Historical Overview

The counts Grimaldi of Puget descend from Grimaldo, a Genoese statesman who lived at the time of the first Crusades, through a legitimate male line of over 25 generations. This old lineage collateral of the branch of Antibes has been associated with the picturesque town of Puget-Théniers (also Pogetto and Poggetto) in Provence since the early 1700s. It also bore the titles of lord of Costilliole of Saluces and count of Meyronnes and Larche.

Their epic started in Genoa, where the Grimaldi family appeared during an agitated page of medieval history made up of Crusades, wars, and plague epidemics as well as an explosive development of maritime trade in the hands of the Genoese.

Although the Republic of Genoa emerged from the plague of 1348 considerably weakened, its political infighting between Guelfs and Ghibellines had endured and turned against Admiral Anthony Grimaldi in the summer of 1353. As commander of the Genoese fleet, Anthony Grimaldi had indeed faced a considerable defeat from his Venetian and Catalan enemies, united in one overpowering fleet off the shore of Sardinia. In a moment of intense emotion for the Republic, Anthony was asked to leave his homeland in exile.

His sons, Luc and Marc, had grown up in Provence where they followed their father's steps by putting their sword and army to the service of the Angevin Crown. The two brothers were also active investors in the region, notably in Menton and Cagnes (1371), and received Antibes as collateral for a loan to pope Clement VII. As the pope could not reimburse his debt, the brothers took possession of Antibes in 1384.

Luc's grand-children, Gaspard and Lambert, lords of Antibes and Cagnes, were as restless as their ancestors. Lambert married his cousin Claudia of Monaco (1465), and even before the wedding, rushed to the defense of Monaco with his brothers.

Silvestre-Anthony, a son of Gaspard, campaigned in Italy in the wars between Francis I of France and archrival Emperor Charles V of Spain. It is during this troubled period that a collateral branch settled down in Busca, a charming town in Piedmont near Cuneo and Nice. It remained their bastion for nearly five centuries.

Between the medieval and modern ages, Piedmont had become the theater of some extreme turmoil: the successive invasions by Charles V of Spain and Francis I of France; the relocation of Savoy's capital to Turin (1563); the plague again, which devastated Busca and severely reduced the region's population between 1628 and 1632; Cardinal Richelieu's army invasion of Savoy (1630); and again successive wars that raged over this border region between France and the Spanish Empire until the mid-18th century.

It is in this context that count Nicolas Grimaldi (1633-1721), of Busca, acquired the fiefdom of Puget (1704). This charming town of Provence, which sits on the Var river near Nice, is known today as Puget-Théniers. It had already been under the protection of the Grimaldis in the late Middle Age, when the branch of Boglio ruled over the entire region. Not surprisingly in a border region that was regularly invaded, the branch of Puget produced a long line of officers.

The Grimaldis of Puget were to contribute their progressive views to the liberal movement of Enlightenment in a fashion that was generally more sword than robe. Under Napoleon, Louis Grimaldi of Puget served in the Campaign of Russia. In Turin, Philip was put in charge of the education of the future king, Charles-Albert (1798-1849), to provide the prince with the knowledge, discipline, and even-handedness that his duties would call for. Soon, the Grimaldis would again be called to serve with their sword, this time in the revolutionary campaigns for the independence of Italy, known as the Risorgimento. Stanislas Grimaldi of Puget (1825-1903), who had served in the cavalry, captured for posterity the most dramatic moments of those campaigns in his abundant artworks.

From Rome, the impetuous officer of cavalry Eustache Grimaldi of Puget took the road of exile after the unsuccessful campaign of 1848 and the collapse of the young Republic of Rome, under a barrage of French artillery. Eustache and the triumvir Armellini (1777-1863) headed for Brussels, following the path to exile that Mazzini had once beaten a few years earlier. Both Charles Armellini and Eustache Grimaldi died in Belgium. Whereas Eustache was the youngest of fifteen children, he is the only one among them to have had a lineage to pass along his illustrious patronymic name.