Best tidbits from the obituary of Prince Rainier of Monaco (widower of Princess Grace), who died today:

The fairyland he was groomed to take over had been in the Grimaldi family since 1297. It became a Grimaldi holding not because of any act of chivalry performed by a remote ancestor and rewarded by a king. Rather, it occurred when Francesco Grimaldi of Genoa, leading a group of men dressed as monks, appeared at the front gate and told the guards they were tired and hungry and needed shelter for the night. The guards, who were also Genoese, felt sorry for the monks and let them in.

But the men in robes, who belonged to no religious order at all, immediately drew their swords and slaughtered their hosts. Grimaldi then became known in Italy and France as Francesco the Spiteful, and the bloody event that made him a prince became part of the Grimaldi family’s coat of arms, which to this day shows two men who look like monks holding swords.

“Francesco the Spiteful.” I like that. I’m going to start calling myself Tin Man the Spiteful.

And:

In 1996 Princess Stephanie, then 32, quickly divorced her husband and former bodyguard, Daniel Ducruet, after celebrity-hunting Italian photographers spotted him hugging a former Miss Bare Breasts of Belgium in a rented villa on the French Riviera.

Hee hee. Those Belgians.