Duke of Valentinois

Duke of Valentinois (French: Duc de Valentinois; Italian: Duca Valentino), formerly Count of Valentinois, is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It was created by four times for four different Franch Kings along history, three of them with agnatic character:

First creation by Louis XII of France

Dukedom of Valentinois
Creation date 1498 - 1502
Monarch Louis XII of France
Peerage France - Vatican
First holder Cesar Borgia

Louis XII of France created Cesare Borgia Duke of Valentinois in 1498-1502,[3] just after he brought to King Alfonso XII the Papal bull annulating the king's marriage,[4] and Borgia became known Duke Valentino. Cesar married with Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarra, having a daughter named Louise 1500 - 1553, who married with Lord of Bourbon.Bousset.[4]

Second creation by Henry II of France

Henry II of France created Diane de Poitiers Duchess of Valentinois in 1548.

Third creation by Louis XIII of France

Dukedom of Valentinois
Creation date 1642
Monarch Louis XIII of France
Peerage France
First holder Honoré II of Mónaco
Present holder Monaco Crown as representative of Monaco state and Monegasque People.

When in 1523 Lucien Grimaldi who had murdered his predecessor and brother, Jean II, is killed by his cousin Bartholomew I,[5] reamining one child named Honoré who was under tutelage from his uncle Augustine Grimaldi bishop of Grasse. Augustine, Lord of Monaco then, put Monaco under protectorate of Spain[6] in 1524. It's Spain which give to Monaco recognizing of Principality and at its Lords, title of Princes with traitment of Serene Highness with range of Grandee of Spain, Honoré II receives then the Order of Gold Toison.

Richelieu decides retakes the war against Spain and the Monaco situation changes, Honoré II subcribe the treaty of Péronne and Louis XIII of France created the title of Duke of Valentinois by suggesst of Richelieu in contraposition to existent title in spanih hands, by letters patent, signed in May 1642 and registered on 18 July 1642, converting into a peerage a conglomeration of several estates in the French province of Dauphiné which he had previously given to Honoré II, Prince of Monaco,[7] who became the first recipient of the duché-pairie. Then Honoré II It is owned by Spain of its titles, honors and possessions in Italy and Spain.

On Honoré's death it passed to his son Louis I, and thence to Louis's son Antoine. However, since the title's inheritance was restricted to male heirs, and because Antoine had only daughters and no sons, it was due to pass to his brother, Honoré Grimaldi (1669 – 1748), but became extinct on 22 July 1715 when Honoré forfeited his right to succeed Antoine, having taken holy orders preparatory to becoming Archbishop of Besançon.

Authorized succession Jure Uxoris by Louis XIV of France On 1419, Rainier II had three sons, Ambroise, Antoine and Jean, the most long-lived of them, left a stipulating if the heir of Monaco was a woman, the eldest duaghter could heir the lands of Monaco, but his husband adopted the surname Grimaldi and the chest of arms of Grimaldi`s.[8] On 20 October 1715, Antoine's eldest daughter and heiress Louise-Hippolyte married Jacques-François de Goyon-Matignon,[9] who had signed a contract on 5 September 1715 by which he was obliged to take the surname Grimaldi. Louis XV[10] thereupon authorizes the continuation of the title of the ducal peerage of Valentinois by royal decree recreated, signed in December 1715 and registered on 2 September 1716, for Jacques, who would also succeed his father-in-law Antoine as Prince Jacques I Jure Uxoris; like the previous creation, its inheritance was restricted to Patrilinealty or agnatic[11] heirs.

After Jacques's abdication in 1733, the title passed uninterrupted for several generations from reigning prince to prince: from Jacques to Honoré III, Honoré IV, Honoré V,[12] Florestan I, Charles III and Albert I.[5][13]

Louis II, who succeeded his father Albert I in 1922, never used the title of Valentinois himself. On 15 November 1911, Albert I had issued a sovereign ordinance approving and confirming Louis' legal declaration of paternity of Charlotte Louvet, designating her therein as "Mademoiselle de Valentinois", and stipulating in article 3 of that decree, "In the event our beloved son, the Hereditary Prince Louis, should die without children born in legitimate marriage, Mademoiselle de Valentinois shall be able to succeed him in all his rights, titles and prerogatives.".[14]

On 16 May 1919 Prince Albert I styled his granddaughter Charlotte, "Duchess of Valentinois", on the occasion of her legal adoption that day by his only son Louis, Charlotte's natural father.[14] She was officially recognized by Albert as Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois on 20 May 1919.[14] On 20 March 1920, shortly after Charlotte's marriage to Pierre de Polignac, he, like Jacques-François de Goyon-Matignon, took the title of Duke of Valentinois jure uxoris, having already changed his surname to Grimaldi.

Despite Charlotte's use of the Valentinois title as her father's adopted heiress, by right of succession the French dukedom remained with Louis and his legitimate, agnatic, male descendants. Consequently, on his death without a male heir in 1949, it became extinct in French law.

Nonetheless, his successor, Rainier III, continued to include the dukedom among the titles borne by the reigning prince, possibly in the belief, as suggested by François Velde, that it was "implicitly recreated for Charlotte by the French Republic in 1919 when her adoption was approved", an act which had taken place in a French legation in the presence of President Raymond Poincaré.[14] However, the various French Republics have never created nor re-created any dukedom. Nor does France any longer recognize the existence of titles of nobility per se: French courts have held that the concept of nobility is incompatible with the equality of all citizens before the law as proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789, which remains part of the Constitution of 1958. However, a hereditary title is not, ipso facto, a mark of nobility in France. On the basis of the decree of 24 January 1852 by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, then President, in repealing policies of the French Second Republic embodied in the Decree of 29 February 1848 and Article 10 of the November 1848 constitution, "The nobility as an order is abolished in the Republic of France and in that sense, no one in France can create or authorize or transmit any title". French courts have, nonetheless, subsequently recognized and protected the right to the legal use of hereditary titles as accessories to the family name.[15]

Moreover, Chapter II Article 16 of the Monegasque constitution reserves to the monarch unilateral authority to confer titles of nobility, and does not stipulate that this may only be done by letters patent but not over foreign territory, this only within the state of Monaco.

With the death of Prince Rainier on 6 April 2005, the title passed to his son, now Albert II of Monaco.

List of Counts and Dukes of Valentinois

Count of Valentinois:

Duke of Valentinois:

First Creation:

Second Creation:

Third Creation:

Dukes by Jure Uxoris:

References and notes

  1. ↑ Sabatini, Rafael, The Life of Cesare Borgia of France: Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafri, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino and ... of Holy Church. a History and Some Criticisms, January 2, 2010, ISBN 978-1142152529
  2. ↑ L. William, George, Papal Genealogy, The Families of Renaissance Popes. pp. 61, 62, 64, 89, 152, 241, 217. McFarland and Company Inc, Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London. ISBN 0-7864-2071-5, 1998, 2004.
  3. ↑ L. William, George, Papal Genealogy, The Families of Renaissance Popes. p. 217. McFarland and Company Inc, Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London. ISBN 0-7864-2071-5, 1998, 2004.
  4. 1 2 L. William, George, Papal Genealogy, The Families of Renaissance Popes. p. 61. McFarland and Company Inc, Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London. ISBN 0-7864-2071-5, 1998, 2004.
  5. 1 2 Cevallos Escalera y Gila, Don Alfonso, Marquiss of la Floresta, España y Mónaco: Cuatro momentos históricos, second part, www.docelinajes.com, 2011.
  6. ↑ Europa Publications Limited, A Political Chronoly of Europe, Printed by: Taylor and Francis Group, First Edition 2001, ISBN 1-85743-113-8
  7. ↑ Minahan, James, One Europe, many nations, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, ISBN 0-313-30984-1
  8. ↑ Trudy Ring,Robert M. Salkin,Sharon La Boda, International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe, pag. 451, FizRoy Publishers, ISBN 1-884964-02-8
  9. ↑ Marc Antoine René de Voyer Argenson, Mélanges tirés d'une grade bibliothèque pag, 89. Chez Moutard, Imprimeur
  10. ↑ du Bourbon Habsburg, Louis Dieudonné, Archives anciennes & révolutionnaires, Lettre de Louis XIV au Prince de Monaco en juillet 1705, www.bornes.frontieres.free.fr
  11. ↑ Webster, Merriam Dictionary, Agnate definition, www.merriam-webster.com
  12. ↑ Urban, Silvanus, The Gentleman's Magazine, Volumen 172, Obituary, page, 93. University of Michigan Libraries, 1817. Printed by: William Pickering and sons, 1842.
  13. ↑ Goyon-Matignoc Grimaldi, Albert, an illustrious Dreyfusard, to Joseph Reinhard, March 31, 1899. www.dreyfus.culture.fr
  14. 1 2 3 4 Delorme, Philippe. "Grimaldi, 700 ans d'une dynastie". Balland. 1997. Page 322. (French)
  15. ↑ Texier, Alain. "Qu'est-ce que la noblesse?". Paris, 1987, pp. 407-10. (French)

See also

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