Touched by glamour

April 6, 2005 - 5:15PM

Prince Rainier of Monaco, who died today, led a life marked by Hollywood glamour with his marriage to Grace Kelly, but he also transformed his wealthy Mediterranean principality into a major financial and entertainment hub.

One of the world's longest-reigning monarchs, his life reads almost like a soap opera, due in part to his 1956 wedding to the Hollywood star.

Kelly died in a car crash in 1982, but the celebrity status she imported and the changes wrought on this portion of French Riviera coastline have made the mini-state synonymous with easy-going wealth.

The 81-year-old prince had been rushed into the resuscitation ward of Monaco's cardio-thoracic centre on March 27 after his health abruptly and dramatically deteriorated.

Rainier had been in the clinic since March 7 for treatment for a recurrent respiratory problem. The prince also suffered severe heart problems, and was last hospitalised for an infection in October.

Succeeding his grandfather prince Louis II in November 1949, he ascended to power three years before Queen Elizabeth II took the British throne.

His marriage to Grace Kelly bore him three children -- Prince Albert, his son and heir, and princesses Caroline and Stephanie.

In recent years Rainier's advancing age and frailty led him to delegate more and more responsibilities to his unwed son, Prince Albert, who became regent March 31.

Throughout his life, Rainier craved respect for his mini-state.

In 1962, he overhauled the constitution and began an ambitious construction project, raising a plethora of multi-storey buildings and reclaiming land from the sea to expand Monaco's territory by 20 per cent.

He worked hard to promote the environment, notably on maritime issues.

Born on May 31, 1923, the son of Prince Pierre de Polignac (who had adopted the name Grimaldi on marrying into the family) and Princess Charlotte of Monaco, Rainier was educated in Britain, Switzerland and France, studying literature at Montpellier and politics in Paris.

He enrolled as a volunteer in the French army in September 1944, taking part in the campaign to retake Alsace from the retreating Germany army, and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre.

After the war he served in the economic section of the French mission in occupied Berlin, and was later promoted to the rank of colonel in the French army.

His mother, meanwhile, renounced her right to the throne and in due course, still only 26, Rainier succeeded his grandfather.

If his marriage to Kelly put Monaco on the map figuratively, his actions over the next five decades went a long way to making the principality a more substantial player in the world.

The constitutional changes in 1962 shared power between the prince and an elected 18-member national council and abolished the principle of the divine right of the ruler.

Skyscrapers sprouted to house the burgeoning banking and business sector. The Fontvieille district was created on land formerly covered by the waters of the Mediterranean and earmarked for office and residential development.

Though there are no figures to separate Monaco's economic performance from that of France, the city's turnover increased rapidly, particularly in the 1990s, with service industries accounting for around half of total revenue and income from gambling reduced to around four per cent.

In 1966 he successfully fought off an attempted takeover bid by the Greek shipbuilder Aristotle Onassis for the Societe des Bains, the company that runs Monaco's casinos.

In 1997, 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."

He maintained friendly relations with France despite an occasional fuss over the alleged use of Monaco's financial sector for the transfer of funds deriving from criminal activities.

In 1993, Rainier brought the principality into the United Nations as its 183rd member.

Rainier took great pleasure from being "probably the last head of state to be able to recognise all his compatriots in the street."

In 1974 he created an international circus festival which became that industry's equivalent of the Cannes film festival.



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