Prince Charles has paid a heartfelt tribute to "my beloved Mother" the Queen after she died having served the country and commonwealth for more than 70 years.
Along with his brothers Princes Edward and Andrew and sister Princess Anne, the Prince of Wales was at Balmoral in Scotland for the Queen 's final hours.
He was joined by his sons, Princes William and Harry, the latter being in the UK for a charity event when the news of the Queen's ill health was announced.
In a statement Charles, who is now King, said: "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.
"We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.
"During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held."
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Charles, who was born on November 14, 1948, is the eldest of the Queen and Prince Phillip's four children.
He was said to have been closer than ever to the Queen in the months leading up to her death.
The Queen was said to have worried about her eldest son when he was young believing he was lonely and unhappy at school.
The heir apparent was initially home-schooled, but by the age of eight, the Queen and Prince Philip, who died last year, decided he needed to be around other children.
They sent Charles to Hill House School, in Knightsbridge, a move that broke royal protocol as the Prince became the first heir to the throne not to be home-schooled.
However, after six months, Prince Philip pulled Charles out of the school and sent him to Cheam in the Hampshire village of Headley.
The Duke of Edinburgh had also attended the preparatory boarding school from the age of eight.
Charles however was more interested in reading and writing than sports and became very homesick.
Her Majesty once spoke of her eldest son’s isolation at Cheam School, Hampshire in a letter to then Prime Minister Anthony Eden in 1958.
She wrote: “Charles is just beginning to dread the return to school next week - so much worse for the second term.”
The Queen’s take on her nine-year-old son’s schooldays was unearthed by US journalist Sally Bedell Smith who included it in her 2017 biography of the future King, ‘Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life’.
The Queen wrote: “Charles’s loneliness and unhappiness at Cheam were painfully obvious to his family.”
Ms Bedell Smith added: “She knew that Cheam was ‘a misery’ to her son, according to a biography of Charles by Dermot Morrah, which was sanctioned by the Royal Family.
“Morrah observed that the Queen thought her son was ‘a slow developer’.”
Charles and the Queen's mother-and-son relationship was tested to its limits when she found out about his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles while he was still married to the late Princess Diana.
But in recent months, she has publicly announced her backing of Camilla to be Queen consort when Charles becomes king.
In a message to the public in February, the Queen said: "When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me.
“And it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”
A spokesman for Charles said at the time: “The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are touched and honoured by Her Majesty’s words.”
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