Monday, April 30, 2012

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Famous Royal Curses
According to legend, the family ruling Monaco will never be truly happy in marriage. A 13th century curse was laid upon them by a young girl who had been viciously raped by the first Prince Rainier. She had been so utterly devastated by this brutal violation of her person,that she publicly cursed Christianity and laid upon the house of Grimaldi a terrible cure which she swore by the dark powers, would be visited the grimaldi family for ever. Looking at the strange string of sinister mishaps and events which have plagued the family for generations during the past 700 years of it's existence, one cannot but wonder whether there could indeed be more to it, than just a few coincidences. Since Princess Grace was killed in a somewhat controversial car crash in which Princess Stephanie alighted from the mangled wreck as the only survivor, a fact that set many a speculating tongue wagging. There were rumors going around that Stephanie was driving the sports car when it careered out of control and crashed, and that since she had no valid driving permit, she swapped places with the dead Princess Grace, placing her at the wheel. Stephanie vehemently denied this. At the funeral of Prince Rainier iii, in 2005, where his body was laid to rest beside her, it was widely being reported, that long before her tragic death, their marriage had deteriorated badly. Soon after this, Princess Stephanie married her bodyguard and had two children with him, she soon divorced him after finding out that he had been having an affair with a model. In another relationship with yet another bodyguard which went horribly wrong, a third child was born, a daughter named Camille. Since the breakup with Camille's father, she had several other boyfriends, one of which resulted in yet another marriage albeit a very brief one which also ended in divorce. Next followed Princess Caroline's marriage to well known playboy, Phillipe Junot, which took place in spite of the protestations from her parents on the grounds that she was only 19 years old at the time. This wedding lasted barely two years before ending in yet another divorce in the Grimaldi household. She had tried to have the marriage annulled, but the Catholic church refused to grant it's permission. A few years later, Princess Caroline married again, this time to Stefano Casiraghi. Just as the world was thinking that at long last, she had indeed found her soul-mate, and also some much needed happiness, Casiraghi died at 30 in a freak speedboat accident, turning Caroline into an instant widow with three young children. She had gone from a wild child to a welfare mom and living for two years with a Circus elephant trainer in a caravan. She married yet again, after discovering that she was pregnant, this time to a direct descendant of King George iii of England. Except for an incident in 1297, when a notorious pirate,by the name of Francois the Spiteful broached the Palace gates with an act of trickery, when disguised as a monk, he was set on taking over this coastal territory with its towering rocky coastline and the sheltered Port of Hercules in 1297. The Grimaldis have remained in control of Monaco ever since, having had only brief interruptions in rule from political struggles between the larger surrounding countries. The Grimaldi family owe their survival to various overlords, sometimes sheltering with France, and at other times, with Italy, or just about anyone available, on the winning side of a battle the Grimaldi's have managed to hold onto their tiny kingdom ever since. Back in the 19th century, the Grimaldi's had fallen on hard times and were considering a 100 year lease agreement with the Russians when Italy and France pressured them into coming up with a less hazardous money-making scheme. They then struck on the idea of gambling, and have not looked back since. Not everyone condoned their financial survival tactics and it was well documented, that Whenever Queen Victoria passed by there, on her way to France, she ordered the curtains of her horse-drawn carriage to be drawn closed until they were well clear of the tiny monarchy.It was recently widely speculated, that such was the success of their prime industry, gambling, and tax-free laws, that the Grimaldi's are considered richer than the Windsor's. LINK TO: http://www.wikinut.com/in/togkk/