It's only been a few weeks since Princess Charlotte was christened, but now royal watchers will be training their eyes on another special baptism that took place more than 60 years ago – that of Prince Charles.
A never-before seen video from 1948 has just been released by the Associated Press and British Movietone, which shows a baby Charles peacefully sleeping at his christening.
The future King was four weeks old at the time, and as seen in the historic footage, he was as good as gold and paid no heed to the photographers and videographer.
© Photo: Getty ImagesA four-week-old Prince Charles was as good as gold at his christening
Some 50 people were invited to the ceremony at the Music Room of Buckingham Palace, and while it was a private affair, crowds still gathered outside the palace gates in London in the hope of catching a glimpse of the royals, their guests and the baby's sponsors.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, baptised the sleeping baby using water from the River Jordan, on 15 December.
Although the actual christening was held behind closed doors, the scenes before and after the service were captured on camera.
© Photo: Getty ImagesFour generations pose for a photo – Prince Charles, Princess Elizabeth, King George VI and Queen Mary
It's easy to see how joyful and proud the new parents looked – the then Princess Elizabeth, who was 22 at the time, and her husband Prince Philip. Charles is the Queen's firstborn and heir to the throne, and was followed by Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
The new footage shows the royal family posing for the cameras and taking different group photos, including a precious one of Queen Mary holding her newborn great-grandson Prince Charles.
A close-up of Charles' birth certificate, bearing his full name Charles Philip Arthur George, and his parents' signatures can also be seen in the video.
The historic four-minute clip is just one of thousands of videos that has been released to the public. The Associated Press and British Movietone have uploaded the video onto their new YouTube channels.
More than 550,000 video stories dating from 1895 to the present day have been uploaded, for educational purposes and sources of inspiration for history enthusiasts and documentary filmmakers.
