- See also Prince Rainier of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Rainier III, Prince of
Monaco (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi,
Count of Polignac; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005), styled His
Serene Highness The Sovereign
Prince of Monaco, ruled the Principality of Monaco
for more
than 50 years, making him one of the longest ruling monarchs of
the 20th century.Though he was best known outside of
Europe for having married American actress
Grace Kelly, he was also responsible for
reforms to
Monaco's
constitution and for expanding the principality's economy
beyond its traditional
gambling base.
Gambling accounts for approximately three percent of the nation's
annual revenue today; when Rainier ascended the throne in 1949, it
accounted for more than 95 percent.
Ancestry
Rainier
III was of French, Mexican
, Spanish, German,
Scottish, English, Dutch,
and Italian ancestry.
Through his great-grandmother
Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton, who
was briefly Princess of Monaco, he was a descendent of
James IV of Scotland (descended from
three of his illegitimate daughters). His
great-great-great-grandmother was
Stéphanie de Beauharnais, the
adopted daughter of
Napoleon
Bonaparte and later the
Grand Duchess of Baden. Other
ancestors include
William Thomas
Beckford, the
scandalous 18th century
English collector, tastemaker, writer, and eccentric.
Rainier was also a descendent of
William the Silent of Orange-Nassau, the
main leader of the
Dutch revolt
against the
Spanish Empire and
ancestor to the current
Dutch Royal
Family;
Hortense Mancini, the
Duchess of Mazarin and mistress
of King
Charles II of England;
Gabrielle
de Polignac, a favorite of
Marie
Antoinette;
Joan of Kent, the first
Princess of Wales; King
Charles IX of Sweden; King
Frederick II of Denmark and
Norway;
Ferdinand I,
Holy Roman Emperor,
Claude,
Duke of Guise and Prince Thomas M. Marciano II of Genoa.
Early life
Rainier
was born in Monaco, the only
son of Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois (né Count
Pierre de Polignac) and his wife,
Hereditary Princess Charlotte,
Duchess of Valentinois. Born in Algeria
, his mother
was the only child of Prince Louis II and Marie Juliette Louvet; she was later
legitimized through formal adoption and subsequently named heiress
to the throne of Monaco. His father was a half-
French, half-
Mexican nobleman from
Brittany who adopted his wife's surname, Grimaldi,
upon marriage and was made a prince of Monaco by his
father-in-law.
Rainier had one sibling, HSH
Princess Antoinette,
Baroness of Massy, an unpopular figure generally believed to be
meddlesome enough regarding her children's place in the line of
succession to have forced Princess Grace to demand that she leave
the country.
Rainier
was first sent to study at Summerfields
School
in St Leonards-on-Sea
, England, and later at Stowe
, a
prestigious English public
school in Buckinghamshire. From there, he went to
the Institut Le
Rosey
in Rolle
and Gstaad
,
Switzerland, before continuing to the University of
Montpellier
in France, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, and finally to the
Institut d'études politiques de
Paris
in Paris.
Rainier's maternal grandfather,
Prince Louis II, had been a
general in the French army during
World War
I. During
World War II, Rainier
served as an artillery officer in the army.
As a second lieutenant, he fought so
courageously during the German counter-offensive in Alsace
that he won
the Croix de Guerre and Bronze Star and was given the rank of
Chevalier in the Legion of
Honor.
On 9 May 1949, Rainier became the Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the
death of Prince Louis II, his mother having renounced her rights to
the throne in his favor in 1944.
Early romance
In the 1940s and 1950s, the prince openly lived with the French
film star
Gisèle Pascal. The
couple reportedly separated when a
doctor declared her to be infertile; in fact,
she later married and had a child.
Marriage and family
After a
year-long courtship described as containing "a good deal of
rational appraisal on both sides" (The
Times, 7 April 2005, page 59), in Monaco civilly on
18 April 1956 and religiously on 19 April 1956, Prince Rainier
married Oscar-winning American
actress Grace Kelly (1929–1982).
Their children are:
Prince Rainier had nine grandchildren:
He was a hands-on grandparent which is unusual in a monarchy. He
was often seen with Caroline and Stephanie's children.
After his
wife's death in a car crash in 1982, he was romantically involved
with his second cousin, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, a former movie
actress turned jewellery designer who is also a Fiat
heiress and
the former sister-in-law of fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. Like
him, she is a great-grandchild of
Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton, the
Scottish–
German wife of Prince
Albert I of Monaco,
though by Lady Mary's second marriage.
Rainier was also a
football fan,
having followed
AS Monaco FC to the
2004
Champions League final.
Monaco has for years hosted the
European Super Cup.
Actions as Prince
After ascending the throne, Rainier worked assiduously to recoup
Monaco's lustre, which had become tarnished through neglect
(especially financial) and scandal (his mother, Princess Charlotte,
took a noted jewel thief known as René the Cane as her lover).
According to numerous obituaries, the prince was faced upon his
ascension with a treasury that was practically empty. The holder of
55 percent of the nation's reserves, the
Societé Monégasque de Banques et de Métaux Précieux, was
bankrupt. The small nation's traditional gambling clientele,
largely European aristocrats, found themselves with reduced funds
after World War II. Other gambling centers had opened to compete
with Monaco, many of them successfully. To compensate for this loss
of income, Rainier decided to promote Monaco as a tax haven,
commercial center, real-estate development opportunity, and
international tourist attraction. The early years of his reign saw
the overweening involvement of the Greek shipping tycoon
Aristotle Onassis, who took control of the
Société des Bains de
Mer and envisioned Monaco as solely a gambling resort. Prince
Rainier regained control of the Société in 1964, effectively
ensuring that his vision of Monaco would be implemented.
As Prince of Monaco, Rainier was also responsible for the
principality's new constitution in 1962 which significantly reduced
the power of the sovereign. (He suspended the previous Constitution
in 1959, saying that it "has hindered the administrative and
political life of the country.") The changes ended autocratic rule,
placing power with the prince and a National Council of eighteen
elected members.
At the
time of his death, he was the world's second longest-serving
head of state, ranking just below King
Rama IX of Thailand
. During the last two or three years of his
life, Rainier was in the custom of asking his valet each morning,
"Has Rama survived the night? Or did I just move up in the
ranks?"
Illness and death
In the last three years of his life, Prince Rainier's health
progressively declined. In early 2004 he was hospitalized for
coronary problems. In October he was again in hospital with a lung
infection. In November of that year,
Prince Albert appeared on
CNN's
Larry King
Live and told
Larry King that
his father was fine, though he was suffering from bronchitis. On 7
March 2005, he was again hospitalized with a lung infection.
Rainier was moved to the hospital's intensive care unit on 22
March. One day later, on 23 March, it was announced he was on a
ventilator, suffering from
renal and
heart
failure. On 26 March the palace reported that despite intensive
ongoing efforts to improve the prince's health, he was continuing
to deteriorate; however, the following day, he was reported to be
conscious, his heart and kidney conditions having stabilized. His
prognosis remained "very reserved".
On 31
March 2005, following consultation with the Crown Council of Monaco, the
Palais
Princier
announced
that Rainier's son, Hereditary Prince Albert, Marquis des Baux, would take over the
duties of his father as Regent since Rainier
was no longer able to exercise his royal functions.
On 1
April 2005, the Palace announced that Rainier's doctors believe his
chances of recovery were "slim"; on 6 April it announced that
Prince Rainier had died in Monaco at 6:35 am
local time at the age of 81. He was succeeded by his only
son, who became
Prince
Albert II.
He was
buried on 15 April 2005, beside his wife, Princess Grace, at the Saint
Nicholas Cathedral
, the resting place of previous sovereign princes of
Monaco and several of their wives, and the place where Prince
Rainier and Princess Grace had been married in 1956.
Because his death occurred shortly after that of
Pope John Paul II, Rainier's death was
overshadowed in the media.
Titles
Rainier's official shortened title was
His Serene Highness Rainier III,
Sovereign Prince of Monaco; this does not include the many
other hereditary titles acquired by the Grimaldi family (see
Prince of Monaco for a
complete list).
His other non-hereditary titles and awards included:
Philately
Rainier created a postal museum in 1950 by using the collections of
Albert I and
Louis II. Since 1996 this museum
has been called
Musée des timbres et
monnaies.
Creator of the philatelic
Club
de Monte-Carlo in 1997, he organized with its members some
exhibitions of rare and exceptional
postage stamps and letters.
Throughout his reign, Rainier surveyed all the process of creation
of Monaco stamps. He liked stamps printed in
intaglio and the art of engraver
Czesław Słania.
Commemorative coin
Honouring the Prince on his death in 2005, a high value
commemorative coin was minted with his effigy on it, the €10 gold
Prince
Rainier III commemorative coin, minted also in 2005. On the
obverse the effigy of the past prince is depicted; while on the
reverse the Grimaldi's Coat of Arms is shown.
Ancestry
References
External links
)
Medal of Merit
)
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search