In light of the increasing number of spurious "royal experts" infiltrating the media, Princess Palace has created this online testing and training center/centre (a.k.a. trivia quizzes) to facilitate the recognition and certification of actual royal experts. Anyone receiving certification may add C.R.E. (certified royal expert) after one's name. This site is created and maintained entirely for fun. Its creator asserts no authority for certifying anyone's qualifications for anything. ;)

05 July 2011

Illegitimate Monaco Answers

In light of the rumors swirling around the princely wedding in Monaco (See wedding pics, it is worth remembering that Prince Albert is not the only Grimaldi to let passion carry him away. This quiz challenged your knowledge of this unusual Grimaldi tradition.

1. Which illegitimate daughter was officially adopted by her princely father so that he might have an heir?
You have to go back a few generations for this answer. Prince Albert's great grandfather Prince Louis II also waited until late in life to marry--he was 76 when he married a forty-something divorce comedy actress. Unlike Albert, Louis had no siblings who could succeed him, so he formally adopted his illegitimate daughter Charlotte to be his heir. Elevated to Princess and forced into an arranged marriage, Charlotte had two children before divorcing her husband and surrendering her right to the throne to her son, Prince Rainier III. Princess Caroline's daughter, Charlotte Casiraghi is named for her. Incidentally, both Caroline and her daughter look strikingly like their ancestress. (Read more about this.)

2. Which prince altered the succession laws so that illegitimate children could not inherit the principality?
Shortly before his death, probably having learned of rumors about Prince Albert's illegitimate children, Prince Rainier III altered the laws so that no illegitimate child could lay claim to the principality. After Rainier's death, Prince Albert publicly acknowledged they he had fathered illegitimate children.

3. Which Grimaldi descendant's parents received official permission to marry, even though the groom lost his right to a throne?
Princess Alexandra of Hanover. This one seems to have caused the most difficulty for our Royal Experts. When Princess Caroline married Prince Ernst August of Hanover, he sought formal permission from his distant cousin Queen Elizabeth II. As a descendant of the Hanoverian kings of England, he is technically required to receive such permission under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. However, because Caroline is Catholic, their marriage also meant that he gave up his place in the British Line of Succession. Of course, he was very far down the line. So, why is this question on the Illegitimate Monaco quiz? Because Caroline was already pregnant with their daughter Princess Alexandra at the time of their wedding. Incidentally, Alexandra is being raised as a Protestant so she could one (very unlikely) day be Queen of England.

4. How many children has Princess Stephanie had out of wedlock?
All three of Princess Stephanie's children were born out of wedlock. The first two, Louis and Pauline Ducruet, were both born before she married their father, Daniel Ducruet, her former bodyguard. The third, Camille, was born after her divorce from Ducruet and Stephanie did not list the father on the birth certificate. She is believed to be the daughter of Jean-Paul Gottlieb, another royal bodyguard. Stephanie had no children with her second husband, circus performer Adans Lopez Peres.

5. How many children did Prince Albert publicly acknowledge before his marriage to Charlene Wittstock?
Prince Albert publicly acknowledged two children before his marriage: Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre Coste. Born in 1992, Jazmin is the daughter of Tamara Rotolo, who met the prince while vacationing with her husband in Monaco. Jazmin was raised in Southern California. Prince Albert has said she is welcome to live and study in Monaco, but she has chosen instead to attend Fordham University in New York. Born in 2003, Alexandre is the son of Nicole Coste of Togo, who had been an air hostess. Alexandre and his mother live in France on an estate near Monaco, that has been provided by his father.

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