v25_1343 - MONACO - PRINCIPAUTÉ DE MONACO - HONORÉ III Demi-pezzetta

MONACO - PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO - HONORE III

(1720-1795)

Honoré III (1720-1795) is the eldest son of Jacques I de Guyon-Matignon (1689-1751) and Louise Hyppolite (1697-1731), the niece of Antoine, Prince of Monaco (1661-1731). In three years, the principality which had known only three princes in one hundred and thirty years saw three in succession. The long reign of Honoré III allowed a necessary restoration thanks to the administration of the knight Grimaldi, adulterine son of Antoine Ier who "reigned" during more than fifty years. Unfortunately, at the end of his reign, the principality was annexed by the Revolutionary Convention on February 14, 1793. Honoré was imprisoned, saved by the end of the Terror but he died in 1795. Honoré III had married a wealthy Genoese heiress in 1751, Marie-Catherine de Brignole-Sale, daughter of a doge of Genoa whom he divorced in 1770 and it was his son Honoré IV (1758-1819) who succeeded him, but in 1814.