Princess Charlotte’s July christening pays another tribute to Princess Diana

Princess Charlotte will be christened on July 5 in the same countryside church where her grandmother, the late Princess Diana, was baptized.

Kensington Palace announced the news on Friday on behalf of Charlotte’s parents, William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will perform the ceremony at St. Mary Magdalene Church in rural Sandringham in Norfolk, northeast of London, the palace said.

Charlotte, who bears both her grandmother and great-grandmother’s names in her full moniker, will be about 2 months old upon her christening.

The selection of the locale appears to be another tribute to William’s late mother, who was also known as the People’s Princess. St. Mary Magdalene sits on Queen Elizabeth II’s private estate, which she and the Duke of Edinburgh took over at the beginning of her reign in 1952. The parish church dates in its present form to the 16th century and is regularly used as a place of worship by the royal family and estate staff, according to the estate’s website.

Sandringham is about two miles from Anmer Hall, Will and Kate’s country home on the Norfolk coastline. The couple retreated there after Charlotte’s May 2 arrival and are expected to be based there during her early years.

The little princess is fourth in line to the British throne and would be named the head of the Church of England if she is crowned. (You can thank Henry VIII for that.) The Archbishop of Canterbury serves as the spiritual head of the Anglican faith.

“I am delighted to be invited to conduct the baptism of HRH Princess Charlotte,” the archbishop said in a statement. “It will be an extraordinary honor and privilege to help welcome the Princess into the family of the church. Along with her parents and all her family, I look forward to joining in this joyful day of celebration and thanksgiving.”

Charlotte’s elder brother, Prince George, was also christened by Welby and was 3 months old when he was baptized in October 2013. He’ll be just shy of 2 years old at Charlotte’s christening.

His small ceremony took place at the Chapel Royal in London’s St. James’s Palace, the same place where William and his brother Harry privately paid their respects to their late mother before her funeral in 1997.

At George’s christening, William and Kate named seven godparents and took a series of royal family portraits with celebrity photographer Jamie Bell. One of the formal photographs showed the queen with her three direct heirs to the throne -- son Prince Charles, grandson Prince William and great-grandson Prince George.

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