PARIS (AP) — Monaco is expecting a double dose of royal babies this month — but only one twin will get to be the principality's future ruler. 
 
 In this Jan. 14, 2011 file photo, Denmark's future monarch's Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary present their newborn twins during their first public appearance in Copenhagen, Denmark. A double... (Associated Press) 
 
 This Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014 photo shows editor-in-chief of the celebrity weekly Point de Vue, Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre, during an interview with the Associated Press in Paris. Monaco is expecting... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Nov. 19, 2014 file photo, Prince Albert II of Monaco kisses his wife Princess Charlene on the balcony of the Monaco palace during the Monaco's national day ceremony. Monaco is expecting a double... (Associated Press) 
 
 Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene, 36, is giving birth to twins but the doctor delivering them will have no more than a symbolic hand in deciding the destiny of the Grimaldi dynasty, authorities say. 
 
 Prince Albert II, the 56-year-old son of the late American actress Princess Grace, had some subjects worried by his long bachelorhood and his lack of an heir since his two previous children were born out of wedlock and are not eligible for the throne. Then prince married Charlene Wittstock, a Zimbabwe-born, South Africa-raised former Olympic swimmer, in 2011. 
 
 Now the tiny royal state on the Riviera has two reasons to rejoice. 
 
 "This is going to create an immense joy. Immense!" said Monaco resident Isabelle Roux. "They are awaited like the messiah ... Everyone is talking only about that." 
 
 "Two babies for the price of one. I think it's very good for the image," said Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre, editor-in-chief of the celebrity weekly Point de Vue. "With twins, there's always an extra interest." 
 
 The babies will be the first twins in the royal household, which dates to the 13th century, but they will not share the throne. Albert says the first one out will be first in line, unless a boy and a girl emerge, in which case the boy becomes the royal heir, reflecting the male priority of Monaco's laws of succession. 
 
 In principle, there's no medical reason a doctor would have an active role in deciding which newborn is delivered first, even in the case of a cesarean section, an expert said. 
 
 "The obstetrician will always deliver first the twin that presents itself first when the uterus is opened at the time of cesarean section," said Dr. Patrick O'Brien, spokesman for Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. "We don't decide in advance which twin to deliver first." 
 
 Albert said he doesn't know the sex of the twins yet. 
 
 "It is one of the beautiful surprises that life offers us," he told BFM-TV. 
 
 Only one woman has ever reigned over Monaco, Princess Louise-Hippolyte, but she died months after assuming the throne in 1731. 
 
 In 2002, with no heirs in sight, Monaco's parliament quietly changed its constitution to allow royal power to pass from a reigning prince with no descendants to his siblings — potentially Albert's two sisters. That ensured the continuation of the Grimaldi dynasty, one of the oldest royal houses in Europe, even if Albert never produced an heir. 
 
 Now the palace has decreed that 42 cannon shots will sound in December with the births, instead of the 21 that would boom for a single baby. 
 
 Other dynasties have produced royal twins. The crown prince and crown princess of Denmark became the parents of royal twins in 2011 — a boy and a girl. The boy, Prince Vincent, is fourth in the line of succession, ahead of sister Princess Josephine — but only because he emerged from the womb first. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP medical writer Maria Cheng in London and Thomas Adamson and Bastien Inzaurralde in Paris contributed. ||||| MONACO (AP) — Palace officials say Monaco's Princess Charlene has given birth to royal twins, a girl and a boy. 
 
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 In this Jan. 14, 2011 file photo, Denmark's future monarch's Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary present their newborn twins during their first public appearance in Copenhagen, Denmark. A double... (Associated Press) 
 
 This Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014 photo shows editor-in-chief of the celebrity weekly Point de Vue, Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre, during an interview with the Associated Press in Paris. Monaco is expecting... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Nov. 19, 2014 file photo, Prince Albert II of Monaco kisses his wife Princess Charlene on the balcony of the Monaco palace during the Monaco's national day ceremony. Monaco is expecting a double... (Associated Press) 
 
 The girl was born first, but the boy will be the principality's future ruler. 
 
 The royal twins Gabriella Therese Marie and Jacques Honore Rainier — born Wednesday to Charlene, 36, and Prince Albert II, 56 — are heirs to the centuries-old Grimaldi dynasty that rules the wealthy principality. 
 
 Cannon fire was programed to mark the babies' birth, the first time twins have been born to Monaco's royal family since its founding in the 13th century. 
 
 Monaco is a two-square kilometer (0.8 square mile) enclave of ritzy apartments and luxury shops on the French Riviera with a population of around 30,000.
– Brace yourself, planet Earth: There's been a royal birth. Not that one. Rather, the blessed and royal event has taken place in Monaco, where Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene have today welcomed twins, a boy named Jacques Honore Rainier and a girl named Gabriella Therese Marie, reports the AP. There's a little drama tied to their birth: While Gabriella was born first, it is Jacques who will be the future ruler of Monaco, reflecting what the AP calls "the male priority of Monaco's laws of succession." Cannon fire greeted their birth; they're the first twins born to the principality's royal family since Monaco was founded in the 13th century. "They are awaited like the messiah," one resident said ahead of their birth. "Everyone is talking only about that." Albert, 56, has two older children who were born out of wedlock and are thus ineligible for the throne; the twins are the first children for Charlene, 36. In case you've forgotten, Charlene tried to flee her wedding to Albert three times, and when that didn't work, they went on the honeymoon from hell.