OK, everybody: Awwwwww
Prince Louis of Great Britain is christened.
The royal baby star of the show arrived cradled in the arms of his mum, Duchess Kate of Cambridge.
The christening of the third royal Cambridge heir, Prince Louis, took place Monday in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in London as adoring members of his Windsor and Middleton families looked on, but without his nonagenarian great-grandparents.
It was the world’s first glimpse of the baby prince – the sixth great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – in public since he was born on April 23.
The date was special to the queen: July 9, 1947, was the day her engagement to Philip was announced. But the two were not at the ceremony.
The queen, 92, had spent a busy week in Scotland and was traveling to London to face another full week, including major ceremonies on Tuesday and a meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday.
Prince Philip, 97, has retired from public duties and is not often seen in public anymore.
The new fifth in line to the throne was baptized an Anglican with the full name of Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge in a private ceremony in the same small chapel where his brother, Prince George of Cambridge, was christened in October 2013.
As usual, the christening was an intimate affair. Present were the baby’s parents, Prince William and Duchess Kate, and his grandfather, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife, Duchess Camilla of Cornwall.
Uncle Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan of Sussex were there, plus his maternal grandparents, Carole and Michael Middleton, aunt Pippa Middleton Matthews and her husband, James Matthews, and uncle James Middleton.
Cutest expected participants: George, third in line to the throne, who turns 5 on July 22, and sister Charlotte, 3, fourth in line. It was the first look at the Cambridge family of five in public since the baby’s birth.
Charlotte was dressed in one of her signature smock dresses in blue and white. George wore dark shorts and a white shirt.
Kate was in a creamy Alexander McQueen dress with a V-neck, plus a Jane Taylor hat.
Louis was dressed in the royal christening gown, a replica of the 1841 original retired 10 years ago.
Also on the guest list were the six godparents, announced by Kensington Palace on Monday morning: Nicholas van Cutsem, one of William and Harry’s oldest friends; Guy Pelly, another chum who married an American in 2014 in a wedding attended by William and Harry; Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, another old friend of William’s; Lady Laura Meade, the daughter of an earl who married one of William’s closest friends from Eton, James Meade, who is a godparent to Princess Charlotte; Hannah Carter, an old school friend of Kate’s and sister-in-law to one of Princess Charlotte’s godparents; and Lucy Middleton, Kate’s cousin, whose brother, Adam Middleton, is a godparent to Princess Charlotte.
Royal children typically get multiple godparents: Charles has eight, William has six and George has seven.
After the 40-minute ceremony, the families went to Clarence House for a tea party, where guests were to be served slices of the traditional christening treat: a tier taken from Will and Kate’s 2011 wedding cake.
They also were scheduled to pose for the official christening photograph, taken by portrait photographer Matt Holyoak, who also took the official photo of the queen and Philip in 2017 to mark their 70th wedding anniversary. The christening photo will be released in coming days, the palace said.
The service, conducted by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, featured all of the usual trappings of a royal christening, including the silver baptismal Lily Font, water taken from the River Jordan, singing by the Royal Chapel choir, and the baby clad in a handmade replica of the Victorian-era royal christening gown of Honiton lace lined with white satin.
“I’m delighted and privileged to be christening Prince Louis today – a precious child made in God’s image, just as we all are. Please join me in praying for him and his family on this special day,” Welby said on Twitter.
This is the third time around for Will and Kate but only the second time they’ve picked the Chapel Royal for the ceremony. Charlotte was christened at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Used by royals since Queen Victoria’s time, that little church was a sentimental choice because it’s where William’s mother, Princess Diana, was christened in 1961 when her Spencer family was living on the estate.
Royal babies close to the throne are usually christened in London, although not always at St. James’s Palace, the oldest (commissioned by Henry VIII in the 1530s) royal palace in Britain. Before George, the Chapel Royal was last used for the christening of William’s cousin Princess Beatrice in 1988. William, Charles and the queen, for example, were all christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace.
The cozy (seats less than 50) chapel’s long history (it was built starting in 1540) is steeped in royal connections and ceremonies. Its coffered ceiling is decorated with royal initials and coats of arms believed to have been painted by 16th-century German master Hans Holbein.
The chapel is where Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840. More recently, it was where the former Meghan Markle was baptized an Anglican in a ceremony conducted by Welby shortly before her May 19 wedding to Harry.
The christening gown also has a long history. The original was made in 1841 for the christening of Victoria’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, and was subsequently worn for all royal christenings, including Queen Elizabeth, her children and most of her grandchildren.
But it was in such fragile shape that the queen commissioned her dressmaker, Angela Kelly, to make a replica. The queen’s youngest grandchild, James, Viscount Severn, son of Prince Edward, was the first member of the family to wear the replica at his christening in the private chapel at Windsor Castle in April 2008.
Both George and Charlotte also wore the replica gown at their christenings.