Why Monaco’s royal family doesn’t have kings or queens

Monaco has so much going for it, from Prince Albert and Princess Charlene ’s adorable family to the latter’s unwavering sartorial prowess, but there is one mystery that reigns where the tiny country is concerned: Why are there no kings or queens? Royal Families in countries like Britain, Sweden and Norway boast the esteemed titles, but Monaco does not. The answer is simple, really, and can be boiled down to history and geography.

Monaco’s size is one major factor. With a population of just 38,000, the Mediterranean nation tended to ally itself with much larger countries for protection, according to Britannica. Thus, Monaco didn’t require its own king or queen because it answered to another nation, and so it was only ruled by a prince or princess.

Princess Charlene and Prince Albert celebrated his 60th birthday with their twins. Photo: © Getty Images

Despite the longevity of Monaco’s royal family, which outlasted many of Europe’s bigger monarchies, the title and tradition remained. And as most royal fans would know, royalty is all about tradition and history. Prince Albert, 42, elaborated on this while appearing on an episode of Larry King Weekend back in 2002: “Well, because Monaco is a principality, Larry, and so therefore the title of prince, which was taken back in the 17 ^th century by Prince Henry the II … made it so that Monaco was recognized as a principality by the king of France.” Larry asked if this means there are princes and not kings, to which Albert responded, “That’s right.”

When it comes to the line of succession for their throne, one would think it would complicate things given the fact that the couple had an adorable set of twins, three-year-old Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques. But Monaco has not been as progressive as Britain, where daughters are now given equal footing to sons in the line of succession. People reported that the country gives priority to boys, so though Jacques is technically two minutes younger than his sister, he is still first in line to the throne after his father.