Zara Phillips gives birth to a girl with Mike Tindall at her side

Zara Phillips has given birth to a baby girl at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Her husband and former England rugby player Mike Tindall was present at the birth of his daughter, who is 16th in line to the throne.

The weight of the baby was 7lbs 12oz, Buckingham Palace announced today.

                                               

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The Queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, has given birth to a baby girl today

                                            

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Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall leave the Christmas Day service at Sandringham on December 25

Asked for the Prime Minister's response to news of the birth, David Cameron's official spokesman said: 'He passes on his many congratulations to the happy couple and to Her Majesty the Queen.'

With rugby player Mike Tindall as a father, the youngster is likely to have an early introduction to an active, sporting life.

The baby will also spend time with second cousin Prince George as Zara is close to her cousin the Duke of Cambridge and is his son's godmother.

But the two babies' destinies are remarkably different, with George a future king - although his days as monarch are likely to be a long way off - and the Tindall baby much freer to carve her own path in life.

The latest addition to the royal family will grow up on Anne's Gatcombe Park estate near Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. 

Zara and Tindall returned to live there in January 2013 and it is where she stables and trains her horses.

A busy Princess Royal, when not carrying out her 500-plus royal engagements a year, will be on hand to help and is likely to be an important figure throughout the baby's childhood.

Zara paid a warm tribute to her mother during a BBC interview ahead of her 60th birthday celebrations.

                                                        

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Zara has given birth to a baby girl at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, with her husband Mike Tindall present at the birth

                                       

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Zara and Tindall married at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh joined by the Queen and the rest of the royal family

'If I was going to be a mother, that is what I want to be like,' she said. 'I would like to be as good a mother as she's been to us.'

Zara's brother Peter Phillips revealed Anne also kept them in check. 'Whenever we may have got slightly above our station, she would be the first one to bring us back down to earth fairly hard,' he said.

No-nonsense Anne will undoubtedly do the same for her new grandchild.

The baby's other grandparents are Tindall's mother Linda, who is a social worker, and father Philip - a retired bank official who played rugby for Otley for 10 years until a knee injury ended his career in 1973.

There might even be a stint at a boarding school for the new royal baby. Zara went to Gordonstoun in Moray, Scotland, where her grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh and uncle the Prince of Wales were educated.

The Olympic silver medallist was last seen watching in public watching her beloved horses as they were put through their paces during the Heythrop Hunt Point-to-Point races in Gloucestershire on January 12. 

Zara, a world three-day event champion in 2006, has been unable to compete in equestrian events since her pregnancy reached its later stages.

She was pictured early in her pregnancy competing in a show jumping event, but has since been channelling her energy into helping a race horse part owned by her husband become a champion.

Her husband, 35, revealed that the pair have decided not to find out the sex of their baby before its birth - preferring to keep it a surprise.

The new parents married in Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh in July 2011, after meeting in Australia in 2003.