Rainier III, Prince of Monaco Our Lady Immaculate, the resting place of previous sovereign princes of Monaco and several of their wives, and the place where Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had been married in 1956. Because his death occurred shortly after that of Pope John Paul II, Rainier's death was overshadowed in the media. "See also: List of titles of the Monegasque Crown" Rainier III, Prince of Monaco Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest ruling monarchs in European history. Though
Monaco succession crisis of 1918 to one form or another of proximity of blood, and the Grimaldis' hitherto exclusive control of Monaco's dynastic marital policy was what threatened to enthrone a German duke on France's border, even after the Empire's defeat in war. Just as the ruling families of Britain, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands had all become patrilineally German by the twentieth century due to the propensity of monarchical heiresses, seeking dynastically equal marriages, to choose husbands from among Germany's many minor princely families, Monaco was on the verge of the same fate. Although the Grimaldis did not require inter-marriage with royalty by law