October 25, 2022 • 31 mins
In 1841, it seemed inevitable that the small, impoverished principality of Monaco would be absorbed by one of its larger neighbors. But the new Princess had an idea, a risky and possibly dangerous idea to save her country: a casino.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised,
Hey guys, this is Danish Swartz, the host of Noble Blood. One.
Thank you so much for listening. But second, this is
a very annoying announcement. But I wrote this book called Anatomy,
(00:21):
a Love Story, which is about a young woman who
wants to be a surgeon in eighteen hundred Scotland. And
I wrote a sequel that is coming out in February.
It's called Immortality, a Love Story. And I think if
you like Noble Blood, you will really like both of
these books. Really, my publishers are telling me that pre
orders are like the most important thing when it comes
(00:41):
to book publishing. So if you are intrigued or interested
at all, it would mean so much to me if
you took a look and possibly pre ordered Immortality. But
you know, just thank you so much for listening to
the show, and sorry to be making a plug back
to our podcast. In eighteen fifty five, a regal woman
(01:09):
summoned her closest adviser to a secret meeting. She was
in her mid sixties, once a self styled countess, in Paris,
but now a real royal of a country in peril.
Her adviser was a French lawyer, and she needed him
to do something for her, make the journey north to
(01:31):
hesse Homberg, a small but sovereign state along the Rhine River,
bring her news of its casino. She was Princess Maria
Caroline of Monaco, usually known as Princess Caroline, not to
be confused with Monaco's current princess of the same name.
It was eighteen fifty five and her tiny country was
(01:55):
not the paradise of millionaires that we know it as today.
In fact, Monico's finances were in dire straits. The casino
at Monte Carlo had not yet even been imagined. The
citrus trade that had kept the Monte Carlo economy propped
up was gone. Princess Caroline's husband, Floriston, had no interest
(02:18):
in running a country. Caroline's son Charles found her pushy
and overbearing, a presumptuous woman meddling in men's affairs. Less
than a hundred years prior Monico had been absorbed by
the neighboring French. There was always a feeling of threat
from the neighboring Sardinians. Monico's future as an independent state
(02:42):
was uncertain, and there in the north of Europe was
bad Home board, a casino making what Princess Caroline assumed
was an immense amount of cash for the state. Her
adviser returned from his reconnaissance mission with gleaming eyes. The
Grand Duke von Hesse Homburg was earning three hundred and
(03:06):
fifty thousand francs per year from his casino. Hundreds of
thousands of tourists flocked to the spa town flanking the
gambling halls. Princess Caroline's mind started spinning. At this time,
there was no home for gambling in all of southern Europe,
no casinos anywhere along the French Riviera. Francois Blanc, the
(03:31):
visionary who operated bad Omberg, could likely be convinced to
venture south. But gambling is a messy business, maybe not
suited for a woman, maybe not suited for a country.
Someday there would be lists of Monte Carlo suicides published
(03:51):
in the papers, reports of people pushed to financial and
moral ruin. There would also be gatherings of the wealthiest
people in the world in their white sun hats and
designer bikinis sunbathing on the Azure coastline. If you think
of Monaco today, maybe you think of that coastline. Maybe
(04:15):
you picture the beautiful American actress Grace Kelly, who became
the principality's most famous princess in nineteen fifty six. Maybe
you envisioned the race car zooming past the docked yachts
at the Monaco Grand Prix. Maybe you know that Monaco
is the second smallest sovereign state on Earth, after Vatican City.
(04:38):
At point eight one square miles, it is a little
more than half the size of New York City's Central Park.
At a little over thirty nine thousand residents, it has
the population of West Fargo, North Dakota, not Fargo, which
is bigger. Certainly you think of the casino Monte Carlo,
(05:03):
arguably the most famous casino in the world. It sits
in a resort town nestled along the French Riviera, surrounded
by France and near the border with Italy. Income from
the casino has made the place a tax haven for millionaires, who,
along with the rest of the Monaco population, pay no
(05:23):
income taxes. Nearly one out of three residents of Monaco
is a millionaire. The thirty three percent, we might say
that means Monaco has over twelve thousand millionaires in less
than one square mile. The poverty rate is zero percent.
(05:43):
Of its thirty nine thousand and change residents, only about
nine thousand are Monogusque, people who are native to Monaco.
In an economy built on gambling, the monogusque are subject
to a strange rule. They are not allowed to enter
the casino at Monte Carlo unless they are an employee.
(06:07):
It is an unusual rule that is part of the
unlikely story of how tiny, vulnerable Monico has managed to
survive as an independent nation century after century. The name
Monte Carlo means Mount Charles, named for the Princess Caroline's son,
(06:29):
but the brains behind the operation were hers, because back
in eighteen Monico was approaching the kind of financial misfortune
that could only mean the risk of losing independence, and
one woman who would have to hide her actions behind
the name of a man, looked into her advisor's eyes
(06:52):
and thought of the desperation of the gambler at the table,
the roulette wheel flashing before him there and thrown on
the table, The despair and alcohol in the open, empty wallets,
and she saw the path to saving her country. I'm
(07:13):
Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. In January, a
man dressed in the brown, humble robe and hood of
(07:35):
a Franciscan monk arrived at the entrance of the Castle
of the Gibeline, a group of genuine who held the
fortress at Monaco. The monk's hands were hidden under his robes,
surely devoutly clasped. The time of year was around the
Christmas season, a welcoming religious spirit was in the air.
(07:56):
The monk was granted admittance, but the was no monk.
The man in the brown robes was Francesco Grimaldi, known
as ill Malitzia mal as in bad, cunning, spiteful also,
it turns out violent. No sooner did these seemingly innocent
(08:18):
monk enter the castle than he revealed that in his
clasped hands was held a dagger. Joined by followers he
had planted in advance, he stabbed his way through the
fortress until he had claimed Monaco for himself, with occasional breaks.
The Grimaldi's have held the country ever since. And this
(08:41):
is a tip for anyone playing trivial pursuit. The Grimaldi's
are the longest reigning royal family centuries later. It was
this line that would produce Honor A the fourth, crowned
Prince of Monaco in eighteen fourteen, who fathered two sons,
first another Honore, and then seven years later Floriston. Both
(09:05):
boys were born in France. Honore the fourth died at
age sixty, officially by drowning in the Seine, but as
he was at least partially paralyzed at the time of
his death, a casual swim in the river seemed unlikely.
Rumors swirled that it was a suicide. His eldest son,
(09:27):
Honore five, took over as prince, while the new prince's
younger brother, Floriston, continued to live in Paris, where he'd
gone to become an actor and wound up marrying a
well off frenchwoman named Maria Caroline Gilbert. Every source I
could find it takes a certain, let's say, tone in
(09:48):
its description of this woman, Maria Caroline, usually known as
Caroline the Kindest source. A contemporary one calls her quote
a striking Mediterranean beauty with a strong personality unquote. The
descriptions at the time were slightly less circumspect about their
(10:08):
views of the gender politics between husband and wife. One
history from eighteen sixty seven writes that quote weak and vacillating,
Floriston allowed himself to fall at once under the dominion
of his wife unquote. Other sources portray her as pushy
and domineering, an over ambitious woman meddling in a man's world.
(10:35):
Who knows how we would view her in the twenty
one century. The image of the overbearing, nagging wife certainly
still persists today. Probably she was rather pushy. Certainly she
was ambitious, But likely she was also a sharp businesswoman
with a somewhat duller husband, and well, somebody had to
(10:59):
figure out how to handle their personal finances. She took
over the logistics of Floriston's life. He had no complaints
about it. They had two children, a son, Charles, followed
by a daughter. They bought a mansion in France, called
themselves the Comte and Comtesse de Grimaldi, and rented a
wing of the house, the spare one you know, with
(11:20):
the ballroom, to a local poet and politician who helped
found the Second Republic of France. In the meantime, back
in Monaco, forever bachelor Honor A five was struggling to
come up with a way to improve Monico's fortunes, anyway
to improve Monico's fortunes. Historian Mark Brede lists Honore's desperate
(11:42):
attempts to lift up the economy of his impoverished country
with a quote lace making factory, a perfumery, a distillery,
a hat making workshop, and a plant for making false
teeth end quote. His failure is at them all came
to an unhappy end on October second, eighteen forty one,
(12:05):
when he died the death of the single person that
Liz lemon feared on thirty Rock. While eating alone, he
choked to death, so his younger brother, Floriston, inherited the
throne of Monaco, having never actually lived in Monaco. Maria
Carolina arranged a golden carriage to bring the family to
(12:28):
their new home so the people could adore them in
the streets. The people, for their part, seemed not to
know what to do with them. Maybe the Grimaldi's weren't
great at ruling. Monico was in serious financial trouble, but
also Monica was still independent, and perhaps this brother would
(12:49):
get his act together On behalf of the state. He didn't.
The eighteen sixty seven History of Monaco describes Floriston as
quote a man utterly unsuited for the task before him.
From education and temperament, he was incapable of governing. He
had resided in Paris, where he lived in complete obscurity
(13:10):
and heedless of the future, till his brother's death called
him to Monaco and placed him in a position necessitating
a life little compatible with his tastes end quote. He
inspired a satirical book published in eighteen seventy four titled
quote the Fall of Prince Floriston of Monaco by himself
(13:32):
end quote the fall of me by me essentially, not
a guy who was taken particularly seriously so behind the scenes,
Princess Caroline took the reins of ruling, and her son
Charles immediately tried to wrest them from her. He wanted
to take over from his father. He took this desire
(13:55):
so far so publicly that in eighteen forty two, Princess
Caroline wrote her son the following letter, I was chosen
by your father to enter one of the highest placed families.
In spite of my sex. I became head of a
family and had to fulfill the obligations attached. You can
(14:16):
imagine that in a very small place where people have
been used to the strong will of one person, they
must have been greatly astonished to see a prince letting
himself be maneuvered, the wife poking her finger into everything,
and a son apparently going his own particular way, and
often lacking in respect and even consideration where they are due.
(14:39):
End quote. The letter continues, warning her son that if
he was in fact saying that he should rule instead
of his father, quote, what you would be saying, in effect,
is I love and respect my mother enough to leave
her some of the authority she seems to like so much,
but only on condition that she leaves me the rest.
(15:00):
Oh no, my young friend, I shall not agree to
a deal like that, Having no rights myself. I'm under
the cover of your father. End quote. Charles left to
go to Turinn, where he failed to gain support to
take over Monaco. In the meantime, whether under Caroline's direction
or Floristin's, the country's fortunes were spiraling downward. In eighteen
(15:25):
forty eight, a secessionist movement succeeded in areas called mentone
and Roccobruna, and Monaco lost four fifths of its territories,
as well as one of its key industries, the citrus trade.
The Palace's income slowed to a trickle. France and Sardinia
(15:46):
seemed to be growing more threatening every day. Quote. I
am an unfortunate little sovereign, said Floristin, crushed between two
big neighbors who only hesitate as to the saw us
with which they will devour me end quote. Monico was small,
now growing ever smaller and vulnerable. And how do you
(16:10):
get out of a position of vulnerability. Well, Princess Caroline
had spent a lot of time controlling the family's finances,
and she had an idea money. Princess Caroline had already
visited hess Hamburg, a spa town near present day Frankfurt.
(16:30):
She had already noted the similarities between that small sovereign
state and her own. She must have passed bob Omberg
the casino. Maybe she heard the joyful shouts of the
winners or the moaning laments of the losers. Surely she
knew one thing. The house always wins, and the house
(16:52):
had to answer to its nobility. If the casino house
could win, in Monaco. She thought, then, so too could
the house grow albi. She dispatched her lawyer and waited
anxiously for his return. Maybe she looked at her son
Charles with a wary eye. Maybe she comforted her husband
with the promise of fine clothes and visits to the
(17:15):
theater once they increased their fortune. Maybe she worried her
lawyer would get caught up in a round of whist himself,
though probably not. He had been loyal to her since
her days running the mansion back in France. The news
he brought back to Monico was what she had expected.
The casino at bad Amberg supported the Grand Duke. The
(17:39):
Grand Duke supported the casino. It was the solution Monico needed,
but it wouldn't be easy or without risk. At the time,
a few casinos could be found in Switzerland, Belgium, Northern Spain,
and a few German speaking territories, but there were none
(17:59):
in other in Europe. In Monico's neighbor Sardinia, games of
chance were illegal. Even if she took her lawyer's advice,
which was to play up the spa town angle and
played down the gambling angle, Floriston could easily be seen
as provoking his more powerful neighbors if he allowed a
(18:21):
casino to open in Monaco. But Floriston was not the
one in charge of such decisions, not really. Princess Caroline
wanted a casino, Floriston signed on. One year later, in
eighteen fifty six, Floriston was dead. His son inherited the
(18:44):
throne he had always believed he deserved more than his father.
In the local tongue, Charles has another name Carlo. Before
Floriston died, he made one last terrible decision that almost
arrailed the future Monte Carlo. He offered the rights for
the spa and casino development to two men, Albert Albert
(19:09):
and Napoleon Lingua, who wound up being con artists. The
two had no money, they had never built or run
a casino, but they were the two who had been
willing to take a risky bet on Monaco. The brains
behind bad Amberg, Francois Blanc had wanted nothing to do
with it. What if Sardinia or France decided to crack down.
(19:33):
No not worth the gamble, So Charles inherited an exclusive
deal with two grifters who promised to build the casino
that was supposed to save the country from an economic quagmire.
Princess Caroline insisted that the gambling hall be far from
her family's palace, so the two broke ground in a
(19:56):
largely abandoned area and opened Monico's first casino on November
eighteen fifty six. The casino was called Vila Bellevue. It
was not arousing success. Villa Bellevue had so little money
that if a patron placed a high bet and one big,
(20:19):
he could have won more money than the house could pay.
The casino's cafe was more planned than reality. It had
a fifteen piece orchestra that quickly ate the budget and
played for virtually no one. They had a telescope so
that dealers could see if anyone was actually coming that day,
at which point they would snuff their cigarettes out and
(20:41):
run back to the roulette wheel or their table and
cross their fingers that no one would win enough to
break the bank. The word casino comes from the Italian casa,
meaning house. A casino is a little house, but Villa
Bellevue was more like a stanza Italian for or stopping place,
(21:02):
more a little room to stop into than a lovely
home to spend a lavish weekend with little poetry or
beauty to be found. The casino changed hands twice quickly,
but no one seemed able to help it. It's not
hard to imagine Princess Caroline's embarrassment and disappointment at the
(21:23):
lackluster little house that was supposed to be her grand
idea to save her country. Luckily for her, bad Omberg
was starting to feel to Francois Blanc like a bad bet.
By the early eighteen sixties, hess Omberg was looking likely
(21:44):
to be absorbed into a unified Germany, which might change
its opinion about the legality and morality of gambling. Blanc
met Caroline's lawyer and the latest owner of the Monico
casino in Paris in a arming little anecdote during which
Blanc claimed he had to stand while the other sat
(22:04):
because he had a boil in an unmentionable location. Weird
power play, but all right. The truth was Blanc couldn't lose.
He'd been the guy Princess Caroline and her lawyer wanted
from the start, and Charles was already on board. Blanc
won the contract in eighteen sixty three, a fifty year
(22:26):
exclusive deal to build up the spa and casino to
support the monogusque with utilities to convey tourists between Niece
and Monico, and to pay Charles and his descendants a
royal kickback for the rest of time. Blanc opened a
new casino and immediately set about making it opulent, grand,
(22:48):
a true luxury resort. On July one, eighteen sixty six,
the final piece of this story was put in place.
Charles re christened the area Courtier de Monte Carlo, Mount
Charles named for himself. Princess Caroline's name was nowhere to
be found in the title of the new casino, but
(23:11):
she had achieved her vision under the name of her
obstinate son, just as she used to work behind her husband,
and so Monte Carlo, the second Charles and Princess Caroline's
life was officially born. Monte Carlo flourished, and with it
(23:32):
the country. Blanc built to train station to connect Monico
to the world and to invite the world's wealth in houses, shops,
and hotels were built and opened faster than anyone could
keep track of them. Potential gamblers had to be dressed
well or they would be turned away at the door.
(23:53):
It was like a thrilling. Exclusive club writers described the
beauty of the casino in glowing herms. Books were published
with titles like Monaco, the Beauty Spot of the Riviera
in two tract that contains descriptions like quote, the splendor
of the concert room too many persons may seem exaggerated
(24:16):
for the abundance of ornamentation, the glare and glitter of
the gold and bronze, The rich reflections of the ruby
velvet hangings are perhaps too dazzling. End quote. The plight
of a once financially imperiled Monaco seemed lifetimes away. The
(24:37):
country was now making money hand over fist. On February eighth,
eighteen sixty nine, Charles abolished income taxes for all citizens
of Monaco. It all seemed like an economic coop, but
the Palace was not insensitive to the potential dark sides
(24:58):
of gambling, the addiction, the ruin, the risk. Charles decreed
that it would be the foreigners who risked their moral
lives in the casino. The Montegusque would be forbidden to
enter the gambling halls except to work there. At first blush,
this seems unfair, It is unfair, but see it another
(25:22):
way too. Here in the United States, we often see
ballot measures in which cities in economic distress want to
open casinos as a way to get revenue. It rarely works.
More often than not, the casino will take money from
their state's own residents, often the poorest, instead of earning
money from outside state borders that they could then keep inside.
(25:46):
Via Charles Decree, Monaco avoided this problem. They would make
money from tourists only the country prospered. All the while,
of course, the question of moral vice lingered. The press
talked in outrage terms about the men and women who
lingered together in the gambling halls. Rumors circulated about old
(26:11):
women having lost it all given fair for a one
way train ride home. Describing this period from the advantage
of the historian Ethel Colburn Maine wrote, quote, I now
enter a region of such wild invective, such unbridled scandal,
(26:31):
that the very ink turns pale to no one is
left a shred of character past present or to come
end quote, perhaps a little dramatic. In eighteen seventy six,
a pamphlet and niece listed Monte Carlo's losers at the
gambling tables who became Monte Carlo's suicides, A pistol bullet
(26:54):
in his heart, a head severed from the trunk by
the train between two tunnels at Monaco. A book in
the pocket of a corpse, inscribed, Monico will be the
destruction of many others end quote. Were these vicious violent
rumors drew? Were they exaggerated by moralists? Probably a little
(27:19):
bit of both. None of the moral problems hampered the
casino's growth and reputation on the world stage. Carl Marks
visited Monte Carlo in eight two. Edward Monk painted it
in two. F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were
frequent visitors. In the nineteen twenties. American actress Grace Kelly
(27:41):
became its most famous princess when she married Princess Carolines
great great great grandson were near the third in nineteen
fifty six. The brains of the operation were gone long
before that. France Sua Blanc died a multi millionaire on
July seventy seven. Princess Caroline outlived him by two years,
(28:07):
dying in eighteen seventy nine, assured that she had done
all she could to set her country and family on
a safe path. For the future. Monico's current coat of
arms is a suit of red diamonds on white, flanked
by two men dressed in friar's robes brandishing swords. The
(28:30):
virtuous with an edge, all a gamble, all a cunning play.
If you squint, the coat of arms looks like a
playing card. As for hess Homburg, the home of bad
Omburg casino, the bet Francois Blanc was willing to take first,
it was absorbed into Germany. Monico remains an independent state.
(29:12):
That's the story of how Princess Maria Caroline of Monaco
had the idea for a casino to save her country,
but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
a little bit more about the legacy of the Blanc
family fortune. Francois Blanc, designer of the modern Monte Carlo,
(29:38):
died with the equivalent of eighty eight million francs to
leave his family. Though the money diminished over time, there
was still a substantial sum left for his granddaughter, Marie Bonaparte,
yes related to that Bonaparte. In nine seven she married
Prince George of Greece and Denmark and became Princess, But
(30:00):
the marriage had a problem. Prince George was almost certainly gay.
Almost two decades into the marriage. Having lived apart from
her husband for the majority of it, Blanc's granddaughter sought
help for her own black luster sexual experiences in the
form of a brand new field psycho analysis. She wound
(30:24):
up on the couch of a very famous Jewish psychoanalyst,
one who would ultimately need a ransom page to the
Nazis in order to escape. Maria Bonaparte used some of
the fortune that she had inherited from the founding of
Monte Carlo to pay that ransom and save the life
(30:46):
of her psychoanalyst, Siegmund Freud. Noble Blood is a production
(31:09):
of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wartz. Additional writing
and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward,
Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by
rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive
(31:30):
producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised,
Hey guys, this is Danish Swartz, the host of Noble Blood. One.
Thank you so much for listening. But second, this is
a very annoying announcement. But I wrote this book called Anatomy,
(00:21):
a Love Story, which is about a young woman who
wants to be a surgeon in eighteen hundred Scotland. And
I wrote a sequel that is coming out in February.
It's called Immortality, a Love Story. And I think if
you like Noble Blood, you will really like both of
these books. Really, my publishers are telling me that pre
orders are like the most important thing when it comes
(00:41):
to book publishing. So if you are intrigued or interested
at all, it would mean so much to me if
you took a look and possibly pre ordered Immortality. But
you know, just thank you so much for listening to
the show, and sorry to be making a plug back
to our podcast. In eighteen fifty five, a regal woman
(01:09):
summoned her closest adviser to a secret meeting. She was
in her mid sixties, once a self styled countess, in Paris,
but now a real royal of a country in peril.
Her adviser was a French lawyer, and she needed him
to do something for her, make the journey north to
(01:31):
hesse Homberg, a small but sovereign state along the Rhine River,
bring her news of its casino. She was Princess Maria
Caroline of Monaco, usually known as Princess Caroline, not to
be confused with Monaco's current princess of the same name.
It was eighteen fifty five and her tiny country was
(01:55):
not the paradise of millionaires that we know it as today.
In fact, Monico's finances were in dire straits. The casino
at Monte Carlo had not yet even been imagined. The
citrus trade that had kept the Monte Carlo economy propped
up was gone. Princess Caroline's husband, Floriston, had no interest
(02:18):
in running a country. Caroline's son Charles found her pushy
and overbearing, a presumptuous woman meddling in men's affairs. Less
than a hundred years prior Monico had been absorbed by
the neighboring French. There was always a feeling of threat
from the neighboring Sardinians. Monico's future as an independent state
(02:42):
was uncertain, and there in the north of Europe was
bad Home board, a casino making what Princess Caroline assumed
was an immense amount of cash for the state. Her
adviser returned from his reconnaissance mission with gleaming eyes. The
Grand Duke von Hesse Homburg was earning three hundred and
(03:06):
fifty thousand francs per year from his casino. Hundreds of
thousands of tourists flocked to the spa town flanking the
gambling halls. Princess Caroline's mind started spinning. At this time,
there was no home for gambling in all of southern Europe,
no casinos anywhere along the French Riviera. Francois Blanc, the
(03:31):
visionary who operated bad Omberg, could likely be convinced to
venture south. But gambling is a messy business, maybe not
suited for a woman, maybe not suited for a country.
Someday there would be lists of Monte Carlo suicides published
(03:51):
in the papers, reports of people pushed to financial and
moral ruin. There would also be gatherings of the wealthiest
people in the world in their white sun hats and
designer bikinis sunbathing on the Azure coastline. If you think
of Monaco today, maybe you think of that coastline. Maybe
(04:15):
you picture the beautiful American actress Grace Kelly, who became
the principality's most famous princess in nineteen fifty six. Maybe
you envisioned the race car zooming past the docked yachts
at the Monaco Grand Prix. Maybe you know that Monaco
is the second smallest sovereign state on Earth, after Vatican City.
(04:38):
At point eight one square miles, it is a little
more than half the size of New York City's Central Park.
At a little over thirty nine thousand residents, it has
the population of West Fargo, North Dakota, not Fargo, which
is bigger. Certainly you think of the casino Monte Carlo,
(05:03):
arguably the most famous casino in the world. It sits
in a resort town nestled along the French Riviera, surrounded
by France and near the border with Italy. Income from
the casino has made the place a tax haven for millionaires, who,
along with the rest of the Monaco population, pay no
(05:23):
income taxes. Nearly one out of three residents of Monaco
is a millionaire. The thirty three percent, we might say
that means Monaco has over twelve thousand millionaires in less
than one square mile. The poverty rate is zero percent.
(05:43):
Of its thirty nine thousand and change residents, only about
nine thousand are Monogusque, people who are native to Monaco.
In an economy built on gambling, the monogusque are subject
to a strange rule. They are not allowed to enter
the casino at Monte Carlo unless they are an employee.
(06:07):
It is an unusual rule that is part of the
unlikely story of how tiny, vulnerable Monico has managed to
survive as an independent nation century after century. The name
Monte Carlo means Mount Charles, named for the Princess Caroline's son,
(06:29):
but the brains behind the operation were hers, because back
in eighteen Monico was approaching the kind of financial misfortune
that could only mean the risk of losing independence, and
one woman who would have to hide her actions behind
the name of a man, looked into her advisor's eyes
(06:52):
and thought of the desperation of the gambler at the table,
the roulette wheel flashing before him there and thrown on
the table, The despair and alcohol in the open, empty wallets,
and she saw the path to saving her country. I'm
(07:13):
Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. In January, a
man dressed in the brown, humble robe and hood of
(07:35):
a Franciscan monk arrived at the entrance of the Castle
of the Gibeline, a group of genuine who held the
fortress at Monaco. The monk's hands were hidden under his robes,
surely devoutly clasped. The time of year was around the
Christmas season, a welcoming religious spirit was in the air.
(07:56):
The monk was granted admittance, but the was no monk.
The man in the brown robes was Francesco Grimaldi, known
as ill Malitzia mal as in bad, cunning, spiteful also,
it turns out violent. No sooner did these seemingly innocent
(08:18):
monk enter the castle than he revealed that in his
clasped hands was held a dagger. Joined by followers he
had planted in advance, he stabbed his way through the
fortress until he had claimed Monaco for himself, with occasional breaks.
The Grimaldi's have held the country ever since. And this
(08:41):
is a tip for anyone playing trivial pursuit. The Grimaldi's
are the longest reigning royal family centuries later. It was
this line that would produce Honor A the fourth, crowned
Prince of Monaco in eighteen fourteen, who fathered two sons,
first another Honore, and then seven years later Floriston. Both
(09:05):
boys were born in France. Honore the fourth died at
age sixty, officially by drowning in the Seine, but as
he was at least partially paralyzed at the time of
his death, a casual swim in the river seemed unlikely.
Rumors swirled that it was a suicide. His eldest son,
(09:27):
Honore five, took over as prince, while the new prince's
younger brother, Floriston, continued to live in Paris, where he'd
gone to become an actor and wound up marrying a
well off frenchwoman named Maria Caroline Gilbert. Every source I
could find it takes a certain, let's say, tone in
(09:48):
its description of this woman, Maria Caroline, usually known as
Caroline the Kindest source. A contemporary one calls her quote
a striking Mediterranean beauty with a strong personality unquote. The
descriptions at the time were slightly less circumspect about their
(10:08):
views of the gender politics between husband and wife. One
history from eighteen sixty seven writes that quote weak and vacillating,
Floriston allowed himself to fall at once under the dominion
of his wife unquote. Other sources portray her as pushy
and domineering, an over ambitious woman meddling in a man's world.
(10:35):
Who knows how we would view her in the twenty
one century. The image of the overbearing, nagging wife certainly
still persists today. Probably she was rather pushy. Certainly she
was ambitious, But likely she was also a sharp businesswoman
with a somewhat duller husband, and well, somebody had to
(10:59):
figure out how to handle their personal finances. She took
over the logistics of Floriston's life. He had no complaints
about it. They had two children, a son, Charles, followed
by a daughter. They bought a mansion in France, called
themselves the Comte and Comtesse de Grimaldi, and rented a
wing of the house, the spare one you know, with
(11:20):
the ballroom, to a local poet and politician who helped
found the Second Republic of France. In the meantime, back
in Monaco, forever bachelor Honor A five was struggling to
come up with a way to improve Monico's fortunes, anyway
to improve Monico's fortunes. Historian Mark Brede lists Honore's desperate
(11:42):
attempts to lift up the economy of his impoverished country
with a quote lace making factory, a perfumery, a distillery,
a hat making workshop, and a plant for making false
teeth end quote. His failure is at them all came
to an unhappy end on October second, eighteen forty one,
(12:05):
when he died the death of the single person that
Liz lemon feared on thirty Rock. While eating alone, he
choked to death, so his younger brother, Floriston, inherited the
throne of Monaco, having never actually lived in Monaco. Maria
Carolina arranged a golden carriage to bring the family to
(12:28):
their new home so the people could adore them in
the streets. The people, for their part, seemed not to
know what to do with them. Maybe the Grimaldi's weren't
great at ruling. Monico was in serious financial trouble, but
also Monica was still independent, and perhaps this brother would
(12:49):
get his act together On behalf of the state. He didn't.
The eighteen sixty seven History of Monaco describes Floriston as
quote a man utterly unsuited for the task before him.
From education and temperament, he was incapable of governing. He
had resided in Paris, where he lived in complete obscurity
(13:10):
and heedless of the future, till his brother's death called
him to Monaco and placed him in a position necessitating
a life little compatible with his tastes end quote. He
inspired a satirical book published in eighteen seventy four titled
quote the Fall of Prince Floriston of Monaco by himself
(13:32):
end quote the fall of me by me essentially, not
a guy who was taken particularly seriously so behind the scenes,
Princess Caroline took the reins of ruling, and her son
Charles immediately tried to wrest them from her. He wanted
to take over from his father. He took this desire
(13:55):
so far so publicly that in eighteen forty two, Princess
Caroline wrote her son the following letter, I was chosen
by your father to enter one of the highest placed families.
In spite of my sex. I became head of a
family and had to fulfill the obligations attached. You can
(14:16):
imagine that in a very small place where people have
been used to the strong will of one person, they
must have been greatly astonished to see a prince letting
himself be maneuvered, the wife poking her finger into everything,
and a son apparently going his own particular way, and
often lacking in respect and even consideration where they are due.
(14:39):
End quote. The letter continues, warning her son that if
he was in fact saying that he should rule instead
of his father, quote, what you would be saying, in effect,
is I love and respect my mother enough to leave
her some of the authority she seems to like so much,
but only on condition that she leaves me the rest.
(15:00):
Oh no, my young friend, I shall not agree to
a deal like that, Having no rights myself. I'm under
the cover of your father. End quote. Charles left to
go to Turinn, where he failed to gain support to
take over Monaco. In the meantime, whether under Caroline's direction
or Floristin's, the country's fortunes were spiraling downward. In eighteen
(15:25):
forty eight, a secessionist movement succeeded in areas called mentone
and Roccobruna, and Monaco lost four fifths of its territories,
as well as one of its key industries, the citrus trade.
The Palace's income slowed to a trickle. France and Sardinia
(15:46):
seemed to be growing more threatening every day. Quote. I
am an unfortunate little sovereign, said Floristin, crushed between two
big neighbors who only hesitate as to the saw us
with which they will devour me end quote. Monico was small,
now growing ever smaller and vulnerable. And how do you
(16:10):
get out of a position of vulnerability. Well, Princess Caroline
had spent a lot of time controlling the family's finances,
and she had an idea money. Princess Caroline had already
visited hess Hamburg, a spa town near present day Frankfurt.
(16:30):
She had already noted the similarities between that small sovereign
state and her own. She must have passed bob Omberg
the casino. Maybe she heard the joyful shouts of the
winners or the moaning laments of the losers. Surely she
knew one thing. The house always wins, and the house
(16:52):
had to answer to its nobility. If the casino house
could win, in Monaco. She thought, then, so too could
the house grow albi. She dispatched her lawyer and waited
anxiously for his return. Maybe she looked at her son
Charles with a wary eye. Maybe she comforted her husband
with the promise of fine clothes and visits to the
(17:15):
theater once they increased their fortune. Maybe she worried her
lawyer would get caught up in a round of whist himself,
though probably not. He had been loyal to her since
her days running the mansion back in France. The news
he brought back to Monico was what she had expected.
The casino at bad Amberg supported the Grand Duke. The
(17:39):
Grand Duke supported the casino. It was the solution Monico needed,
but it wouldn't be easy or without risk. At the time,
a few casinos could be found in Switzerland, Belgium, Northern Spain,
and a few German speaking territories, but there were none
(17:59):
in other in Europe. In Monico's neighbor Sardinia, games of
chance were illegal. Even if she took her lawyer's advice,
which was to play up the spa town angle and
played down the gambling angle, Floriston could easily be seen
as provoking his more powerful neighbors if he allowed a
(18:21):
casino to open in Monaco. But Floriston was not the
one in charge of such decisions, not really. Princess Caroline
wanted a casino, Floriston signed on. One year later, in
eighteen fifty six, Floriston was dead. His son inherited the
(18:44):
throne he had always believed he deserved more than his father.
In the local tongue, Charles has another name Carlo. Before
Floriston died, he made one last terrible decision that almost
arrailed the future Monte Carlo. He offered the rights for
the spa and casino development to two men, Albert Albert
(19:09):
and Napoleon Lingua, who wound up being con artists. The
two had no money, they had never built or run
a casino, but they were the two who had been
willing to take a risky bet on Monaco. The brains
behind bad Amberg, Francois Blanc had wanted nothing to do
with it. What if Sardinia or France decided to crack down.
(19:33):
No not worth the gamble, So Charles inherited an exclusive
deal with two grifters who promised to build the casino
that was supposed to save the country from an economic quagmire.
Princess Caroline insisted that the gambling hall be far from
her family's palace, so the two broke ground in a
(19:56):
largely abandoned area and opened Monico's first casino on November
eighteen fifty six. The casino was called Vila Bellevue. It
was not arousing success. Villa Bellevue had so little money
that if a patron placed a high bet and one big,
(20:19):
he could have won more money than the house could pay.
The casino's cafe was more planned than reality. It had
a fifteen piece orchestra that quickly ate the budget and
played for virtually no one. They had a telescope so
that dealers could see if anyone was actually coming that day,
at which point they would snuff their cigarettes out and
(20:41):
run back to the roulette wheel or their table and
cross their fingers that no one would win enough to
break the bank. The word casino comes from the Italian casa,
meaning house. A casino is a little house, but Villa
Bellevue was more like a stanza Italian for or stopping place,
(21:02):
more a little room to stop into than a lovely
home to spend a lavish weekend with little poetry or
beauty to be found. The casino changed hands twice quickly,
but no one seemed able to help it. It's not
hard to imagine Princess Caroline's embarrassment and disappointment at the
(21:23):
lackluster little house that was supposed to be her grand
idea to save her country. Luckily for her, bad Omberg
was starting to feel to Francois Blanc like a bad bet.
By the early eighteen sixties, hess Omberg was looking likely
(21:44):
to be absorbed into a unified Germany, which might change
its opinion about the legality and morality of gambling. Blanc
met Caroline's lawyer and the latest owner of the Monico
casino in Paris in a arming little anecdote during which
Blanc claimed he had to stand while the other sat
(22:04):
because he had a boil in an unmentionable location. Weird
power play, but all right. The truth was Blanc couldn't lose.
He'd been the guy Princess Caroline and her lawyer wanted
from the start, and Charles was already on board. Blanc
won the contract in eighteen sixty three, a fifty year
(22:26):
exclusive deal to build up the spa and casino to
support the monogusque with utilities to convey tourists between Niece
and Monico, and to pay Charles and his descendants a
royal kickback for the rest of time. Blanc opened a
new casino and immediately set about making it opulent, grand,
(22:48):
a true luxury resort. On July one, eighteen sixty six,
the final piece of this story was put in place.
Charles re christened the area Courtier de Monte Carlo, Mount
Charles named for himself. Princess Caroline's name was nowhere to
be found in the title of the new casino, but
(23:11):
she had achieved her vision under the name of her
obstinate son, just as she used to work behind her husband,
and so Monte Carlo, the second Charles and Princess Caroline's
life was officially born. Monte Carlo flourished, and with it
(23:32):
the country. Blanc built to train station to connect Monico
to the world and to invite the world's wealth in houses, shops,
and hotels were built and opened faster than anyone could
keep track of them. Potential gamblers had to be dressed
well or they would be turned away at the door.
(23:53):
It was like a thrilling. Exclusive club writers described the
beauty of the casino in glowing herms. Books were published
with titles like Monaco, the Beauty Spot of the Riviera
in two tract that contains descriptions like quote, the splendor
of the concert room too many persons may seem exaggerated
(24:16):
for the abundance of ornamentation, the glare and glitter of
the gold and bronze, The rich reflections of the ruby
velvet hangings are perhaps too dazzling. End quote. The plight
of a once financially imperiled Monaco seemed lifetimes away. The
(24:37):
country was now making money hand over fist. On February eighth,
eighteen sixty nine, Charles abolished income taxes for all citizens
of Monaco. It all seemed like an economic coop, but
the Palace was not insensitive to the potential dark sides
(24:58):
of gambling, the addiction, the ruin, the risk. Charles decreed
that it would be the foreigners who risked their moral
lives in the casino. The Montegusque would be forbidden to
enter the gambling halls except to work there. At first blush,
this seems unfair, It is unfair, but see it another
(25:22):
way too. Here in the United States, we often see
ballot measures in which cities in economic distress want to
open casinos as a way to get revenue. It rarely works.
More often than not, the casino will take money from
their state's own residents, often the poorest, instead of earning
money from outside state borders that they could then keep inside.
(25:46):
Via Charles Decree, Monaco avoided this problem. They would make
money from tourists only the country prospered. All the while,
of course, the question of moral vice lingered. The press
talked in outrage terms about the men and women who
lingered together in the gambling halls. Rumors circulated about old
(26:11):
women having lost it all given fair for a one
way train ride home. Describing this period from the advantage
of the historian Ethel Colburn Maine wrote, quote, I now
enter a region of such wild invective, such unbridled scandal,
(26:31):
that the very ink turns pale to no one is
left a shred of character past present or to come
end quote, perhaps a little dramatic. In eighteen seventy six,
a pamphlet and niece listed Monte Carlo's losers at the
gambling tables who became Monte Carlo's suicides, A pistol bullet
(26:54):
in his heart, a head severed from the trunk by
the train between two tunnels at Monaco. A book in
the pocket of a corpse, inscribed, Monico will be the
destruction of many others end quote. Were these vicious violent
rumors drew? Were they exaggerated by moralists? Probably a little
(27:19):
bit of both. None of the moral problems hampered the
casino's growth and reputation on the world stage. Carl Marks
visited Monte Carlo in eight two. Edward Monk painted it
in two. F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were
frequent visitors. In the nineteen twenties. American actress Grace Kelly
(27:41):
became its most famous princess when she married Princess Carolines
great great great grandson were near the third in nineteen
fifty six. The brains of the operation were gone long
before that. France Sua Blanc died a multi millionaire on
July seventy seven. Princess Caroline outlived him by two years,
(28:07):
dying in eighteen seventy nine, assured that she had done
all she could to set her country and family on
a safe path. For the future. Monico's current coat of
arms is a suit of red diamonds on white, flanked
by two men dressed in friar's robes brandishing swords. The
(28:30):
virtuous with an edge, all a gamble, all a cunning play.
If you squint, the coat of arms looks like a
playing card. As for hess Homburg, the home of bad
Omburg casino, the bet Francois Blanc was willing to take first,
it was absorbed into Germany. Monico remains an independent state.
(29:12):
That's the story of how Princess Maria Caroline of Monaco
had the idea for a casino to save her country,
but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
a little bit more about the legacy of the Blanc
family fortune. Francois Blanc, designer of the modern Monte Carlo,
(29:38):
died with the equivalent of eighty eight million francs to
leave his family. Though the money diminished over time, there
was still a substantial sum left for his granddaughter, Marie Bonaparte,
yes related to that Bonaparte. In nine seven she married
Prince George of Greece and Denmark and became Princess, But
(30:00):
the marriage had a problem. Prince George was almost certainly gay.
Almost two decades into the marriage. Having lived apart from
her husband for the majority of it, Blanc's granddaughter sought
help for her own black luster sexual experiences in the
form of a brand new field psycho analysis. She wound
(30:24):
up on the couch of a very famous Jewish psychoanalyst,
one who would ultimately need a ransom page to the
Nazis in order to escape. Maria Bonaparte used some of
the fortune that she had inherited from the founding of
Monte Carlo to pay that ransom and save the life
(30:46):
of her psychoanalyst, Siegmund Freud. Noble Blood is a production
(31:09):
of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wartz. Additional writing
and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward,
Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by
rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive
(31:30):
producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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