Third time is the Prince Charming
THRICE the worry now!’ joked Prince William last night, looking every inch a man without a care in the world as he set off for home with his new son strapped on the back seat alongside his wife, Kate.
The couple were ‘very happy’ and ‘delighted’ he added, as they showed off the new fifth in line to the throne. ‘We didn’t keep you waiting too long this time,’ he added.
You can say that again. Even by her own standards, yesterday was a stellar performance by Kate. Apart from looking as fresh as a state banquet flower arrangement just seven hours after giving birth to her third child, her timing had been near-miraculous.
She had managed to avoid upstaging the Queen’s big Commonwealth summit all last week. She had successfully dodged her 92nd birthday celebrations at the weekend. Then, with perfect timing, she picked St George’s Day to be safely delivered of a son.
And to cap it all, she has now followed the UK monarch’s very own nursery batting order, too: boy, girl, boy...
Nearly three years on from the birth of Princess Charlotte, the world’s media took up their maternity battle stations soon after breakfast yesterday outside St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. Bulletins from the Baltic to Bali cut in to their schedules to break the news that the Duchess had gone into labour. They cut in again at lunchtime to relay the further announcement: ‘It’s a boy’.
As fifth-in-line, the baby may be unlikely to trouble the constitutional scorers. He is destined, gradually, to slip down the line of succession just as everyone from Prince Harry onwards dropped one rung yesterday following his arrival. But he and his elder sister, Princess Charlotte, have already made royal history. Here is the first British prince in history not to elbow a female sibling out of the way by dint of his sex. Thanks to the new Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which ended male primogeniture in the Royal Family for all those born after 2011, Charlotte stays ahead of him in fourth spot. The other knock-on effect of yesterday’s news concerned a different royal third-born.
The recent change in legislation means that only Numbers One to Six in the line of succession now need the Queen’s permission to marry. Having just dropped down to Number Seven, the Duke of York is henceforth a free man in that regard.
The official announcement came yesterday afternoon, carried by two lady footmen and plonked on ‘Eddie the Easel’ just inside the Buckingham Palace railings. Crowds were still queuing up to photograph it last night.
One of the best vantage points had been given over to the regular band of diehards who turn up for these moments. I met Maria Scott, 46, a housewife from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who had been here since March 31. She and her daughter Amy, 28, had spent the first few nights in a hotel but, for the last fortnight, had been sleeping in a tent by the 24-hour hospital entrance.
‘People can’t understand why I do this but I can’t understand why they like football,’ said Maria cheerfully.
Just after 4pm, a shiny Land Rover Discovery pulled up and the chauffeur made himself scarce. Down the steps came the Duke of Cambridge beaming broadly and telling the crowds: ‘Back in a minute!’
He was off to pick up his eldest two and bring them for their first glimpse of baby brother. When they returned, Prince George was rather bemused by the legion of lenses over the road. Princess Charlotte, on the other hand, was all waves and smiles.
Within the hour, the new Prince emerged in his mother’s arms to great shrieks of delight at ground level and up through the open windows of every floor of this vast London hospital. Many of those peering out from on high were still in their hospital scrubs.
One hopes they had finished whatever they were supposed to be doing.
The new Prince of Cambridge snoozed through it all. In due course, when Daddy becomes Prince of Wales, he will become Prince X of Wales. As for names, the bookies favour Arthur, James and Albert. There is one other name which seems to have been overlooked. The Royals have a tradition of sharing names and Baby Cambridge does share his birthday with William Shakespeare. Can we expect to see William in the mix?