Rainier III, Prince of Monaco

About Rainier III, Prince of Monaco

Who is it?: Monarch
Birth Day: May 31, 1923
Birth Place: Monaco-Ville, Monegasque
Died On: 6 April 2005(2005-04-06) (aged 81)\nMonaco's Cardiothoracic Center, Monaco-Ville, Monaco
Birth Sign: Gemini
Reign: 9 May 1949 – 6 April 2005
Predecessor: Louis II
Successor: Albert II
Regent: Albert (2005)
Burial: Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco-Ville, Monaco
Spouse: Grace Kelly (m. 1956; d. 1982)
Issue: Caroline, Princess of Hanover Albert II, Prince of Monaco Princess Stéphanie
Full name: Full name Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand
House: Grimaldi
Father: Count Pierre of Polignac
Mother: Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois
Religion: Roman Catholicism

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco Net Worth

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco was born on May 31, 1923 in Monaco-Ville, Monegasque, is Monarch. Prince Rainier III, also known as Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi was the ruler of Monaco for nearly 56 years. He was one of the longest reigning monarchs in European history. Prince Rainier Grimaldi was born in Monte Carlo, Monaco and his parents got divorced when he was a child. He stayed with his mother who was the only child of Louis II of Monaco and the sole successor to the Monegasque throne. After studying in the finest schools of England and Switzerland, he went on to complete his graduation from France and also served during the World War II, fighting against the Nazi occupation. Subsequently, his mother renounced her right to become the princess and after his grandfather’s death, he was crowned as His Serene Highness Rainier III, Sovereign Prince of Monaco. After ascending the throne, he worked assiduously and launched initiatives to revive the economy of Monaco which had been weakened since the World War II. He was also responsible for implementing reforms in Monaco's constitution and expanding its economy. Later, he became internationally known due to his fairy-tale marriage with the American movie star, Grace Kelly. But, after Kelly’s tragic death in an automobile accident, he buried himself in his work and led a solitary life, refusing to marry again. After fighting a long illness in his old age, he died at the age of 81, and was buried next to his late wife.
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Biography/Timeline

1758

Rainier was born at Prince's Palace in Monaco, the only son of Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois and his wife, the Monegasque Hereditary Princess, Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois. Rainier was the first native-born hereditary Prince of Monaco since Honore IV in 1758. Rainier's mother was the only child of Prince Louis II of Monaco and Marie Juliette Louvet; she was later legitimized through formal adoption and subsequently named heir presumptive to the throne of Monaco. Rainier's father was a half-French, half-Mexican who adopted his wife's surname, Grimaldi, upon marriage and was made a Prince of Monaco by Prince Louis, his father-in-law. Rainier had one sibling, Princess Antoinette, Baroness of Massy.

1939

Rainier's early education was conducted in England, at the prestigious public schools of Summerfields in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, and later at Stowe, in Buckinghamshire. After England, Rainier attended the Institut Le Rosey in Rolle and Gstaad, Switzerland from 1939, before continuing to the University of Montpellier in France, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1943, and finally to the Institut d'études politiques de Paris in Paris.

1940

In the 1940s and 1950s, Rainier had a ten-year relationship with the French film Actress Gisèle Pascal, whom he had met while a student at Montpellier University, and the couple lived at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Rainier's sister, Princess Antoinette, wishing her own son to ascend the throne, spread rumours that Pascal was infertile. The rumours combined with a snobbery over Pascal's family origins ultimately ended the relationship.

1944

In 1944, upon his 21st birthday, Rainier's mother renounced her right to the Monegasque throne and Rainier became Prince Louis's direct heir. In World War II Rainier joined the Free French Army in September 1944, and serving under General de Monsabert as a second lieutenant, and seeing action during the German counter-offensive in Alsace. He received the French Croix de Guerre with bronze star (representing a brigade level citation) and was given the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor in 1947. Following his decommission from the French Army, he was promoted by the French government as a captain in April 1949 and a colonel in December 1954.

1949

Rainier became the Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the death of Louis II on 9 May 1949.

1950

Rainier established a postal museum in 1950: the Museum of Stamps and Coins, in Monaco's Fontvieille district by using the collections of the Monegasque princes Albert I and Louis II. The prestigious philatelic Collectors club Club de Monte-Carlo de l'Élite de la Philatélie was established under his patronage in 1999; the club has its headquarters at the museum, with its membership restricted to institutions and one hundred prestigious Collectors. Rainier organized exhibitions of rare and exceptional postage stamps and letters with the club's members. Throughout his reign, Rainier surveyed all the process of creation of Monaco stamps. He liked stamps printed in intaglio and the art of engravers Henri Cheffer and Czesław Słania.

1962

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.

1964

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 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 (SBM) and envisioned Monaco as solely a gambling resort. Prince Rainier regained control of SBM in 1964, effectively ensuring that his vision of Monaco would be implemented. In addition, the Societé Monégasque de Banques et de Métaux Précieux, a bank which held a significant amount of Monaco's capital, was bankrupted by its Investments in a media company in 1955, leading to the resignation of Monaco's cabinet.

1979

In 1979, Prince Rainier made his acting debut alongside his wife Grace in a 33-minute independent film called Rearranged, produced in Monaco. According to co-star Edward Meeks, after premiering it in Monaco, Grace showed it to ABC TV executives in New York in 1982, who expressed interest if extra scenes were shot to make it an hour long. However, Grace died in a car crash caused by a stroke in 1982, making it impossible to expand the film for American release.

1999

Prince Rainier smoked 60 cigarettes a day. In the last years of his life his health progressively declined. He underwent surgery in late 1999 and 2000, and was hospitalized in November 2002 for a chest infection. He spent three weeks in hospital in January 2004 for what was described as general fatigue. In February 2004, he was hospitalized with a coronary lesion and a damaged blood vessel. 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.

2005

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.