Prince who brought Grace to Monaco

Rainier put Monaco on the international stage with his romance of and marriage to Kelly in 1956. Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982 and Rainier, heartbroken, never remarried. He is expected to be buried beside his wife close to the palace after at least a week’s mourning. No date has been set for the funeral.

Rainier 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. A shy man, Albert has lived in the shadow of his more glamorous parents and sisters Stephanie and Caroline while being groomed for power as Rainier’s only son. He has been linked to a succession of models and actresses but has never settled down.

Flags were already at half-mast in Monaco in honor of Pope John Paul II. The mood in the principality was sombre. ‘‘Everyone feels orphaned,’’ Patrick Leclercq, Monaco’s minister of state, said in a statement to French television.

Rainier officially became monarch on April 11, 1950, but had already ruled for almost a year following the death of his grandfather, Prince Louis II. When Rainier succeeded, Monaco was best known for the casino on which its prosperity was founded in the 19th century. As Europe’s last constitutional autocrat, he led Monaco into an age of skyscrapers, international banking and business. He strengthened the sovereignty of Monaco and it won a UN seat in 1993.

‘‘The builder prince, the visionary prince, Rainier was behind the radical transformation of the principality… which made it a modern state,’’ Stephane Valeri, President of Monaco’s National Council or parliament, said. —Reuters