Prince Albert II Renews the Grimaldi Legacy in Les Baux-de-Provence
Prince Albert II’s return to Les Baux-de-Provence was more than a family visit. It marked the renewal of a bond between the Grimaldis and Provence that has endured for nearly four centuries
There are few places better suited to dynastic memory than Les Baux-de-Provence. High above the Alpilles, its ancient fortress looks across a landscape that has witnessed centuries of French and Mediterranean history.
On 5 September, H.S.H. Prince Albert II returned to Les Baux accompanied by Princess Charlene and their children, Hereditary Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella. It was a particularly significant visit: the Prince was introducing his son to a place with which the Grimaldi family has been formally associated since the 17th century.
Prince Jacques bears the historic title Marquis of Baux. Prince Albert was careful to place that inheritance in its modern context. The title, he explained, is not an evocation of a vanished political order, but a means of preserving roots and continuity — the young Prince serving, in his father’s words, as an ‘ambassador of goodwill’.
The connection dates to 1642, when Louis XIII granted the marquisate of Les Baux to Hercule Grimaldi, son of Honoré II. Prince Albert himself was linked to Les Baux by his father, Prince Rainier III, in 1958. Today, that inheritance passes naturally to Jacques.
The visit also brought an important announcement. Prince Albert revealed that the Principality is in the process of acquiring the historic Maison du Connétable de Montmorency, beside the village’s old ramparts. Following its restoration, the house will become both a Grimaldi presence in Les Baux and a showcase for the network of Grimaldi Historic Sites in France.
Most significantly, it is a legacy intended for the next generation. The house, Prince Albert said, will be Prince Jacques’s — a home of the Princes of Monaco in Les Baux and a lasting symbol of the family’s attachment to France.
The symbolism was particularly fitting. Prince Albert began his address by recalling the legendary star of Les Baux, which still appears on the village’s coat of arms. It was that star, he said, which had guided him once again to this remarkable Provençal rock.
Nearly four centuries after the Grimaldis first became part of the history of Les Baux, the relationship is not simply being commemorated. It is being entrusted to another generation.
As Prince Albert promised at the close of his speech: ‘We shall always be Baussencs among the Baussencs.’
