Princely welcome for royal baby in London
Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace and world leaders offer congratulations as the royal baby finally arrives in a London hospital
He's the boy without a name but with a gilded destiny.
The one baby to rule them all - or at least the people of Britain - was born to Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, on Monday afternoon, setting off celebrations among the royal couple's future subjects.
Barring tragedy - or revolution - the infant is bound to reign over Britain and the 15 other nations, including Australia and Canada, that recognise the British monarch as head of state. The baby is third in the line of succession after his grandfather, Prince Charles, and father, William, muscling aside Prince Harry, who has been demoted to fourth.
William said he and his wife "could not be happier" over the new arrival, who weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces (3.8kg) at St Mary's Hospital in central London. British politicians and leaders the world over, including Barack Obama, sent their congratulations. London mayor Boris Johnson announced that the fountains of Trafalgar Square would run with blue water for the next week to mark the event.
In a sign of the century that the royal baby has been born into, announcement of the birth was made to the world first via e-mail and social media, ahead of the traditional method of posting the news on a piece of paper mounted on an easel at Buckingham Palace. The language was still archaic - almost biblical - with its proclamation that Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, "was safely delivered of a son" at 4.24 pm.