450th Anniversary of the Recognition Of the Sovereignty Of Monaco 6.6.1962

This FDC and the three commemorative stamps on it were issued to celebrate the 450^th Anniversary of the Recognition Of the Sovereignty Of Monaco by Louis XII. This outstanding cover was given to me by my dear friend Maria. The first stamp on the left, pictures the same people as on the FDC i.e. Louis XII King of France at this time and Lucien Grimault (or Grimaldi) the ruler of Monaco at this time. The stamp in the middle, pictures the treaty between both the rulers, and the last stamp

pictures the seals of King Louis XII and Lucien Grimaldi.

The postmark pictures the prince palace of Monaco where all the rulers of Monaco have lived. I believe that the actual prince of Monaco is also from the Grimaldi family!

Lucien (1487 – 22 August 1523) became Lord of Monaco on 11 October 1505, having murdered his predecessor and brother, Jean II, and held that sovereignty until his death. He was the third son of Lambert Grimaldi (1420–1494) and Claudine Grimaldi (1451–1515). His elder brother Louis was disinherited due to insanity. On 25 September 1514 he married Jeanne de Pontevès-Cabanes. The couple had at least five children. A year after Lucien's reign began, Genoa broke free of France, and many of its people fled to Monaco for refuge. In December 1506, 14,000 Genoese troops besieged Monaco and its castle. The blockade lasted for five months, until Lucien was able to route the Genoese in March 1507. Monaco, and by extension Lucien, was now in a tight spot, being subjects of France but caught in a diplomatic tight spot between France and Spain, trying to preserve its fragile independence. In 1515, Lucien bought the feudal rights over the city of Mentone, retained by the family of Anne de Lascaris, Countess of Villars, thus bringing the city, as a whole, under Monaco's sovereignty until the French Revolution.On 22 August 1523, Lucien was assassinated by his nephew, Bartholomew Doria of Dolceaqua, son of Lucien's sister Francoise Doria, at the Prince's Palace of Monaco. His body was dragged down the steps of the palace by Doria's men, to be shown to the disbelieving masses, thus inciting a riot wherein the people of Monaco chased Doria and his men out of the country. Andrea Doria, the famous admiral and a cousin to Bartholomew, is believed have had prior knowledge of the assassination. The full extent of his compliance in this event is speculation, stemming from his being in the Port of Hercules with his squadron of ships on the day of the assassination and his having received a message from Bartholomew that was sent out of the palace just moments before Bartholomew carried out the assassination. The message was believed to have been a ruse to get rid of Lucien's major domo and twelve or fourteen of Lucien's armed men, leaving Lucien alone in the company of his nephew, but for one slave.