Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died
Our region has joined the rest of the country in mourning after Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.
Prince Charles, her eldest son, becomes King and his son, The Duke of Cambridge, becomes heir to the throne.
Born in April 1926, Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning monarch, having succeeded to the crown on the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952.
She had been under medical observation at Balmoral, west of Aberdeen, and met outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday (September 6) and appointed the new prime minister, Liz Truss, at Balmoral. Her meeting with the Privy Council was then postponed, on the advice of doctors that she rest.
The Queen passed away peacefully this afternoon (Thursday, September 8) at Balmoral.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the King and the queen consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.
Her Majesty made three visits to Stamford and another three to Rutland during her reign.
She visited Stamford most recently on June 13, 2012 as part of her nationwide Diamond Jubilee Tour.
When the Queen visited Stamford and Rutland
A crowd of more than 8,000 people were there to greet her as she arrived by helicopter at Burghley Park where she planted a lime tree at the south entrance, as her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had done 168 years earlier.
Crowds lined the streets as she was driven through the town centre, accompanied by a flypast from the Red Arrows.
The Queen was born on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London. She was the first child of King George VI and his wife Queen consort Elizabeth.
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 when Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died last year.
She leaves behind her children Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; and Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
Her Majesty was also the head of state for 15 other Commonwealth countries.
