A 2nd Boy for Guillaume and Stéphanie - François: March 27, 2023

[Moonmaiden23]

Wonder if they..??,,But, I mean...you are aware that she just delivered a boy,a big boy?...BIG....give the gall a rest...

First, 3.575 is a healthy size for a newborn. It is not all that"big BIG."

Second, since the HGD couple had at one time expressed the desire for a large family and are (obviously) late getting starting, it was not an unreasonable musing.

No one expects her to be pregnant again in a few months.

 

[Blog Real]

Charles was baptized four months after he was born (he was born in May and baptized in September 2020).
If the same happens to François, the christening could take place in July.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I suspect that Charles's baptism was delayed due to Covid. Maybe the new infant will be baptized after Priincess Alexandra's wedding sometime in May, which will also give Stephanie enough time to recuperate.

 

[Countessmeout]

I suspect that Charles's baptism was delayed due to Covid. Maybe the new infant will be baptized after Priincess Alexandra's wedding sometime in May, which will also give Stephanie enough time to recuperate.

Covid is a fair bet. The only other royal child that waited four months was Prince Liam. And he was baptised at the Vatican which was the likely cause.

Guillaume and his siblings were all baptised within 4-6 weeks of birth (actually Felix wasn't even a month old).

Alexandra is getting married on the 22nd. A baptism around then might make sense when the family is all gathered anyways. But then again they may want to avoid stealing the thunder of the bride.

 

[Fürstin Taxis]

Welcome, François



Yes, I thought it would be Henri as first name, but I kinda like they went "non traditional".

 

[Tatiana Maria]

It is interesting how in contrast to how some Belgian royal names are treated, François's name is preserved in its French version even when using the other official languages of German or Luxembourgish.

https://monarchie.lu/lu/gebuert-vum-prenz-francois
https://monarchie.lu/de/geburt-skh-des-prinzen-francois

There doesn't appear to be any namesake for François, Franz, etc. in the history of the ruling dynasties of Luxembourg, although the name was used repeatedly in the House of Nassau before it succeeded to the grand duchy of Luxembourg.

There is some small precedence for Francois. Not in the Grand Duchy, but in the earlier Duchy of Luxembourg which encompassed both the Grand Duchy and the Belgian province of the name. Francois-Henri Montmorency was a succesful general of Louis XIV and through his marriage to the heiress to the Duchy of Luxembourg, was Duke of Luxembourg. He was the start of the house of Montmorency which died out in the late 1800s for male heirs.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Henri-de-Montmorency-Bouteville-duc-de-Luxembourg

Francois-Henri, now Francois Henri though in this case Henri for his grandfather.

Interesting, thank you. At least there is some historical connection to Luxembourg, though a weak one as his wife would only have been a pretender to the duchy - the actual Duchy of Luxembourg was a possession of the King of Spain at the time.

Prince Charles's actual baptism took place on the day of his birth. It was the accompanying ceremony which was delayed for four months.

Refer to the discussion in his baptism thread.

RTL, the Luxemburgish media which has access to the best information from the court, writes that it was a "Messe d'action de grâce pour le baptême de SAR le Prince Charles avec les rites complémentaires du baptême". French is my native language and in French, "rites complémentaires du baptême" refer to the anointing, the giving of the candle and the white garnment. It nevers refers to the gesture with water. I have looked at every pic the medias have published : not a single one is showing little Charles receving water on his forehead. Not a single one. However, there are plenty of pics with the anointing, the white garnment and the candle. Here are some with the candle.

https://www.wort.lu/de/politik/die-taufe-von-prinz-charles-5f6596e8de135b92363fcf63

Usually, the date on the candle is the baptism date. On this pic, the date on the candle is his birth date. As we know HGD had an emergency C-section, my hypothesis is that there was some fear for his life or his health at birth, which have quickly disappeared as he was said to do well in the birth announcement. However, I stand with my take : he was not christened today but earlier. I thought on why the medias and the court used to word "baptism" : that was Charles's big day, a feast around him. Usually, when there is an ondoiement, as we say in French, there is a traditional feast, the same for any other baptism, the day the complementary rites are performed. A friend knew this for one of her sons.

It will be interesting to see if the baptism and ceremony are held separately this time (according to posters here, that was unusual).

 

[CrownPrincessJava]

Fantastic news!!!!!! Congratulations to the HGD family!

53cm long - the little Prince is destined to be tall!

 

[Countessmeout]

Prince Charles's actual baptism took place on the day of his birth. It was the accompanying ceremony which was delayed for four months.

Refer to the discussion in his baptism thread.



It will be interesting to see if the baptism and ceremony are held separately this time (according to posters here, that was unusual).

With covid raging and all other concerns, it was practical to have him baptized right away. After all the wait for him, parents were likely even more cautious.

But having two baptisms, not just simply for a royal, is certainly not usual. Unless there is some concern for Francois' health, I doubt there will be a two event baptism repeat for this prince.

 

[Somebody]

François Henri Luis Marie Guillaume

"François" surprises me with no recent royal reference, yet it is nice to have a unique name after all the family members named "Jean" and Guillaume."

Lovely that "Henri" was included since the Grand Duke's name was left out the first time.

I assume that "Luis" is in memory of Maria Teresa's brother, Luis Mestre, who died at age 64 on 1 June 2022. Interesting that they kept the Spanish form.

(For Henri and MT's children, Spanish names were changed to French equivalents. Guillaume and Charles have the middle name "Joseph," after MT's father, "Jose." Also, Prince Louis's middle name is "Xavier," in honor of his godfather, "Javier" Sanz.)

"Marie Guillaume" was to be expected since it was included for each of Guillaume's brothers (i.e., Fellx Leopold Marie Guillaume, Louis Xavier Marie Guillaume and Sebastien Henri Marie Guillaume) and for his first son, Charles Jean Philippe Joseph Marie Guillaume.

I also noticed that they went for the Spanish Luis and not for the French version Louis, so definitely for Guillaume's maternal uncle. The other names remain in French.

 

[ruaudladoube]

François is a somewhat surprising name, but one I'm very happy to see. I've always liked the name (and its variants in other languages).

While it isn't used a lot, especially as a first name in the Luxembourg family, it is among the given names for his father's cousin, Wenceslas, Prince of Nassau, and his grandfather's cousin, Prince Robert.

And Grand Duke Guillaume IV had a younger brother who died in his teens named Franz Joseph.

So the name isn't completely out of left field, imo.

I'm glad someone mentioned Maria Teresa's brother Luis, which does explain the use of the Spanish version of the name, rather than the French Louis.

 

[HRHHermione]

Oh I quite like his name! Congrats to the couple on their second child.

 

[Alisa]

Congratulations to the couple and their families.

 

[fandesacs2003]

Congratulations. I'm so happy for this lovely couple. They waited quite a long but now they are blessed with 2 gorgeous boys.
And why not? A little girl straight after.

Sent from my SM-A426B using The Royals Community mobile app

 

[sophie25]

Congratulations. I'm so happy for this lovely couple. They waited quite a long but now they are blessed with 2 gorgeous boys.
And why not? A little girl straight after.

Sent from my SM-A426B using The Royals Community mobile app

A third child could be a boy too, children don't come to order.

 

[principessa]

Grand-Duchess Maria Teresa arrives at the Maternité to visit her new grandson.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640424650529226780

 

[W.Y.CII]

A third child could be a boy too, children don't come to order.

Ha my parents went for a no.3, attempting to have a son after having two daughters, and guess what? here l'm the no.3 who has the same gender as the older children.

Wouldn't be surprised if the couple goes for no.3 (regardless boy or girl) though, they both came from a big family with many siblings.

 

[Biri]

How long usually a new mother stays with the baby in hospital in Luxembourg?

 

[Moonmaiden23]

If Stephanie had a 2nd C-section she probably won't leave hospital before Thursday.

The fact that she isn't released today leads me to believe it was likely another caesarean.

 

[Biri]

If it was in fact a Caesarean, it was probably a scheduled one.

 

[Alisa]

Not necessarily. The announcement said the Prince was due in April not March.
That the baby was born before the due date indicates that it was an UNscheduled C-section. Hopefully it was done for urgent and not emergency reasons.

 

[Denville]

Cant the poor woman have any privacy? How she had the baby is her own affair unless she talks about it

 

[Lindy]

François is a somewhat surprising name, but one I'm very happy to see. I've always liked the name (and its variants in other languages).

While it isn't used a lot, especially as a first name in the Luxembourg family, it is among the given names for his father's cousin, Wenceslas, Prince of Nassau, and his grandfather's cousin, Prince Robert ,,,

Prince Wenceslas François Baudoin Léopold Juraj Marie Marc d'Aviano de Nassau was named after his maternal grandfather, François Vestur, so not a royal Luxembourg connection.

Not sure why Prince Robert Louis François was given the name, other than the fact that his mother, Joan Dillon's family was widely known as Francophiles. Her grandfather, Clarence Dillon, was passionate about the French art of living and bought Château Haut-Brion in 1935. Her father, Douglas Dillon, served as U.S. ambassador to France.

"François is derived literally from the word françois which is of the meaning 'French'. The use of the French word as a name was inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). The patriotic associations of the name also made it popular, as well as the fact that it was borne by two kings of France, François I (1494-1547) and François II (1544-1560)."

I wonder if they will have a third child or will call it a day now that Stephanie is 39?

Interestingly, Stephanie's mother was 43 years old when she was born, and her father was age 62.

 

[dbarn67]

Welcome to the World, Francois!

 

[crm2317]

Maybe they just liked the name, there doesn’t necessarily need to be any royal connection at all!

Welcome little Francois, I’m sure you will be equally as adorable as your big brother!

 

[Adda]

Prince Guillaume talking to the press

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVoWt5Mu6R/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Cant the poor woman have any privacy? How she had the baby is her own affair unless she talks about it

Very little of what we discuss on this board is anyones' business.

We are not asking to view HRH's medical records.

 

[SLV]

Prince Guillaume talking to the press

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVoWt5Mu6R/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Such a proud dad!
Fascinating to hear the Luxenbourg language. A lot of German, a bit of Dutch and a tiny bit of French. I could actually follow the conversation.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Guillaume is so warm and affable in addition to being such an accomplished polyglot.

I loved hearing him describe how his father Grand Duke Henri picked Charles up and personally drove him to the Maternity to meet his baby brother...and how little Charles "went right over" to the baby with no prompting. Guillaume said little Francois is "sweet tempered".

I sooo hope we get a gorgeous set of photos released from hospital like we did with Charles, but only of course if Stephanie is up to it this time.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In 1891 a tradition arose that certain roses were named after the Grand Ducal Family.
A rose was named for Prince Charles in 2020.
It will be interesting to see the rose that will be named for Prince Francois.

??​

 

[Adda]

First photos of the precious little Prince!!! He's a newborn but I think he looks like Guillaume.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYG5pBtLqw/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I've just realized that François might be the last royal baby in a while (a decade, perhaps?), which is when the current teen royals might start having babies. Of course, Stephanie and Guillaume might surprise us and go for twins next! Hehe.