The Grimaldi family, from Prince Albert II to his heirs, explained for visitors

Some royal families are visited in museums and others are still at home. The Grimaldis belong to the second kind. Strictly speaking they are a princely rather than a royal family, and they live in the same compound their ancestor took by surprise more than seven centuries ago, while much of what you see in Monaco bears the name or the mark of one of them. Here I set out who is who today, how the succession works and, above all, where you notice the family as a visitor. I leave the gossip pages to others. For the rest of the trip, start with my Monaco travel guide.

Seven centuries on the same Rock

The family story begins with a disguise. On the night of 8 January 1297, François Grimaldi, a Guelph exiled from Genoa, walked into the fortress dressed as a friar and made it his. In the fourteenth century the family consolidated its lordship, in 1458 Lambert Grimaldi gave it its motto, Deo Juvante, and in 1612 Honoré II proclaimed himself prince. The dynasty’s 700th anniversary was celebrated in 1997.

What I find remarkable is not the age, which other houses can match, but the continuity of place. The Genoese fortress of 1215 still defines the outline of the Palace where today’s prince lives. The whole journey, with its protectorates and its near-disappearance in 1861, is in the history of Monaco.

Who is the Prince of Monaco?

Albert II, sovereign prince since 6 April 2005, when his father Rainier III died. He was born on 14 March 1958 and had been helping his father with affairs of state since 1984. His enthronement was celebrated on 17 November 2005, and on 19 July 2025 the Place du Palais hosted the party for his twenty years on the throne.

His official biography has two threads that I think portray him best. One is sport. He competed at five Olympic Games in the bobsleigh team, from Calgary 1988 to Salt Lake City 2002, and has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1985. The other is the environment. He set up his foundation in 2006, reached the North Pole by dog sled that same year and the South Pole in 2009. It runs in the family, because Albert I, prince from 1889 to 1922, led 28 oceanographic expeditions and founded the Oceanographic Museum.

Charlene and the heirs

Princess Charlene was born on 25 January 1978 in Bulawayo and was an Olympic swimmer at Sydney 2000. She married Albert II in two ceremonies, the civil one on 1 July 2011 in the Throne Room and the religious one on 2 July in the Main Courtyard of the Palace. She chairs her own foundation, set up in December 2012 to fight drowning, and since October 2024 the Monegasque Rugby Federation.

The twins were born on 10 December 2014. Jacques is the hereditary prince and holds the title Marquis of Les Baux, which the Grimaldis received from France in 1641. Gabriella is Countess of Carladès, a title given to the second in line. If you like odd details, in 2025 Monaco issued a €2 coin for each of those titles, 15,000 of each. You will find them in my guide to Monaco euro coins.

How the succession works

The rule is in Article 10 of the Constitution. The throne passes to the reigning prince’s direct and legitimate descendants by order of birth, with males preferred at the same degree of kinship. With no descendants, it passes to his siblings and theirs. That is why Jacques comes first and Gabriella second, even though they are twins.

Beyond those two I have not found an official numbered list, so I am not going to invent one. Following the logic of Article 10, the Prince’s sisters and their children would come next, but no official source I have read publishes the exact order.

Caroline, Stéphanie and what they lead

Albert II’s two sisters have public roles closely tied to the country’s cultural life, and that is the part that matters to a traveller. Caroline, Princess of Hanover, was born in the Palace on 23 January 1957. Since 1982 she has presided over the Princess Grace Foundation, she also leads the Printemps des Arts, and it was she who announced in 1985 the creation of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, a wish of her mother’s.

Stéphanie, born on 1 February 1965, has chaired the committee of the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival, which her father founded, since 2005, and that of the Théâtre Princesse-Grace since 1985. If you travel during the circus festival, whose big top stands in Fontvieille, you are at an event presided over by the family itself. Their mother’s places in Monaco are gathered in my Grace Kelly trail.

Where you notice the family as a visitor

There is no place or time where you are guaranteed to see them, and I would not waste a day waiting at the Palace gate. What you can do is visit the places where the family lives, worships and celebrates.

The first is the Palace itself. The State Apartments are open until 15 October in the 2026 season, for €13, and there you find the Hercules Gallery, from which the sovereign appears to the Monegasques at great moments, and the Throne Room, where Albert and Charlene had their civil wedding. Outside, every day at 11:55, the Carabiniers, whose job is to protect the prince and his family, change the guard in the square. I explain it all in my guide to the Prince’s Palace.

The second is Monaco Cathedral, where the princes lie, Rainier III and Grace among them. The third is the festivals. On 26 January, the eve of Sainte Dévote, the Prince burns a boat in the harbour, and on 19 November, National Day, there is a pontifical Mass in the cathedral. For me those two dates are the most honest way to see the family, doing what a reigning house does rather than posing for anyone.