Actually that is what the first ruling prince of Monaco did. Trick the
occupants into letting him into the castle where he then took control,
and pronounced  Monaco an independent principality. However, he was of
royal descent from an extinct kingdom before that - since birth,
obviously - unrelated to his conquest.

The reason he was left be was mainly because there was no particular
interest from the neighbours in the rock he took over, and mustering a
mercenary army to dislodge someone from a rock of no strategic or
commercial value (at the time) made little sense. Once France was
consolidated, there was no reason for them to capture Monacco, because
the effort and costs involved still didn't warrant the effort.

Essentially, the principality only became a fixture in the public mind
when Ranier married Grace Kelly and sold off the media rights to the
wedding. A PR coup that was mainly meant to promo the Casino, the
principalities primary source of revenue, and that worked beautifully.

Liechtenstein on the other hand had strategic value and political
pedigree. A fortification that could be occupied by troops of the Holy
Roman Empire to keep the Swiss at bay, if they were to become too
adventurerous, while also being "in the flank" of the strengthening
Habsburg clan.

In the end, perspective is important in these scenarios. Having a
castle sitting near the pass of a cruicial (lucrative) trading route,
ensures that the inhabitants in the vincinity of hundreds of miles
behave themselves. After all, it usually took 10-50 years to build a
solid castle, cost a fortune, and was designed to hold out for long
enough until relief forces arrives, or the attackers ran out of cash
to pay their mercenaries from.

Liechtenstein enabled the Emperor to abandon pretty much all castles
inside Switzerland and withdraw from what was then an unprofitable
province (by the way, if there are any Swiss on this List who are
about to google for links about famous battles and stormed Imperial
castles, google instead for revisionist (archeological) views, that
suggest that most of the castles had been abandonned before the famous
battles were supposed to have taken place).
In hindsight, and considering that the region is divided into four
language groups with vast ethnic differences, one could almost suggest
that the withdrawal avoided to turn the Western Alpes into a recurring
battlefield ala the Balkan, and instead forced the inhabitants to
depend on and thus live with each other in peace. Apart from that, it
kept the French out of the mountains, Northern Italy in easy reach.
and cost little to no loss of tax revenue.

Unlike democrazies where governments have the combined wealth of the
citizenry at their legislative deisposal, monarchies need the support
of the nobility and have limited resources to field armies from and
with.
Maintaining garrissons in Switzerland wasn't a good business decission
anymore, and Liechtenstein the perfect solution to cutting Imperial
losses...

History. It's a pitty that much is based on nationalist invention and
old - original - sources are getting harder to come by. The Library of
Congress is a great source though.

Cheers,
Robert.

On 7/5/08, R.A. Hettinga <rah@...> wrote:
>
> On Jul 5, 2008, at 6:23 AM, Robert dCZ wrote:
>
>> So, to answer your question, The Prince of Monaco is of Royal
>> Burgundian blood, but would be the vassal of an extinct Southern
>> French king, which puts him beyond the reach of a French king.
>
> Kewl. And here I thought he was a lineal descendant of some pirate who
> captured the castle sitting on the "Rock of Monaco", or somesuch, and
> they just left him alone because the couldn't dislodge him...
>
> Cheers,
> RAH
>
>

-- 
"And as long as I am the monarch, I will never let anyone take possession of
movable and landed properties of the others by force or without compensation.
As long as I am alive, I shall prevent unpaid, forced labor. ..."

Cyrus the Great, ca. 550 BC