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From Wikipedia.com Part 1

Albert II, Prince of Monaco


Albert II, Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born March 14, 1958), styled His Serene Highness The Sovereign Prince of Monaco, is the head of the House of Grimaldi and the current ruler of the Principality of Monaco.
He is the second child, and only son, of Rainier III and his American wife, the film star Grace Kelly, and became the reigning prince following his father's death on April 6, 2005. Prior to that, he had been the heir apparent, carrying the titles of HSH the Hereditary Prince of Monaco and Marquis of Baux; after his father became increasingly ill in early 2005, he was appointed regent, in which capacity he served for a week during the last days of his father's life.



Early life


Born in Monaco, Albert attended the Albert I High School, graduating with distinction in 1976. He spent a year training in various princely duties, and enrolled at Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1977 as Albert Grimaldi, studying political science, economics, music, and English literature, and also joined Chi Psi fraternity. He spent the summer of 1979 touring Europe and the Middle East with the Amherst Glee Club and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

During school, Albert was an enthusiastic athlete, participating in cross country, javelin, handball, judo, swimming, tennis, rowing, sailing, skiing, squash and fencing. He is a patron of Monaco's football teams. He competed in the bobsled at the 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. He has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1985. The press reported the prince refused any special treatment during his Olympic stints, and lived in the same bare-bones quarters as all the other athletes.
On 25 October 2002, Albert visited Miami, Florida for a World Olympians Associationfund-raiser at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The group's mission was to have the 100,000 Olympians get involved with their communities and talk to young athletes about dedication and training.



Regency


On March 7, 2005, Rainier was admitted to a hospital in the principality and on March 22 he was moved to intensive care. The Prince was being treated for breathing, kidney, and heart trouble. On March 31, 2005, the Palace of Monaco announced that Prince Albert would take over the duties of his father as Regent since Rainier was no longer able to exercise his royal functions. The 47-year-old prince spent his first day as regent of Monaco caring for his critically ill 81-year-old father, who was Europe’s longest-serving living monarch.