AWWWWW

Watch Young Queen Elizabeth Play With Toddler Prince Charles

The British royal family was a big fan of making home videos, and this weekend they just released one of infant Prince Charles and a 23-year-old Queen Elizabeth.

Clarence House just published this cute footage of Prince Charles as a baby with the queen to mark Mother’s Day.

Although this is not the first time the footage has surfaced—it was first shown as part of the queen’s Christmas Day broadcast in 2008 as a tribute to her son and heir, who turned 60 that year—it is the first time the footage has been released in viral-bait form on YouTube.

The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were early adopters to the cult of home movies, and there are believed to be hundreds if not thousands of hours of intimate footage of the royal family—including family holidays and personal milestones—in their personal archive, which is kept in the vaults of the British Film Institute.

In the film, Elizabeth, aged 23, rattles a tray of building blocks for the young prince who unsteadily toddles toward them. In another scene, mother and son engage in some rough housing on the royal sofa.

The footage was shot in Clarence House, then the queen’s home. It is believed the cameraman was Charles’s proud father, Prince Philip.

The snippet was released today and promoted across the royal social-media platforms.

Clarence House issued a tweet with the message: “Today, we’re sharing this video of The Queen and The Prince of Wales having fun at home in 1949. Happy Mother’s Day.”

The montage is preceded by a pastiche ‘credits’ card which states that the movie, entitled Prince Charles at Home, was “produced by HRH the Princess Elizabeth.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.