg. In 1871 Württemberg became a part of the German Empire, and by 1911 this coloured the status of Wilhelm's claim to Monaco.
The duke, a descendant through a morganatic marriage of the royal family of Wurttemberg, was the only son of Albert's aunt, Princess Florestine of Monaco. Although he was ineligible to inherit the crown of his patrilineal ancestors in Germany, given the line of succession to the Monegasque throne at that time, there was every likelihood that the principality would pass by lawful inheritance into Wilhelm's "German hands" upon the death of Prince Louis. However, given the bitter relations between France and Germany at that time — socio-political legacy of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 and then of the Great War of 1914-18 — France deemed it unacceptable for a country over which it had exercised de facto or de jure hegemony, intermittently since the 17th century and consistently for half a century, to fall into the hands of a German aristocrat.
Moreover, while the House of Grimaldi had close ties to France due not only to geographical proximity, but also to possession of estates (vaster by far than the territory of the principality) and financial investments there, nothing officially prevented the dynasty's political or cultural associations from focusing elsewhere. Moreover, the hereditary principle allocated monarchies according to one form or another of proximity of blood, and the Grimaldis' hitherto exclusive control of Monaco's dynastic marital policy was what threatened to enthrone a German duke on France's border, even after the Empire's defeat in war. Just as the ruling families of Britain, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands had all become patrilineally German by the twentieth century due to the propensity of monarchical heiresses, seeking dynastically equal marriages, to choose husbands from among Germany's many minor princely families, Monaco was on the verge of the same fate. Although the Grimaldis did not require inter-marriage with royalty by law as German principalities typically did, by custom they never married subjects of their own realm, and no Monégasque reigning prince or heir had wed a French consort in more than a century.
By 1910 France also worried that Monaco might become a future U-boat base only 150 km from the important French naval base at Toulon. Louis had served in the French army for most of his life, and was a Brigadier General by 1918. In contrast, Wilhelm had joined the XIII (Royal Württemberg) Corps in 1890, and had commanded the German 26th Division in 1914-17.
The "crisis" therefore hinged upon legitimate succession on the one hand, and France's security policy on the other.
Read more about this topic: Monaco Succession Crisis Of 1918
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