Prince Rainier III. of Monaco: The Fairy Tale Monarch

Menjou beard, the melancholic eyes. If Prince Rainier III. of Monaco (1923-2005), not only the subjects of his miniature state got a transfigured look.

A fairy tale monarch

He was the representative of a tiny operetta monarchy, a fairytale monarch. “The last charming prince of our prosaic century,” whispered US society reporter Elsa Maxwell (1883-1963), who could be as sensitive as a buzz saw.

This Rainier, who is said to have private fortune of two billion euros, was one of the main figures of the glamor world and has occupied the colorful media for over half a century. On May 31, the Prince of Monaco, who died in 2005, would have been 100 years old.

Fairy tales are fictitious stories that not only tell of figures of light, but also of the evil side of the world. Rainier had to experience this in reality, the downsides in the life of this supposedly lucky person probably even outweighed it.

That was given to him – due to the confused history of succession to the throne of Monaco – even before he was born. To understand that, you have to go a little further.

Monaco and the Grimaldis

Since 1297, the Grimaldi noble family from Genoa has ruled the Rock of Monaco. Ancestor Francesco Grimaldi had conquered the fortress, camouflaged with a monk’s habit; to this day the national coat of arms shows two sword-wielding Franciscans.

In 1922, Prince Louis II (1870-1949) came to power. He was the son of Prince Albert I of Monaco (1848-1922) and the British Mary Victoria Hamilton (1850-1922), who came from the family of the Grand Duke of Baden on his mother’s side. The marriage with Albert was not a happy one, Mary Victoria left Monaco after a few months. In Baden-Baden she gave birth to her son Louis, who only met his father ten years later.

The adventurous Hereditary Prince Louis joined the French Foreign Legion in 1890. In Algeria he met the beautiful vaudeville dancer Marie-Juliette Louvet (1867-1930), who in 1898 gave birth to their daughter Charlotte (1898-1977), who later became Rainier’s mother. Louis fought in the French army against the Germans in World War I and rose to the rank of brigadier general, but his father Prince Albert I forbade him from marrying his great love Marie-Juliette. After all, he was allowed to bring his illegitimate daughter to Monaco and have her educated.

In 1919, Charlotte, who bore a striking resemblance to Rainier’s daughter Princess Caroline (66), was adopted by her father and in consultation with the French state and legitimized as hereditary princess to defend the claims to the throne of German cavalry general Wilhelm Karl von Urach (1864-1928), an inheriting cousin of Prince Albert I. Louis II was 48 at the time and had neither married nor had an heir. Thus Charlotte was the only hope of securing the power of the Grimaldis.

In 1920 she married the French Count Pierre de Polignac (1895-1964), who on the eve of the wedding had adopted the name and coat of arms of the Grimaldis by a princely decree. The couple had two children: in 1920, daughter Princess Antoinette (1920-2011) and son Prince Rainier.

This marriage also fell apart, divorce in 1933. Grandfather Louis II, now Prince of Monaco, took care of Rainier’s education: schooling at two English boarding schools, literature and political studies in Montpellier and Paris. During World War II, Rainier fights for the troops of free France.

Prince Rainier III. succeeds his grandfather

In 1944, Princess Charlotte renounced her claim to the throne in favor of her son Rainier. Because Prince Louis II had no other children himself, he became the official heir to the throne. On May 9, 1949, Rainier III. as the 33rd Prince of Monaco, he succeeded his grandfather. He was 25 years old then. From the start he ran the principality like a family business, taking care of every detail.

“He skilfully tried to put his mini-state, which is closely linked to France, on a solid economic basis,” wrote the “mirror”. “Rainier settled companies in the chemical, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, built a culture and congress center and boosted tourism. While gambling still accounted for 70 percent of state revenue after the Second World War, it was less than four percent recently. Rainier expanded his principality too, among other things through new dykes.” Today it can be said that Rainier shaped the principality the most. He has described himself as the “Chairman of the Board” of the “Monaco Company”.

But the difficulties didn’t get any less. Now he had the very rich Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975) on his tail, who invested in Monaco and held the majority of shares in the Société des bains de mer (SBM). The casino and almost all the luxury hotels belonged to him. Onassis worried about his investment, because Rainier was still not married and had no heirs: until 2002, the 1918 treaty was in force that the principality would go to the French Republic if there were no heir to the throne. So Rainier had to be married off. And in such a way that the world sits up and Monaco shines in new splendor. Best with a Hollywood star…

Grace Kelly becomes the woman at his side

The perfect candidate was – Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), then 29 years old. She was also said to be curious and rumored to ask two questions: “Is he rich?” and “Is he good looking?” When she saw photos of Rainier, she is said to have been thrilled. All that was missing was the prince’s consent, but Marilyn is said to have said: “Leave me alone with him for two days, and then I guarantee you, he wants to marry me so quickly that there is hardly time to fetch a registrar.”

Rainier was reportedly upset about Onassis’ wedding plans. According to the stories, Marilyn, who was twice divorced at the time, was too wicked for him. He pursued other plans because he had met the Hollywood beauty Grace Kelly (1929-1982) at the film festival in neighboring Cannes. The actress met all the criteria for a First Lady of Monaco. She was Catholic, glamorous and had an “unblemished” image.

Rainier drove her from Cannes to his palace, showed her his workshop, his sculptor’s studio, the record collection, his jazz instruments, which he could even play, and above all his small private zoo. Grace Kelly was allowed to watch – shuddering happily – as he cuddled with the panther “Mouk” and the lioness “Ma poule”. The rest is history that has been written a thousand times over: a fairytale wedding was celebrated in 1956, which made the mini-state world-famous in one fell swoop.

Rainier allegedly has little time for his wife, he has to take care of state affairs: the National Council wants to block his restructuring, and then there’s Onassis, who makes life difficult for him. But in 1966 he sold his Monegasque shares. He says he underestimated Rainier. He is now master of his own house, investors and tourists lead to an economic boom, Monaco becomes a paradise for the rich and famous.

“The Greatest Happiness of My Life”

Everything turned out well in the marriage of Rainier and Gracia Patricia, as the mother of the country is now called, because the couple has children. Princess Caroline was born in 1957, a year later the heir to the throne Prince Albert (65) and finally Princess Stéphanie (58) in 1965.

Gracia Patricia now speaks perfect French. She has accepted her role as first lady and is a passionate mother, the prince a proud father who has lunch with the family every lunchtime. It’s a scandal-free marriage, although there are rumors that the princess misses Hollywood and filmmaking. He later says: “The great joys for me are directly related to family life. There is the marriage with my wife and the birth of my three children. That was the greatest happiness of my life.”

A tragic stroke of fate

That ends abruptly on September 14, 1982. After a serious car accident, in which the 17-year-old daughter Stéphanie is also in the car, Princess Grace dies. Rainier will never recover from this stroke of fate. “The wound of her disappearance never completely healed,” Rainier later said. Her death “hardened” him.

Rainier’s health is also going downhill: 1994 bypass surgery, 2000 lung surgeries, then “general exhaustion” after several bronchitis diseases. Prince Rainier III dies on the morning of April 6, 2005, almost exactly 50 years after first meeting Grace Kelly when he showed her his predators. His son Albert, the new monarch, is with him. Everyone comes to Monaco (again) for his funeral, including the kings of Sweden, Spain and Belgium…

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