
Faisal II of Iraq (2 May 1935-14 July 1958) was King of Iraq from 4 April 1939 to 14 July 1958, succeeding Ghazi of Iraq. He was the last king of the Kingdom of Iraq before the 14 July Revolution and Abd al-Karim Qasim's coup.
Biography[]
Faisal was born on 2 May 1935, the only son of King Ghazi of Iraq and Queen Aliya bint Ali, and his father died in a car crash when he was only three years old. His uncle 'Abd al-Ilah served as regent until he turned 18 in 1953, but he relied on his uncle and Nuri al-Said to help with ruling the Kingdom of Iraq, and his uncle allowed for the United Kingdom to continue having a role in Iraqi affairs, formed the Baghdad Pact, and formed the Arab Federation union with his second cousin Hussein I of Jordan, angering Iraqi nationalists. On 14 July 1958, the nationalists under Abd al-Karim Qasim launched a coup, and he was lined up with his uncle and several family members and servants and machine-gunned dead.