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, triggering Article 3 of the 1918 Franco-Monegasque Treaty according to which the Principality of Monaco would, ipso facto, become a protectorate of the French Republic. Prior to 2002, Monaco's constitution stipulated that only the last reigning prince's "direct and legitimate" 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 legitimate siblings and their legitimate 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 more powerful neighbour. Albert's sisters and their legitimate children thereby retained the right to inherit the Monegasque throne which they would have otherwise lost upon the death of Rainier III.
Under the current constitution neither Jazmin Rotolo nor Alexandre Coste is in the line of succession to the Monegasque Throne because they are not Prince Albert's legitimate children, and he emphasized their ineligibility to inherit the crown in statements confirming his paternity. Monegasque law stipulates that any non-adulterine child is legitimatised by the eventual marriage of his/her parents, thereupon obtaining the rights to which that child would have been entitled if born in lawful marriage. Thus Alexandre would become Monaco's heir apparent under current law if Albert were to ever marry his son's mother. But in a 2005 exchange with U.S. interviewer Larry King, Albert stated that this will not happen.
The Prince's older sister, Princess Caroline, remains first in the order of succession. Although she is only the heiress presumptive and not heiress apparent, Caroline bears the traditional title of Hereditary Princess of Monaco according to the Grimaldi house law. Until Albert II has legitimate descendants born of a dynastic marriage, Caroline is first, and her son Andrea Casiraghi, though untitled, is second in succession to the throne.
Read more about this topic: Nicole Coste
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