MONACO - Monaco's new ruler, Prince Albert II, is a confirmed bachelor who has caused consternation with his refusal to wed and produce heirs. He is not opposed to marriage, the 47-year-old has said, he just doesn't "want to make a mistake." Of the three royal children, Albert, an only son groomed for decades to reign, mirrors the dignified reserve that characterized Prince Rainier III. But, with his devotion to sports and world travel, Albert also embodies the fruits of the good life carved out by his father from this Mediterranean rock, a glitzy principality run by his family, the Grimaldis, for seven centuries. The American-educated Albert took over royal powers - but not the throne - March 31 after a royal commission decided the critically ill Rainier could no longer rule. Albert automatically stepped into the role of His Serene Highness upon his father's death April 6 of heart, kidney and respiratory problems. The date of his formal investiture was not immediately known. Son of Rainier and Grace Kelly

 

Shy, overshadowed by his father and long considered a reluctant heir, the bachelor prince is the son of Rainier and Hollywood actress Grace Kelly, whose 1956 marriage propelled tiny Monaco into the realm of fairy tales. Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982. Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre, Marquis of Baux, is well-traveled, multilingual and, in recent years, has been Monaco's top ambassador. A sports enthusiast and passionate bobsledder, he participated with his team in the last five Winter Olympics and has headed Monaco's Olympic Committee since 1994. He is also a judo enthusiast and a passionate soccer player, founding a Monaco team, the Barbagiuans. But the retiring Albert has remained unmarried and childless, eliciting no more than rumors about which of the young beauties who haunt this Riviera enclave might catch his interest. "I never said that I would never marry and that I didn't want children," he was quoted as saying in the French press in 2001. "On the contrary, I would like to experience that form of happiness. But I don't want to make a mistake." Such caution has drawn consternation and, at one point, piqued his father sufficiently to comment publicly. "Prince Albert possesses all the qualities to one day become the next sovereign prince," Rainier told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview published in October 2000. "But first I want him to have descendants because this is essential for the future of the principality and that of our family." Princess Caroline next in line

 

Concern for the continuation of the Grimaldi dynasty led to a constitutional revision in 2002 to circumvent the problem posed by Albert's lack of heirs. According to Article 10, next in line would be Princess Caroline, now 48 and the elder of Albert's two sisters. She, in turn, would be succeeded by her eldest son, Andrea Albert Pierre, now 20. Born March 14, 1958, Albert has been in training for his new job as ruler since the cradle, where, at the tender age of 1 month, he was bestowed with the Grand-Cross of the Grimaldi Order. His formal training began in 1986, when he was seriously initiated into the arcane business of ruling the principality. Some have wondered whether Albert really wanted the job, but his high-profile official travels have shown otherwise. "I am convinced that, in your place, the kingdom of Monaco will find in Albert a worthy successor to Rainier," Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in a message of condolences. Albert studied in the United States, at Amherst College in Massachusetts.