Rejoice! A Prince Is Born

By Michael Demarest

"Nice one, Charlie!" the crowd cheers, as Diana produces an heir

This is the way they come into the world, the future Kings of Britain: to the thunk of artillery and cannonades of champagne corks. To billowing flags and pealing bells, to churchmen's prayers and endless, raucous choruses of Rule, Britannia! and For He's a Jolly Good Fellow! Amid clouds of euphoria that make their subjects-to-be and millions of television cousins feel that they are members of one harmonious family.

All the accustomed accolades and happy omens greeted the birth of an heir at 9:03 p.m., June 21. Yet, the arrival of the Princeling, who is in line to be the 42nd monarch since the Norman conquest, also had some marked differences. He was not born in the dim fastnesses of a palace, screened by courtiers, but in a $218-a-day, 12-ft. by 12-ft. white room, with one rather shabby armchair, at London's St. Mary's Hospital. Both parents had taken lessons in natural childbirth, and his father was in the room all through his mother's six hours of labor.* "I am, after all, the father, and I suppose I started this whole business," Prince Charles said earlier. "So, I intend to be there when everything happens."

Minutes after the birth, on the longest day of the year, Charles was cradling his first-born in his arms.

And then, like any other new parents at St. Mary's, Charles, 33, and Diana, 20, were left alone with their baby, Monday's boy, fair of face and hair, blue-eyed, 7 lbs. 1 1/2 oz., born 328 days after the royal wedding.

On the hospital gates appeared a crudely lettered cardboard communique:

IT'S A BOY. Two hours after the birth, with tears in his eyes and lipstick smudges on his cheeks, Prince Charles grasped the hands of the well-wishers, who had been gathering outside the hospital all day.

Next evening, only 20 hours and 57 minutes after giving birth, Diana, Princess of Wales, walked out of the hospital with her baby born to be King. Then they went off to their new home in Kensington Palace.

The infant, who will be breastfed, will sleep in a century-old, cast-iron cradle in a yellow-and-white nursery bedroom.

One of the first toys the young Prince may grasp is an ivory-handled rattle that was given to his great-grandmother, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. More than 2,000 gifts from all over the world flooded in on the family; most are to be passed on to hospitals and orphanages.

One thing the babe most conspicuously lacked for the time being was a name--or names, since he is bound to have at least four. The royal family has sometimes been dilatory about naming its offspring, and there were hints of nomenclatural disagreements. The presumed favorite was George, after Prince Charles' grandfather (and possibly also for George III who, though known to most Americans as the slightly dotty monarch who let America get away, is considered by Charles to be "a complete idealist and moralist"). The Princess was rumored to prefer a trendier name, like Oliver. Next most likely, in popular opinion at least, were James, on whom the bookmakers gave 7 to 2 odds; William, 5 to 1; Charles, David and Edward, each 7 to 1; and Louis, 8 to 1. Longshots included Henry and Edmund, 20 to 1, Winston, 33 to 1, and Elvis and Canute at 1,000 to 1. Many sentimentalists hoped he would be christened Arthur, after the misty monarch of Excalibur and Camelot.

This future King, at least, will not have to wrest a sword from a stone to demonstrate his legitimacy. His lineage is exhaustively, and sometimes imaginatively, chronicled, and dazzlingly diverse. The boy who will be the 22nd English Prince of Wales is descended not only from William the Conqueror but also from Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon King, who died fighting William at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and from Llywelynap-Gruffydd, the last native Prince of all Wales. Other ancestors include Count Dracula and King Cole, Genghis Khan, as well as Vladimir Monomakh, Great Prince of Kiev in the 12th century, Charlemagne, St. Louis (King of France), and on the Queen Mother's side, a plumber's daughter named Mary Carpenter. The pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon Chronicle maintains that he is a descendant of Woden, the Germanic god who gave his name to Wednesday. He is related also to Shakespeare (perhaps), Melesende, Queen of Jerusalem, the Danish Kings Sweyn Forkbeard and Ulf Sprakalegg, George Washington, Jimmy Carter and a 9th century buccaneer named Rollo the Ganger. Nevertheless, he is the most purely British heir to the throne since James I. Some genealogists, sounding like truth-in-labeling analysts, noted happily that he is all of 58.8% British.

Judging from his parents' background and inclinations, the young Prince should be able to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere of a palace upbringing. Indeed, there is every indication, and much hope, that he will grow up knowing a great deal more about beer and soccer than any of his predecessors. Prince Charles is the first of his line to be able to unbend with the crowds, to sense and play on their moods; as a child of the television age, he is camera-wise and quick with the one-liner. "Nice one, Charlie! Give us another," they shouted outside the hospital. "Bloody hell," he riposted. "Give us a chance." As a result, he has been called the "people's Prince." Certainly, he has shown more than ex-officio concern for common folk.

After all, Charles did marry a commoner: a vivacious, strong-willed young woman, who is unpompous and unintimidated. It was, for instance, Diana's decision not to have her baby at Buckingham Palace, as the Queen had wanted. She has said that her Princeling will travel with his parents on state tours. It was presumably also Diana--who had worked with children--who had the last word when it came to hiring the nanny, Barbara Barnes, 39, who says firmly that she will not wear a uniform and has learned her philosophy of governance (plenty of fresh air and exercise, among other things) on the job--not by going to Nanny U.

Understandably, few could wish the bonny babe ill. Even France's Communist paper L'Humanite ended its three-paragraph story with the inaccurate but well-meaning comment: "God save the next little King." Indeed, as the London Times headlined one story, IN ITS SMALL PERSON ALL OUR TRIBAL HISTORY. Commentators were quick to point out that the Prince will come of age in the year 2000, which will make him a young man of the 21st century. Thus, they noted, he should be widely and democratically traveled, fluent in at least one or two foreign languages, and more intensively and extensively educated than any other monarch in Britain's history. Above all, even while perpetuating the mystique of monarchy, he will need to be at home with computers and the whole array of space-age technology that may assure Britain's economic survival. He may not have a Merlin to guide him, but the auspices for a future monarch have seldom been more exciting.

--By Michael Demarest. Reported by Mary Cronin and James Shepherd/London

* The Prince's grandfather, Prince Philip, played squash with an equerry while Charles was born. His great-great-grandfather, George V, read Pilgrim's Progress during the birth of one son.

With reporting by Mary Cronin, James Shepherd

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