Buckingham Palace announces the death of Queen Elizabeth II
The country is in mourning after Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.
Her Majesty died peacefully today at Balmoral in Scotland.
Her eldest son, Prince Charles, becomes king and his eldest son, The Duke of Cambridge, becomes heir to the throne.
Buckingham Palace announced the news at 6.30pm with the statement: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."
She was the longest reigning monarch, having succeeded to the crown on the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952 and had celebrated her platinum jubilee with four days of national celebrations in June.
In recent months she had drastically reduced her public engagements on medical advice.
She was last seen in public on Tuesday when she appointed Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister. For the first time, the ceremony was not conducted at Buckingham Palace but at Balmoral, where she had been staying.
Her Majesty visited Newark and Sherwood twice — once on a visit to RAF Cranwell and again in 1984 when she attended the Maundy Thursday service at Southwell Minster in 1984.
Hundreds of people lined the streets in Newark, where she arrived at Northgate Station, and in Southwell.
Her Majesty was also the head of state for 15 other Commonwealth countries.
She was born on April 21 1936 at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, the first child of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I.
She married Prince Philip on November 20, 1947, after meeting him 13 years earlier at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George, Duke of Kent.
They had been married 73 years before his death in April 2021.
She leaves behind her children Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
