Editing Louis II, Prince of Monaco (section)

==Reign==
[[File:Le prince Louis II (1870-1949).jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by [[Philip de László]], 1928]]
On 26 June 1922, Prince Albert I died in Paris.  Louis Grimaldi ascended to the throne as Louis II, Prince of Monaco. While his reign never achieved the grandeur of his father, Louis II left an indelible imprint on the [[principality]]. In 1924 the [[AS Monaco FC|Monaco Football Club]] was formed and in 1929, the first [[Grand Prix of Monaco]] automobile race was held, won by [[William Grover-Williams]], driving a [[Bugatti]] painted in what would become the famous [[British racing green]] color. He collected artefacts belonging to [[Napoleon I]] which are now assembled and displayed in the [[Napoleon Museum (Monaco)|Napoleon Museum]] attached to the [[Prince's Palace of Monaco|Prince's Palace]] in Monte Carlo.

Particularly in the earlier years of Louis's reign, he acquired the reputation for administrative probity: he obtained the departure of [[Camille Blanc]] who had long managed [[Monte Carlo Casino]] yet who faced increasing questions regarding his administration of the casino's affairs.

In 1931 revolutionaries planned to depose Louis II and replace him with [[Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois]], his son-in-law. This was provoked by agitation from the administrator of the [[Monte Carlo Casino]], [[René Léon]], and planned to also dismantle the influence of the casino over the principality. The date was set for 15 April of that year<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 March 1931 |title=Revolution Planned in Monaco April 15 to Depose Louis II |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/03/04/archives/revolution-planned-in-monaco-april-15-to-depose-louis-ii.html |access-date=28 May 2023}}</ref> but never materialised for unknown reasons.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

In 1931, the prestige of Monaco's cultural life received a boost when [[René Blum (ballet)|René Blum]] was hired to form the Ballet de l'Opéra à Monte-Carlo.<ref name="Homans">Homans, Jennifer. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/books/review/book-review-rene-blum-and-the-ballets-russes-by-judith-chazin-bennahum.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 "René Blum: Life of a Dance Master,"] ''New York Times'' (8 July 2011).</ref> Just before the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939, a modern large [[Association football|football]] stadium was built where the [[1939 International University Games|Universiade]] were staged at the newly named "[[Stade Louis II (1939)|Stade Prince Louis II]]".<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |date=22 May 2014 |title=Hélène Pastor- obituary |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10849904/Helene-Pastor-obituary.html |accessdate=16 January 2015}}</ref>

While Louis's sympathies were strongly pro-French, he supported the [[Vichy France]] government of his old army colleague, [[Philippe Pétain|Marshal Pétain]].<ref name="englund">{{cite book |last1=Englund |first1=Steven |title=Grace of Monaco: An Interpretive Biography |date=1984 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=9780385188128 |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2159165.Grace_of_Monaco |access-date=21 February 2022}}</ref> Nonetheless, his principality was beset with domestic conflict partly as a result of Louis's indecisiveness,<ref name="englund" /><ref name=":2" /> partly due to his questionable financial links with the Nazi regime, and also because the majority of the population was of Italian descent and supported the [[Fascism|fascist]] regime of Italy's [[Benito Mussolini]].<ref name=":4" /> Throughout the war, Louis's vacillation caused an enormous rift with his grandson [[Rainier III, Prince of Monaco|Rainier]] (the heir-presumptive to the throne after 1944),<ref name=":0" /> who strongly supported the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].<ref name="englund" />

In 1942, the Italian Army invaded and occupied Monaco. Shortly thereafter, following Mussolini's overthrow in Italy, [[Nazi Germany]] occupied Monaco.<ref name=":2" /> On the night of August 27, 1942, Monaco authorities rounded up 90 [[History of the Jews in Monaco|Jewish residents]] and handed them over to the Nazis; all but nine were murdered in the [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref>{{Cite news |title = Prince Albert apologises for Monaco's role in deporting Jews to Nazi camps |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/28/prince-albert-apologises-for-monacos-role-in-deporting-jews-to-nazi-camps |date=August 28, 2015 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=December 3, 2021 |agency=[[Associated Press]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-monaco-jews-deportation-apology-20150827-story.html |title=More than seven decades later, Monaco apologizes for deporting Jews |date=August 27, 2015 |access-date=December 3, 2021 |first=Carol J. |last=Williams |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref> Among them was René Blum, founder of the Opera, who was murdered in the Nazi [[concentration camp]] [[Auschwitz]].<ref name="Gilbert02">{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYs5OSnsrHwC&q=Blum |title=The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-28145-4 |page=10 |authorlink=Martin Gilbert}}</ref><ref name="Homans" />

For a number of months in 1944, communists participated in the liberation administration of Monaco.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

Following the liberation of Monaco by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]], the 75-year-old Prince Louis did little for his principality and it began to fall into severe neglect.<ref name="englund" /> By 1946, he was spending most of his time in Paris. On 24–27 July of that year,<ref name=":2" /> he married in [[Monaco]] for the first time. His wife was [[Ghislaine Marie Françoise Dommanget|Ghislaine Dommanget]] (13 October 1900 – 30 April 1991)<ref name=":3" /> a French film actress and former wife of actor [[André Brulé]].<ref name="Brulé">{{cite web |last1= |first1= |date=June 1981 |title=L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTFcAAAAMAAJ&q=ghislaine+dommanget+monaco+brule |accessdate=November 16, 2018 |publisher=digitized book accessible - University of Michigan - (March 21, 2008) |page=569 |language=French |quote=''En 1934, elle mit au monde à Nice un enfant, venu d'une liaison avec l'acteur André Brulé : Jean-Gabriel Brulé. Elle rencontra le prince Louis II de Monaco en 1942, à l'occasion d'une représentation de l'Aiglon donnée dans la principauté par la troupe à laquelle elle appartenait alors...''}}</ref> Absent from Monaco during most of the final years of his reign, he and his wife lived at [[Marchais, Aisne|Marchais]], their family estate in northern France.<ref name="englund" />