Kings and Queens bid farewell to Monaco’s Rainier

MONACO - Kings, queens and presidents bade farewell to Monaco's Prince Rainier today at a funeral service in the cathedral where he married former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly and will be laid to rest beside her.

Eight palace guards slowly carried Rainier's coffin, draped in Monaco's red and white flag, from the royal palace to the steps of the cathedral where he wed Princess Grace in 1956 and where she was buried after she died in a car crash in 1982.

Six other officers then carried the coffin into the cathedral, where family members lit candles to Rainier, who died on April 6 at the age of 81 of lung, heart and kidney problems.

Princesses Caroline and Stephanie wept openly as they walked behind the coffin alongside their brother Prince Albert, who will succeed his father as monarch.

French President Jacques Chirac and King Juan Carlos of Spain sat beside each other in the cathedral at a ceremony attended by about 60 kings, queens and princes, presidents and their representatives.

"In this same cathedral 49 years ago, almost to the day, he married her Royal Highness Princess Grace who disappeared from our view too soon," Bernard Barsi, the archbishop of Monaco, said in a homily.

"With the princess he made an exceptional couple, united by heart and mind," he said of the US-born actress whom Rainier said he always missed after her death. He never remarried.

"For each of us the prince was certainly the sovereign of the state but also a friend, a member of our family," the archbishop said.

"Today our people feel like orphans of this great man who loved us and whom we respected and loved."

Rainier took over Monaco when it was a faded gambling centre and led it into an age of skyscrapers, international banking and business. Monaco has since then often defended itself against accusations that it has become a mafia refuge for dirty money.

Members of the royal household stood in black holding red or white single roses as the coffin was brought to the cathedral behind a large cross.

The ordinary people of Monaco, a tiny principality of about 30,000 on the Mediterranean coast next to France and close to Italy, watched behind metal barriers as the funeral cortege passed.

The funeral guest list included King Carl Gustav of Sweden, Queen Sonja of Norway, Britain's Prince Andrew and members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Greece and Japan.

The Grimaldi dynasty that has ruled Monaco for more than seven centuries is all too familiar with tragedy and making headlines for the wrong reasons.

Caroline's second husband was killed in a motorboat accident and she and her sister Stephanie have often made headlines mainly for their marriage problems and love lives. Albert, 47, is a bachelor and has no children.

- REUTERS