nightrider127
04-06-2005, 04:46 AM
This is from CNN.
MONACO (AP) -- Prince Rainier III, whose marriage to American film star Grace Kelly endowed a reign that spanned more than a half-century with elegance and glamour, guided Monaco's transformation from a sleepy retreat for the wealthy into a center of finance and tourism.
Rainier, who assumed the throne on May 9, 1949, also suffered the tragedy of his famous wife's death and the relentless scandals -- including international criticism of the principality's tax laws -- that plagued the final two decades of his rule.
The leader of one of Europe's longest-ruling royal families, the Grimaldis, Rainier suffered recurring health problems in recent years. The silver-haired, portly prince underwent heart surgery in 1999. In 2000, he had two operations including a nodule removed from a lung and was hospitalized in 2002 for fatigue and bronchitis. Recurrent chest infections put him in the hospital on numerous occasions thereafter.
Most recently, the prince was hospitalized March 7 at Monaco's Cardio-Thoracic Center with a chest infection. He was placed in intensive care two weeks later with heart and kidney failure and hooked up to a respirator.
Prince Rainier's public appearances grew increasingly rare as his health deteriorated, although he attended Monaco's top social event, the Red Cross Ball, in August 2004.
Monaco had been preparing for the demise of the prince for several years.
Rainier's heir is Crown Prince Albert, who is unmarried and has no children. Monaco changed its succession law in 2002 to allow power to pass from a reigning prince who has no descendants to his siblings. Albert has two sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, both of whom have children.
Under Rainier's leadership, the Mediterranean enclave partially shed its image as "a sunny place for shady people," and became a hub for the high-tech pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Rainier was known as the "builder prince" for his many infrastructure projects. He increased the size of his territory by 20 percent with land reclamation from the sea -- although Monaco still remains no larger than New York's Central Park.
"I am like the head of a company," he once said of his role in transforming Monaco.
In 1993, Monaco gained the political recognition Rainier sought for his principality with its entry into the United Nations.
But it was his April 18, 1956, marriage to Hollywood heartbreaker Grace Kelly that would put Monaco on the world stage and define the golden age of his reign. Her death in a car accident on Sept. 14, 1982, would signal for many the end of Monaco's halcyon days.
"She was always present and ready to do things either with me or for me if I couldn't do them," Rainier said of his late wife in a 1983 interview. "Let's say the change is that we worked as a team and the team has been split up."
Rainier Grimaldi was the 30th descendant of Otto Canella, who founded the house of Grimaldi that has ruled Monaco since 1297. Born May 31, 1923, the son of a princess born out of wedlock, Rainier was heir to a family with a stormy past -- a harbinger of the scandals to come.
The marriage of his great-grandfather Prince Albert to Lady Mary Douglas Hamilton was dissolved in 1880. Albert's son, Prince Louis II, had a youthful romance with a French girl in Algeria that produced Princess Charlotte, Rainier's mother.
In 1920, Charlotte married Rainier's father, Prince Pierre de Polignac. Rainier was born in 1923 and his parents divorced soon after.
Educated in England, Switzerland and France, Rainier joined the French army as a foreign volunteer in 1944. A second lieutenant with the French II Corps, he took part in operations to free Alsace from Nazi Germany and was later awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Rainier became Monaco's ruler at age 26 when his grandfather died in 1949.
As a youth, Rainier had a long romance with French actress Gisele Pascal, became a keen fan of jazz and studied oceanography, later helping to fund Jacques Cousteau's Oceanographic Institute in Monaco. He also developed a love of fast cars.
He met Grace Kelly in 1955 when he was 31 and she was the 25-year-old star attraction of the Cannes Film Festival. Kelly already had an Oscar from her 1954 film, "The Country Girl," one of only 11 films she made.
In January 1956, they announced their engagement and were married in April. Ten months later they had the first of their three children, Princess Caroline. Prince Albert's birth came the following year, on March 14. Princess Stephanie was born on Feb. 1, 1965.
Over the years, Rainier worked to consolidate his authority and expand Monaco's economic base as a tax haven for international millionaires who gambled at the territory's swanky casino.
New luxury hotels, towering high-rises and some of the world's most expensive real estate now hug Monaco's coastline. Gambling receipts account for only 3 percent of the revenues of the principality, home to slightly more than 32,000 people.
Rainier also won battles with France to keep his principality's ban on personal income tax, and with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis for control of the company that operates Monaco's gambling operations and most of its luxury hotels.
In the years following Princess Grace's death, Monaco's royal family increasingly became grist for the world's tabloids.
Princess Caroline's rocky first marriage ended in 1980, and her second husband was killed in a boating accident in 1990. Her third husband, German prince Ernst August of Hanover, was ordered to pay more than US$440,000 in 2001 for yelling at an editor of a newspaper that reported he had urinated in public.
Princess Stephanie was known for her tempestuous affairs. She had two children by a former bodyguard, then married him in 1995. The marriage only lasted 18 months, ending after he was photographed cavorting poolside with a Belgian stripper.
She had a third child in 1998 and refused to reveal the name of the father. Stephanie subsequently had a much-publicized romance with the director of the Swiss national circus, before marrying a Portuguese circus acrobat in 2003.
The reputation of Monaco itself has also fallen under scrutiny.
At the end of 2003, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development still had Monaco listed as one of five tax havens refusing to cooperate with a major international effort to end harmful tax practices and tax evasion.
Even Rainier's fairy-tale marriage to Grace Kelly was a target.
A 1994 biography of Princess Grace claimed her marriage had gone sour, and that Rainier's "neglect" forced her to find solace in alcohol -- and younger men.
MONACO (AP) -- Prince Rainier III, whose marriage to American film star Grace Kelly endowed a reign that spanned more than a half-century with elegance and glamour, guided Monaco's transformation from a sleepy retreat for the wealthy into a center of finance and tourism.
Rainier, who assumed the throne on May 9, 1949, also suffered the tragedy of his famous wife's death and the relentless scandals -- including international criticism of the principality's tax laws -- that plagued the final two decades of his rule.
The leader of one of Europe's longest-ruling royal families, the Grimaldis, Rainier suffered recurring health problems in recent years. The silver-haired, portly prince underwent heart surgery in 1999. In 2000, he had two operations including a nodule removed from a lung and was hospitalized in 2002 for fatigue and bronchitis. Recurrent chest infections put him in the hospital on numerous occasions thereafter.
Most recently, the prince was hospitalized March 7 at Monaco's Cardio-Thoracic Center with a chest infection. He was placed in intensive care two weeks later with heart and kidney failure and hooked up to a respirator.
Prince Rainier's public appearances grew increasingly rare as his health deteriorated, although he attended Monaco's top social event, the Red Cross Ball, in August 2004.
Monaco had been preparing for the demise of the prince for several years.
Rainier's heir is Crown Prince Albert, who is unmarried and has no children. Monaco changed its succession law in 2002 to allow power to pass from a reigning prince who has no descendants to his siblings. Albert has two sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, both of whom have children.
Under Rainier's leadership, the Mediterranean enclave partially shed its image as "a sunny place for shady people," and became a hub for the high-tech pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Rainier was known as the "builder prince" for his many infrastructure projects. He increased the size of his territory by 20 percent with land reclamation from the sea -- although Monaco still remains no larger than New York's Central Park.
"I am like the head of a company," he once said of his role in transforming Monaco.
In 1993, Monaco gained the political recognition Rainier sought for his principality with its entry into the United Nations.
But it was his April 18, 1956, marriage to Hollywood heartbreaker Grace Kelly that would put Monaco on the world stage and define the golden age of his reign. Her death in a car accident on Sept. 14, 1982, would signal for many the end of Monaco's halcyon days.
"She was always present and ready to do things either with me or for me if I couldn't do them," Rainier said of his late wife in a 1983 interview. "Let's say the change is that we worked as a team and the team has been split up."
Rainier Grimaldi was the 30th descendant of Otto Canella, who founded the house of Grimaldi that has ruled Monaco since 1297. Born May 31, 1923, the son of a princess born out of wedlock, Rainier was heir to a family with a stormy past -- a harbinger of the scandals to come.
The marriage of his great-grandfather Prince Albert to Lady Mary Douglas Hamilton was dissolved in 1880. Albert's son, Prince Louis II, had a youthful romance with a French girl in Algeria that produced Princess Charlotte, Rainier's mother.
In 1920, Charlotte married Rainier's father, Prince Pierre de Polignac. Rainier was born in 1923 and his parents divorced soon after.
Educated in England, Switzerland and France, Rainier joined the French army as a foreign volunteer in 1944. A second lieutenant with the French II Corps, he took part in operations to free Alsace from Nazi Germany and was later awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Rainier became Monaco's ruler at age 26 when his grandfather died in 1949.
As a youth, Rainier had a long romance with French actress Gisele Pascal, became a keen fan of jazz and studied oceanography, later helping to fund Jacques Cousteau's Oceanographic Institute in Monaco. He also developed a love of fast cars.
He met Grace Kelly in 1955 when he was 31 and she was the 25-year-old star attraction of the Cannes Film Festival. Kelly already had an Oscar from her 1954 film, "The Country Girl," one of only 11 films she made.
In January 1956, they announced their engagement and were married in April. Ten months later they had the first of their three children, Princess Caroline. Prince Albert's birth came the following year, on March 14. Princess Stephanie was born on Feb. 1, 1965.
Over the years, Rainier worked to consolidate his authority and expand Monaco's economic base as a tax haven for international millionaires who gambled at the territory's swanky casino.
New luxury hotels, towering high-rises and some of the world's most expensive real estate now hug Monaco's coastline. Gambling receipts account for only 3 percent of the revenues of the principality, home to slightly more than 32,000 people.
Rainier also won battles with France to keep his principality's ban on personal income tax, and with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis for control of the company that operates Monaco's gambling operations and most of its luxury hotels.
In the years following Princess Grace's death, Monaco's royal family increasingly became grist for the world's tabloids.
Princess Caroline's rocky first marriage ended in 1980, and her second husband was killed in a boating accident in 1990. Her third husband, German prince Ernst August of Hanover, was ordered to pay more than US$440,000 in 2001 for yelling at an editor of a newspaper that reported he had urinated in public.
Princess Stephanie was known for her tempestuous affairs. She had two children by a former bodyguard, then married him in 1995. The marriage only lasted 18 months, ending after he was photographed cavorting poolside with a Belgian stripper.
She had a third child in 1998 and refused to reveal the name of the father. Stephanie subsequently had a much-publicized romance with the director of the Swiss national circus, before marrying a Portuguese circus acrobat in 2003.
The reputation of Monaco itself has also fallen under scrutiny.
At the end of 2003, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development still had Monaco listed as one of five tax havens refusing to cooperate with a major international effort to end harmful tax practices and tax evasion.
Even Rainier's fairy-tale marriage to Grace Kelly was a target.
A 1994 biography of Princess Grace claimed her marriage had gone sour, and that Rainier's "neglect" forced her to find solace in alcohol -- and younger men.