Rainier of Monaco: the causes of the death of the sovereign prince
What were the causes of Rainier of Monaco’s death? On 6 April 2005, Prince Rainier III died in Monaco at 6.35 am at the age of 81, 56 years of which he spent in reign. The news was in the air as a few days earlier, on April 1, the palace announced that Rainier III’s doctors gave very little hope for the prince to recover his health.
In the last three years of his life, also due to his strong propensity to smoke (he smoked about 60 cigarettes a day), the prince’s health slowly declined. Already at the beginning of 2004 the prince was hospitalized for problems generically described as “fatigue”, again in February of that same year for problems with the coronary tracts and then again in October for a throat infection.
On March 7, 2005 Ranieri of Monaco was hospitalized for a lung infection; he later walked out of the hospital on March 22 with a prognosis of kidney failure and remaining heart problems. On March 7, 2005, the prince was hospitalized again for a tracheal infection. Ranieri was transferred to intensive care on 22 March. The next day, March 23, he was placed on forced respiration for heart and kidney problems. On March 26, the palace let it be known that no matter how much effort was being made to try to improve the prince’s health, it continued to be not good, although he remained conscious and in generally stable conditions. However, his prognosis remained “very secret”.
On 31 March 2005, after a meeting of the Privy Council of Monaco, it was announced that Rainier III’s son, Prince Albert, Marquis de Baux, would assume the regency in place of his father, since he would no longer be able to exercise his functions as ruler.
After another deterioration, Prince Rainier III died in Monaco on 6 April 2005 at the age of 81. His successor was his son Prince Albert, who assumed the name of Albert II. The news of his death received little coverage in the press since it coincided in time with that of Pope John Paul II, who died four days earlier.
Prince Rainier III’s body was buried on 15 April 2005, alongside that of his wife, Princess Grace, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where the previous sovereigns of the Monegasque throne also rest. Important personalities from the political world and the aristocracy took part in his funeral.
