Playboy Prince Rainier is dead

Monaco's Prince Rainier died today with his son at his bedside.

Rainier, 81, will be succeeded by Albert, 47, the only son from his marriage to Grace Kelly who died in a car crash in 1982.

His 1956 marriage to the actress brought glamour to one of Europe's oldest dynasties. The couple's two daughters, princesses Caroline and Stephanie, had been maintaining a vigil at the hospital.

His Most Serene Highness Prince Rainier III came to the throne in 1949 and was Europe's longestserving monarch.

He was admitted last month to the Monaco Cardio-Thoracic Centre suffering from a bronchial-pulmonary infection. The palace said on 10 March that the initial infection had been "quickly brought under control" but his condition worsened.

Rainier, whose Grimaldi family has ruled for seven centuries, had been in and out of hospital in recent years with both lung and coronary problems.

Monaco changed its succession law in 2002 so that Albert could assume the throne even though he is unmarried with no children.

Under the revised law, power could eventually be passed from Albert to his siblings. Both Caroline and Stephanie have children.

Monaco is a tiny principality of just 32,000 people, famous for its casinos, Formula One Grand Prix and tax breaks for the rich and famous. But Rainier had cut a lonely figure in recent years as media attention shifted from him to the turbulent lives of his three children.

He was devastated when Kelly died after the car she was driving skidded off a steep mountain road.

He never showed any sign of wanting to remarry. "I still feel her absence. It was a marriage of love," he said in 1999. Rainier's reign added to the legendary curse of the Grimaldi dynasty that is said to have haunted the family.