Evening star., 1923-06-15
New Heir to Throne of Monaco
Born to Crown Princess Charlotte
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

HI THE nAHQCISE DE F0NTES0Y.
Crown Princess Charlotte OF Mon
AGO. whose little daughter Antoinette
is now two years old, has just given
birth to a son and heir, who is to
receive the names of Rainier Louis
Henry. The husband of the crown
princess is the former Count Pierre
De Polignac, youngest son OF Count
Maxence de Polignac. and of his
Mexican wife, now dead. one OF the
heiresses OF the we'll known and
colossally wealthy Mexican family of
Mier. Several OF the numerous sons
fof this union have followed their
fathers example In marrying Mexi-
can heiresses. But Count Pierre. the
youngest OF them. did better for
himself in a monetary sense even
than the others. by securing the
hand of the only child Of the pres
ent sovereign ruler of Monaco. who,
on the occasion Of the wedding, be-
slowed the title OF prince on his SON.
in-law. at the same time insisting
upon his adopting the dynastic name
OF Grimaldi in lieu of his patronymic
of Polignac.
The Crown Princess OF Monaco is
very pretty woman. and has
achieved much popularity in her fu-
ture dominions. more especially since
her influence with her father is said
to be largely responsible for his
emancipation of the principality of
Monaco from the malodorous domi-
nation of old Camille Blanc and his
male and female crew of croupiers
and of vampires of the half world
True the public gambling tables at
Monte Carlo still subsist, and will
continue TO do so. until the reigning
prince can find means of terminating
or annulling. the contract with the
lessees, which would otherwise have
some years to run But the so-called
Casino" as the public gambling es-
tablishment is officially styled, has
come under more decent and honest
management, and the present lessees
who have supplanted Camille Blanc
and the former Radzivill Bonaparte
outfit, is administering the concern
with the utmost care and discretion
realizing that the reigning prince is
only looking for the first mistake on
their part. which would afford him
listing contracts.
The crown princess history is in
the nature of a romance. and sounds
almost like a fairy tale. She was
born at Constantine in Algeria in
1898, where her father, who rose to
the ranks of a general in the French
mere captain of spahis-that is to say
Of French irregular cavalry. The
marriage was ecclesiastical, but not
valid in the eyes of the law, either OF
France Monaco, since the then
crown prince had failed to secure his
parents consent to the union, and
had failed to fulfill other formalities
required by French and Monaco laws.
When the crown prince was trans
Paris, the mother of the child, a
woman Of the most obscure birth and
of little education, put forward pre-
tensions of an intolerable character.
sen.ay and ssonsiaS MS,dh in 1he
prince, who was not on good terms
with his father. was unable to satisfy.
| The woman retaliated by preventing
the child from seeing it's father and
by prejudicing the little girl against
which she held the child was unfortu-
nate in the extreme Finally. when
/ the prince found that his little girl
entire future was at stake, he carried
her off in such a. manner as to cause
the mother to raise an outcry that
the child had been kidnapped. The
matter engaged the attention of the
French courts for some time. with the
|. result that the woman was led to
surrender all claims to the child and
to accept in lieu thereof an allowance
conditional on her making no attempt
TO moIest the prince or the little girl,
and upon her abstaining from any use
of his name and titles, to which she
had no legal right.
X X X *
In the meantime the late Prince Al
hert had developed a great fondness