Rainier III, Prince of Monaco in the context of "Prince's Palace of Monaco"

The sovereign prince of Monaco (French: prince de Monaco; Monégasque: príncipe de Mónaco) is the monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All reigning princes and princesses have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi. When Prince Rainier III died in 2005, he was Europe's longest reigning monarch. The Grimaldi family, which has ruled Monaco for eight centuries, is Europe's longest-ruling royal family.

The reigning prince is Albert II, who ascended in April 2005.

The funeral of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, took place at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate in Monaco-Ville on 15 April 2005. A heavy smoker, Rainier suffered from chest and lung infections in his final years and was hospitalized numerous times. He was placed in intensive care unit with renal and heart failure in March 2005. He died on 6 April at the age of 81. His only son, Albert, was at his bedside. He was Europe's longest-serving monarch at the time of his death.

Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois (born Pierre Marie Xavier Raphaël Antoine Melchior de Polignac; 24 October 1895 – 10 November 1964) was the father of Rainier III of Monaco. He was a promoter of art, music, and literature in Monaco and served as the head of the country's delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and to the International Olympic Committee.

The Constitution of Monaco, first adopted in 1911 after the Monégasque Revolution and heavily revised by Prince Rainier III on 17 December 1962, outlines three branches of government, including several administrative offices and a number of councils, who share advisory and legislative power with the prince.

The constitution also defines the line of succession to the Monegasque throne; this section was modified on 2 April 2002.

The wedding of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and Grace Kelly took place on 18 and 19 April 1956 at the Prince's Palace of Monaco and the Saint Nicholas Cathedral. The groom was the sovereign prince of the Principality of Monaco. The bride was an American film star.

The wedding was watched by over 30 million viewers on live television, broadcast by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, along with 9 television networks broadcasting to Télé Monte-Carlo via Eurovision. The marriage was met with mass attention from the public, described as the "wedding of the century" and the "world's most anticipated wedding" by the media, as well as "the first modern event to generate media overkill" by biographer Robert Lacey.

Princess Caroline of Monaco (born 23 January 1957) is Princess of Hanover by marriage to Prince Ernst August. As the eldest child of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and Grace Kelly, she is the elder sister of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Princess Stéphanie.

She was Hereditary Princess of Monaco and heir presumptive to the Monegasque throne from her birth in 1957 until her brother Albert was born the following year, and again from Albert's accession in 2005 until the birth of his twins, her niece Gabriella and nephew Jacques, in 2014.

Hans Wild (1912–1969) was a British photographer who worked for Life magazine from 1938 to 1946. Some of his best known work appeared on the cover of Life including a photo of historian Charles Seltman in 1943 and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill while painting with an easel in 1946.

Wild became a professional photographer at 24 years old in 1936, and worked for Life in various capacities in the United States, England, France and Italy. He took numerous photos documenting World War II, as well as portraits of famous people including John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Vivien Leigh, Mary Welsh Hemingway, Bing Crosby, actress Pat Kirkwood, the painter Thomas Hart Benton, E. V. Knox editor of Punch, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Rupert Neve, fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Laurence Olivier, Daphne du Maurier, C. S. Lewis, Alexander Fleming, Chinese Ambassador Guo Taiqi, Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, Benjamin Britten, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and American diplomats Jefferson Caffery and Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr., Louis II, Prince of Monaco with Ghislaine Dommanget and Rainier III, Robert Anthony Eden, David Lloyd George, Thomas Beecham.