Rainier fairytale blighted by curse of the Grimaldis

Prince Rainier of Monaco, who has died aged 81, was the once handsome prince whose life should have been the stuff of dreams. He ruled over a tiny principality in the south of France that had become a byword for wealth and glamour, and married one of the most beautiful women in the world, the American actress Grace Kelly.

However, just as with Prince Charles and Diana, this royal fairytale had an unhappy ending. Princess Grace was killed in a car crash when she was just 52. The years that followed her death were characterised by family rifts, death and divorce. If it was not the youngest daughter Princess Stephanie embarrassing the family as her latest antics were chronicled in the gossip columns, it was the troubled life of her elder sister Princess Caroline or the gallivanting of the playboy Prince Albert.

People called it the "Curse of the Grimaldis".

Educated at the English public school, Stowe, and then university in France, Prince Rainier inherited the throne in Monaco from his grandfather Louis II in 1949. Back then this tiny strip of land on the Cote d'Azur - and in particular its famous casino - had lost much of its former charm and appeal. It had no resources, no industry and little future, but Prince Rainier had a vision. A canny and toughminded businessman - locals liked to recall how, in building up his empire, "he screwed De Gaulle and he screwed Onassis" - he set about re-establishing Monaco as a tax haven for the super-rich.

However his plan might never have succeeded had it not been for Paris Match. In May 1955 during the Cannes Film Festival the French magazine had organised a publicity photoshoot of the 31-year-old Prince and Grace Kelly, who was then aged 26 and at the height of her movie stardom with the release of Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. It was not exactly love and first sight. She was late, he was later, and Kelly was reported to have seemed preoccupied. But when they met again a few months later it was a different story, and by the end of the year the word was out that they had become engaged.

They married on 19 April 1956 in a glamorous event. The bride wore a dress of silk taffeta, peau de soie, tulle and lace. Guests included the Aga Khan, Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, Gloria Swanson and Aristotle Onassis.

Their union had two important consequences. First, Grace provided Rainier with the heir he desperately needed. Secondly, thanks to the new princess Monaco had regained its old lustre. Americans started to flock there, and as it became a playground for the rich and famous, the money poured in.

But behind the scenes all was not well. Rainier's eldest child, Caroline, was 21-years old and just out of the Sorbonne when she married a French playboy and banker, Philippe Junot, in

1978. He was 17 years older, and had a reputation for fast living, an overactive libido and a craving for money. And Rainier and Grace's marriage was beset by rumours of stormy rows.

In 1982 it ended in tragedy when Princess Grace's car plunged off a road above Monaco, killing her and seriously injuring 17-year-old Stephanie. This tradegy was followed by the death in 1990 of Caroline's second husband, the heir to an Italian oil fortune, Stefano Casiraghi. He was killed racing his speedboat. They had three children Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre.

Stephanie went on to conduct a series of affairs with circus performers, bodyguards, a gardener and others considered unsuitable for a royal beauty. At one point, she began sleeping with her father's butler. Monaco was also hit by new questions over its financial probity .

Rainier's death opens a new question: what next for a troubled monarchy whose tiny patch of land in the Mediterranean matches glamour and tragedy in equal measure?