Queen Elizabeth II dies after 70 years on the throne
Britain's longest-reigning monarch died at Balmoral aged 96, and her son became King Charles III.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a constant presence on the world stage for seven decades, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96.
Her death, announced by Buckingham Palace in the early evening after a day in which concern for her health grew and her family gathered at her side, brought to an end a reign that had lasted 70 years and spanned 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill onward. She had met with Britain's newest prime minister, Liz Truss, just two days earlier.
Her eldest son, Charles, immediately became King Charles III at the age of 73, after a lifetime as heir apparent. In a statement he called his mother's death "a moment of the greatest sadness" and spoke of a "cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother".
Elizabeth had come to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, on the death of her father King George VI, and had presided over the transformation of Britain and the dissolution of its empire into the modern Commonwealth. She was widely admired for her sense of duty and her reluctance to court controversy.
Tributes poured in from leaders around the world, and crowds gathered outside royal residences to lay flowers. Britain entered a period of national mourning ahead of a state funeral, as a country that had known only one monarch for most of living memory adjusted to a new era.