An official at the Prince’s Palace has poured scorn on the claim that the family of a descendant of Prince Honoré III should have acceded to the throne of the Principality.

Count Louis de Causans has submitted a legal claim for more than 350 million euros against the French state for giving preference to a different line of the family. dismissing his family from the throne of Monaco.

Thomas Fouilleron, director of the archives of the Prince’s Palace said that the claim “makes no sense.” He points out that Prince Albert I used his authority by means of a decree, on November 15, 1911, to recognise the illegitimate daughter of Prince Louis, Charlotte, conferring on her a right of succession in the absence of a legitimate direct male heir of his son. Princess Charlotte renounced her position in 1944 in favour of her own son, Prince Rainier III.

Had Prince Albert I not made this move, it would have been possible for the Urach-Württemberg branch to become the rulers of Monaco at a time when Europe was in great turmoil. Certainly, the French authorities would not countenance German aristocrats at the head of the House of Grimaldi in the years just before the First World War.

Mr Fullerton claims: “It is the sovereign Princes of Monaco who have sovereignly organised their succession.The claim of Louis Causans… is without historical foundation.”