HRH Prince Gabriel Carl Walther of Sweden, Duke of Dalecarlia

In a Council of State at the Royal Palace in Stockholm at 11.15 a.m., King Carl XVI Gustaf officially informed the cabinet of the birth of Prince Carl Philip's and Princess Sofia's second child, a son who saw the light of day at Danderyd Hospital on Thursday 31 August at 11.24 a.m. The newborn has received the name Gabriel Carl Walther and the titles Prince of Sweden and Duke of Dalecarlia (Dalarna in Swedish).
From what Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said, it seems the parents have chosen the name Gabriel, which has no royal traditions in Sweden, because they believe it fits their newborn baby. The name Carl, on the other hand, is perhaps the most frequently used male name in Swedish royal history, borne by, among many others, the child's father and paternal grandfather, as well as nine Swedish kings before him (although he is called Carl XVI Gustaf, the first six Carls never existed). Walther is clearly in memory of Queen Silvia's father, the German businessman Walther Sommerlath, and the name is also borne by one of her brothers.
Many had guessed that the newborn baby would receive the dukedom of Dalecarlia, as that is the province from which Princess Sofia hails, but it is actually the first time that such personal connections are taken into consideration for the choice of dukedom. The dukedom of Dalecarlia was last held by King Carl Gustaf's youngest uncle, Prince Carl Johan, who received it at the time of his birth in 1916, but forfeited it when he married a commoner in 1946. Before that it was held by King Oscar I's youngest son, Prince August (1831-1873), whose widow Teresia, the Dowager Duchess of Dalecarlia, died only two years before the dukedom was created anew for Prince Carl Johan.
Prince Gabriel is King Carl Gustaf's and Queen Silvia's sixth grandchild and also sixth in line to the Swedish throne, following Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Estelle, Prince Oscar, Prince Carl Philip and Prince Alexander. However, the family will continue to grow in the near future, as it was announced only four days before Prince Gabriel's birth that Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill are expecting their third child in March.

Birth of King Olav's first great-great-grandchild

The first member of the sixth generation of the family founded by King Haakon VII saw the light of day on Wednesday 28 September, when Victoria Ribeiro Falcão gave birth to a boy, who has received the names Frederik Sven Lorentzen Falcão and will be known as Fred.
His parents, Victoria Ragna Lorentzen Ribeiro Falcão and Felipe Sampaio Octaviano Falcão, both born in 1988, married on 9 August 2014. His mother is the only child of Ingeborg Lorentzen Ribeiro, who is herself the eldest daughter of the late Princess Ragnhild. The baby is thus the first-born great-great-grandchild of the late King Olav V.
The newborn has no right of succession to the Norwegian throne, but holds a distant place in the order of succession to the British throne.

First great-grandchild for King Albert II

The former Belgian monarch King Albert II, who abdicated in 2013, and his wife Queen Paola became great-grandparents for the first time yesterday, when their grandson Prince Amedeo and his wife Elisabetta "Lilli" became the parents of a girl, who saw the light of day at St Peter's Hospital in Brussels at 3.30 a.m. She was 52 centimetres long and weighed 3.3 kg. Prince Amedeo is the eldest son of Princess Astrid and was, until his uncle Philippe's late marriage in 1999, often thought to be a future Belgian monarch but is now sixth in line to the Belgian throne.
He did not seek royal consent ahead of his marriage to Elisabetta Maria Rosboch von Wolkenstein in July 2014, but later received it retroactively. King Philippe's decision to restrict the title Prince(ss) of Belgium to children and grandchildren of the monarch and heir apparent means that the newborn will not be a Princess of Belgium. However, she may use those titles Prince Amedeo has got from his father, a grandson of the last Austro-Hungarian Emperor, i.e. Archduchess of Austria-Este and Princess of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Modena.
Postscript: It was announced the next day that the newborn's name will be Anna Astrid, the names of her two grandmothers.

A son for Crown Princess Victoria

At a press conference at the Caroline Hospital in Solna, Prince Daniel of Sweden has just announced that Crown Princess Victoria has given birth to a son at 8.28 p.m. The baby is 52 centimetres long and weighs 3,655 grams. The name and dukedom of the newborn prince, who is third in line to the Swedish throne, will be announced by King Carl Gustaf in a state council, which will be held tomorrow.

Two heirs in two minutes for Monaco

At 5.04 p.m. on Wednesday 10 December Princess Charlène of Monaco gave birth to a princess, who will bear the name Gabriella Thérèse Marie. However, as Monaco is one of the monarchies which still have male-preferred succession, Princess Gabriella lost her position as hereditary princess after only two minutes, when Princess Charlène gave birth to a prince, who has received the name Jacques Honoré Rainier.
Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques, who were born at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, are the first legitimate children of Sovereign Prince Albert II. While Prince Jacques received the traditional title for the heir to the throne, Marquis of Baux, Princess Gabriella was created Countess of Carladès.
The name Jacques has been borne by one previous ruler of Monaco, Jacques I, born Count Jacques Goyon de Matignon of Thorigny in 1689. In 1715 he married Princess Louise-Hippolyte of Monaco, who became the second female Monegasque ruler when her father Antoine I died in April 1731. However, the Sovereign Princess herself died at the end of the year and was succeeded by her husband, who reigned for nearly two years before abdicating in favour of their son Honoré I. Prince Jacques died in 1751 in his Paris residence, Hôtel de Matignon, today a very well-known address as the official residence of the French Prime Minister.
The name Honoré has been borne by five sovereign princes of Monaco, while Rainier was the name of the thirteenth-century founder of the dynasty and his son as well as of the new-born children's paternal grandfather, the late Sovereign Prince Rainier III.

A Swedish Princess born in the USA

Princess Madeleine of Sweden gave birth to a daughter at the New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York at 10.41 p.m. local time yesterday, i.e. at 4.41 a.m. today by Swedish time.
The names of the child (and the dukedom she will probably receive) will be announced by the King in a council at the Royal Palace, but this will only take place after the weekend, it has been stated.
King Carl Gustaf has earlier decided that the child will be a Princess of Sweden and a Royal Highness, but, incredibly, it seems the royal court’s press department has not yet managed to figure out whether the newborn Princess is in line of succession. The acting director of the information and press department, Annika Sönnerberg, says to the online edition of Dagens Nyheter (external link) that the child so far is only a US citizen and not a Swedish citizen and that she therefore cannot inherit the throne. However, there is nothing whatsoever about citizenship in the Act of Succession.
A newborn member of the royal family is traditionally viewed by the Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Marshal of the Realm and the Mistress of the Robes shortly after its birth, which is a remnant of the older practice that a royal birth took place with witnesses present in the room or, later, in an adjacent room (a tradition abolished in Sweden in the early twentieth century). As this child was born in the USA, two doctors at the hospital where the Princess was born will confirm to King Carl Gustaf that they were present and that the baby is indeed the child of Princess Madeleine.
A 21-gun-salute was fired from Skeppsholmen in Stockholm today, while the service of thanksgiving which normally takes place immediately after a royal birth will only take place on 2 March at 2 p.m.
The child’s father, Christopher O’Neill, will meet the press at the hospital in New York at noon local time today (6 p.m. Swedish time).
UPDATE: While meeting the press, Christopher O’Neill revealed that he and Princess Madeleine have decided on five names for their daughter. However, these will only be announced by the King in council next week. The baby weighed in at 3,150 grams and 50 centimetres and looks like her mother, according to the father.

A British prince is born

An hour ago it was announced by the British royal court that the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a son at St Mary's Hospital in London at 4.24 p.m. BST (17.24 CEST). The Prince, whose name has not yet been announced, is third in line to the British throne and it is the first time since 1901 that there are direct heirs to the British throne in three generations. The infant Prince is the first grandchild of the Prince of Wales and the third great-grandchild and first great-grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

First grandchild for Princess Caroline of Monaco

The Monegasque court has confirmed that Andrea Casiraghi and his Colombian fiancée, Tatiana Santo Domingo, became the parents of a son on Thursday. The name of the child has not yet been revealed.
Andrea Casiraghi is the eldest child of Hereditary Princess Caroline (aka the Princess of Hanover), born of her marriage to her second husband, Stefano Casiraghi, who died in a boat accident in 1990.
Andrea Casiraghi is second in line to the throne of Monaco, following his mother, the heiress presumptive, but as his son is born out of wedlock, the baby is not in the line of succession.

Prussian “pretender” fathers twins

The office of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, head of the former royal house of Prussia, has announced that the Prince and his wife Sophie have become the parents of twin boys, who were born in Bremen yesterday. The eldest boy has received the name Carl Friedrich, while the younger has been named Louis Ferdinand, both names with deep roots in the history of the House of Hohenzollern.
Prince Georg Friedrich is the great-great-grandson of Wilhelm II, last German Emperor and King of Prussia, and head of the royal house since the death of his grandfather, Prince Louis Ferdinand, in 1994. Thus, if the German monarchies had survived World War I and subsequent upheavals, Prince Georg Friedrich would now have been German Emperor and King of Prussia. However, he makes no such claims. On 25 August 2011 he married Princess Sophie of Isenburg, daughter of the Prince of Isenburg.

First grandchild for Princess Christina

Svensk Damtidning reports that Princess Christina, the youngest of the four elder sisters of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, has become a grandmother for the first time. Frida Bergström, the partner of her youngest son Victor Magnuson, gave birth on 11 December to a son, whose name has not yet been decided.

Second great-granddaughter for Queen Elizabeth II

It was announced today that Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of Britain became great-grandparents for the second time yesterday, when their granddaughter-in-law Autumn Phillips gave birth to another daughter at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
The child’s name will be Isla Elizabeth Phillips and she is thirteenth in line to the thrones of Britain and other countries of which her great-grandmother is queen.
The girl’s father, Peter Phillips, is the eldest child of Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and her first husband Mark Phillips. Peter was himself born in the year when his grandmother celebrated her silver jubilee, while his daughter has now seen the light of day as her great-grandmother celebrates her diamond jubilee.
The first child of Peter Phillips and his Canadian-born wife Autumn, Savannah, was born on 30 December 2010.

A future Queen of Sweden born

Right now Prince Daniel of Sweden is holding a press conference at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset (the Caroline University Hospital) in Solna, announcing that Crown Princess Victoria gave birth to a princess at 4.26 a.m.
The Princess is 51 centimetres long and weighs 3 280 grams.
Around 6 p.m. yesterday an ambulance and two black cars were seen leaving Haga Palace, but the royal court says the Crown Princess was only admitted at 12.50 a.m.
The names and the dukedom given to the infant princess will be announced by King Carl Gustaf in a state council at the Royal Palace tomorrow.
As the succession to the Swedish throne is gender-neutral since 1980, the newborn princess will one day become Queen Regnant (given that the monarchy survives, of course). This means that in her generation, there will be female monarchs in Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and probably Spain and a male monarch only in Denmark unless Prince William of Britain's firstborn is a boy.

A Princess of Denmark was born this morning

The Danish royal court has announced that Princess Marie gave birth to a daughter at the National Hospital in Copenhagen this morning at 8.27. The newborn Princess is 49 centimetres long and weighs 2,930 grams.
The Princess is the second child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, but her father also has two sons from his first marriage to the former Princess Alexandra (now Countess of Frederiksborg). She is the eighth grandchild of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Consort Henrik.
The Princess, whose name in keeping with royal Danish tradition will not be revealed until her christening, is tenth in line to the Danish throne.
Her birth will be marked with a 21-gun-salute at noon and flags will be flown from public buildings from the same hour.

A prince and a princess for Denmark

Amalienborg has announced (external link) that Crown Princess Mary has given birth to twins at the National Hospital in Copenhagen today. A prince, who is fourth in line to the throne, was born at 10.30 a.m, while a princess, fifth in line to the throne, was born at 10.56.
The boy weighs 2,674 grams and is 47 centimetres long; the girl weighs 2,554 grams and measures 46 centimetres.
According to Danish royal tradition the names of royal babies are kept secret until their christening.
While a royal birth is traditionally marked by a 21-gun salute from Kronborg Castle and from the Sixtus battery at Holmen in Copenhagen, this time there was two 21-gun salutes - one for each baby.
It is the first time since 1519 - when King Christian II and Queen Elisabeth became the parents of Maximilian and Philip - that twins are born in the Danish royal house (although former Princes Christian and Flemming both fathered twins after they had lost their succession rights and Christian IV had twins by his morganatic wife Kirsten Munk in 1626).
The Prince Consort has already paid a visit to his sixth and seventh grandchildren at the hospital.

First great-grandchild for Queen Elizabeth II

Buckingham Palace has announced (external link) the birth of a daughter to Peter and Autumn Phillips at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital today.
The child, whose name has not yet been confirmed, is the first grandchild of Anne, the Princess Royal, and the first great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and the Duke of Edinburgh. She takes her place as twelth in line to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other countries of which her great-grandmother is monarch.
It is the first time since the days of Queen Victoria that a British monarch sees the birth of a great-grandchild, although queens consort Alexandra, Mary and Elizabeth all became great-grandmothers in their widowhood.

Count Christian Bernadotte becomes a father

Count Christian Bernadotte af Wisborg, the youngest son of the late former Prince Lennart of Sweden, and his wife Christine, who married at Mainau on 22 May, yesterday became parents for the first time. Their firstborn is a son whose name will be Maximilian Benedikt.
Count Christian’s sister, Diana Bernadotte, is also expecting a child this month. The identity of the father of her second child is not publicly known.

Two new Windsors this week

Two members have been added to the non-royal branches of the Windsor dynasty this week. Today Lord Frederick Windsor, the only son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, married the actress Sophie Winkleman in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames, and on Tuesday Lord Nicholas Windsor, the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, became the father of a second son, who has not yet been named. The cousins Lord Frederick and Lord Nicholas are great-grandsons of King George V. The Guardian reports on the wedding:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/11/freddie-windsor-sophie-winkleman-wedding

A Prince of Denmark born today

At 4.57 this morning Princess Marie of Denmark gave birth to a son at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet). The Prince was 49 cm long and weighed 3032 gr. He is the first child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, who married in May last year, but Prince Joachim has two sons, Princes Nikolai and Felix, from his first marriage. The newborn prince is seventh in line to the Danish throne. The Danish royals normally keep the child's names secret until the christening.

The announcement and some information on the Danish royal website:

http://kongehuset.dk/publish.php?id=21147

http://kongehuset.dk/publish.php?id=21148