Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (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. At the time of his death, he was the world's second longest-serving living head of state (independent), ranking just below the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej. After a year-long courtship described as containing "a good deal of rational appraisal on both sides" ("The Times", 7 April 2005, page 59), Prince Rainier married Oscar-winning American actress Grace Kelly (1929–1982) in 1956. The ceremonies
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco have been romantically involved with his second cousin, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, a former actress turned jewellery designer, who is also a Fiat heiress and the former sister-in-law of fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg. Princess Ira, like him, is a great-grandchild of Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton, the Scottish-German wife of Prince Albert I of Monaco, though by Lady Mary's second marriage. After Grace's death, Rainier refused to remarry. 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