PARIS, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Albert II was officially invested as Monaco's ruler Thursday, more than seven months after his father's death.
Prince Albert, 47, officially assumed the throne in a ceremony at the tiny Mediterranean principality attended by the French foreign minister and a slew of European diplomats and royalty.
Monaco is expected to hold more celebrations on Friday and Saturday, the latter coinciding with a national holiday.
Albert became Monaco's ruler following the April 6 death of his father, Prince Rainier.
His mother, the American movie star Grace Kelly, died in a car accident years earlier.
Questions of succession have long dogged Albert, who has yet to marry. He vows he will, however, at some unspecified date.
Earlier this year, France's Paris Match revealed Albert had produced a son out of wedlock with a former African flight attendant.
The boy is not eligible to ascend Monaco's throne.
In 2002, Monaco passed a new law allowing the throne to pass down to female members of the Grimaldi dynasty if there are no male heirs.
For the moment that makes Albert's older sister, Princess Caroline, the presumptive heir to the Monegasque throne.
