Monaco in mourning after Prince Rainier dies

Picture taken during a summer of 1979 at Roc Agel, their summer residence near Monaco, of Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife Princess Grace who died in a car crash in 1982. PHOTO: AFP

Rainier had ruled the tiny Mediterranean principality since 1949. He will be succeeded by 47-year-old Prince Albert, who took over his father's royal duties last week as hopes faded that Rainier would recover.

"His Most Serene Highness Prince Rainier III died on Wednesday April 6 2005 at 6.35 in the morning (0435 GMT)," the palace said in a statement.

Rainier brought Hollywood glamour to Monaco by marrying beautiful American actress Grace Kelly in 1956 and transformed the world's smallest state except for the Vatican from a faded gambling center into a billionaires' haven.

He strengthened the sovereignty of Monaco as enshrined by a 1917 treaty with France, its territorial waters and air space were recognized and it won a United Nations seat.

But Rainier -- the world's second longest-serving monarch after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand -- cut a lonely figure in later life as media focused on his children's problems and on charges that Monaco had become a mafia refuge for dirty money.

Rainier's reign added to the legendary curse of the Grimaldi dynasty that has haunted his family during its seven centuries of rule over Monaco.

Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982 and his daughters Stephanie and Caroline have had a succession of disastrous, high-profile relationships.

Rainier was clearly heartbroken when Grace died after the car she was driving skidded off a steep mountain road in 1982.

He never showed any sign of wanting to remarry. "I still feel her absence. It was a marriage of love," he said in 1999.

When Rainier succeeded his grandfather Prince Louis II, Monaco was best known for the casino on which its prosperity was founded in the 19th century.