- (PA) -- Prince Rainier of Monaco, Europe's longest-serving
monarch who brought glamour to his Mediterranean principality with his
marriage to Hollywood star Grace Kelly, has died.
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- Monaco's royal palace made the announcement this morning.
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- The Prince, who was 81, has been in intensive care since
March 22 with heart, kidney and breathing problems.
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- He brought glamour, wealth and huge changes to his tiny
Mediterranean principality - but endured a painful and often turbulent
family life.
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- Renowned for his jet-set lifestyle, the 81-year-old succeeded
his grandfather in 1949 and later had a whirlwind romance with Hollywood
star Grace Kelly as she filmed Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant
along the mountain roads of the region's coastline.
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- The couple married in 1956, cementing Rainier's status
among Europe's glitterati. His new wife's celebrity helped to focus an
unprecedented attention on the principality.
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- She became Princess Grace of Monaco and abruptly ended
her acting career, a decision which at the time could have seemed plausible
in only the most fanciful of her silver screen roles.
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- A year later their first child, Princess Caroline, was
born. Prince Albert, the heir to the throne, followed 12 months after Caroline.
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- In 1962, Rainier set about building his legacy, overhauling
the principality's constitution and authorising an ambitious construction
project, which reclaimed a huge area of land from the sea and expanded
Monaco's territory by 20%.
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- His proposals created shared power between the prince
and an elected 18-member national council and abolished the principle of
the divine right of the monarch.
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- The couple's third child, Stephanie, was born in 1965
and was badly injured in the car accident which killed her mother in 1982.
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- Princess Grace is believed to have suffered a stroke
while at the wheel on the region's mountain roads and lost control.
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- There were suggestions that Stephanie had been driving
when the pair crashed, although these were discounted.
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- Grace's death devastated the family and led Rainier to
devote himself to attracting large businesses to the principality, hoping
to lessen Monaco's reliance on tourism and the casino trade.
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- While his influence on the principality grew, the lifestyles
of his children proved a troublesome distraction.
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- Princess Caroline, who inherited her mother's looks,
was pictured topless as a teenager on a Mediterranean beach and went on
to marry three times.
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- Her first husband was French banker and playboy Philippe
Junot. They married in 1978 and divorced two years later.
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- She married Italian industrialist Stefano Casiraghi in
1983 and they had three children, Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre, before
his death in a power-boat racing accident in 1990.
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- In 1999, she married Prince Ernst August of Hanover and
their daughter Alexandra was born later that year.
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- In contrast, Rainier's heir Prince Albert has yet to
marry - a fact many commentators believe explains his father's decision
to remain on the throne.
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- Now aged 47, Prince Albert has been linked to a succession
of glamorous women including the German model Claudia Schiffer, but he
has never settled down.
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- He once said of his failure to find a wife: "I feel
that the public should let me decide at my own pace."
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- But he has remained sure of his destiny and remarked:
"When the moment comes, I will assume my responsibilities."
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- After surviving the car crash, Princess Stephanie led
an unconventional, and often wild, life.
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- She had an affair with bodyguard Daniel Ducret and had
two children - Louis and Pauline Grace - before they married in 1995.
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- The marriage ended when Ducret was caught frolicking
with a Belgian stripper.
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- Stephanie had a third child, Camille, in 1998, but refused
to name the father.
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- Later, she took her children on the road with a travelling
circus and in 2003 she married Adans Lopez Peres, an acrobat.
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- In contrast to the lives of his children, Rainier's formative
years appear relatively staid.
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- Born on May 31, 1923, he was the son of Prince Pierre
de Polignac, who adopted the name Grimaldi, and Princess Charlotte of Monaco.
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- He was was educated at St Leonards-on-Sea and Stowe in
Britain, and later Switzerland and France, eventually reading politics
in Paris.
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- In 1944, the young prince enrolled as a volunteer in
the French army and saw service in Alsace, winning the Croix de Guerre.
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- Rainier later served in the French mission in occupied
Berlin and became a colonel.
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- Shortly after his return to Monaco, at the age of 26,
his mother renounced her right to the throne and in November 1949 he succeeded
his grandfather Prince Louis II as monarch of the principality, which is
smaller than London's Hyde Park.
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- In 1993, Monaco celebrated one of its defining moments,
as it became the 183rd member of the United Nations.
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- Four years later, during the 700th anniversary of the
Grimaldi dynasty, Rainier said: "The prince must be able to act like
a company chief when necessary, but must not allow his role as company
chief to diminish his prerogatives as a prince."
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- ©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=626870
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