Queen Elizabeth II died today at her summer home in Scotland at age 96. She served as Queen for 70 years, the second longest reign of any monarch in the entire world in all of history, after Louis XIV of France, the longest-reigning monarch, with a 72-year and 110-day reign from 1643 until 1715.
The man formerly known as Prince Charles, age 73, is now the King of the United Kingdom (and also of Canada, New Zealand, Australia and a few other places). It is customary for his to decide for himself what his name will be as King at his coronation (but see below). His second wife Camilla's title (whom he married in 2005, after his first wife and mother of all of his children, the late Princess Diana, divorced him prior to her death, and then died in 1996) is now Queen Consort.
Prince William, age 40, the adult eldest son of Prince Charles (and a much more popular figure than his father), is now the Crown Prince. The person next in line to the throne is Prince George, the nine year old eldest child of Prince William.
Since the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch plays a primarily symbolic role, such as formally declaring the United Kingdom's new Prime Minister to be head of government in Scotland earlier this month, there are basically no practical governmental policy implications for this development in the short term.
Charles Stross (a science fiction author and anti-monarchist in the U.K.) has some comments at his blog:
Operation Unicorn is in effect (contingency plans for the monarch dying in Scotland). Charles is now King: coronation will follow within the next year, his name as monarch isn't announced yet.
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