Grimaldi

The House of Grimaldi descends from Grimaldo Canella, a twelfth-century consul of Genoa whose given name became the family surname. The Grimaldi were one of Genoa's four dominant clans and led its Guelph faction; they were repeatedly exiled and took to piracy during exile.

On 8 January 1297 Francesco Grimaldi, called il Malizia, seized the citadel on the Rock of Monaco disguised as a Franciscan friar; the armed monks on the Monegasque arms recall the trick. His cousin Rainier I held the rock until 1301.

The family bought definitive rights over Monaco from Aragon in 1419. Honoré II took the title of sovereign prince in 1612 and later placed the house under French protection. When the male line died with Antonio I in 1731, his son-in-law Jacques de Matignon adopted the Grimaldi name and arms.