Honoré V

Illnesses resulting from his imprisonment incapacitated Honoré IV in his later years, and following the re-establishment of the Principality in 1814, a regency was established to rule in Honoré's name. This regency was directed, first, by his brother Joseph Grimaldi, then from 1815 by his son, the Hereditary Prince Honoré, who succeeded him in 1819 as Sovereign Prince Honoré V.[1]

A professor of the period, one Victor de la Canorgue, wrote of Prince Honoré in negative terms: extravagant and fond of luxuries for himself, but miserly for others, even his own family, to whom he gave "pensions disproportionate to his means."[2] This professor endeavored to collect accounts of the reigns of Honoré V and of his brother/successor, Prince Florestan, and to translate them from Italian to French, for the purpose of better understanding the causes of the ever-increasing anti-monarchist movements, especially in former parts of the Principality like Menton and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. One ordinance, dated from 1815, suggested that Prince Honoré V was not only miserly but greedy, that he brought even "the benches of the parish church, which some persons had built at their own expense,"[2] under his control, for his own profit.

Gustave Saige describes him as a loner who did not trust anyone, let alone his brother, to help him govern. He was invisible to the public.[3] For a monarch to be invisible to an increasingly restless public was an unfortunate circumstance, to say the least. In fairness, his focus had to be the crippled economy of Monaco. He raised taxes and tried to restore the tobacco plant his grandfather Honoré III had founded but which had been closed by the government of Turin.[4] He earnestly endeavored to open factories and initiate citrus farm cooperatives in order put people to work, generate production, and alleviate poverty. However, none of his efforts raised his popularity, as his measures were seen by the people as autocratic.[4]

Honoré V never married. He had a son, with his mistress Félicité de Gamaches, Louis Gabriel Oscar Grimaldi, born in Paris on 9 June 1814 and died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 15 July 1894.[5][6][7] Honoré's son was legitimized,[7] but the throne nevertheless passed to Honoré's brother, Florestan.