Farouk of Egypt (11 February 1920-18 March 1965) was King of Egypt from 28 April 1936 to 26 July 1952, succeeding Fuad I of Egypt and preceding Fuad II of Egypt. He was unpopular due to his obesity, his decadence, and his abandonment of his country for yacht trips to southern France, and he was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.
Biography[]
Farouk was born at Abdeen Palace, Cairo, Egypt on 11 February 1920, the son of King Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in England, and he assumed the title of King of Egypt at the young age of 16. Farouk often travelled to Europe for shopping sprees, cruised around the streets in his red racing car (having banned any lookalikes of his car from the country), ate 600 oysters a week, took his yacht to southern France frequently, and grew quite obese. The nobility originally liked him, but he lost all of his popularity during World War II. During the war, he kept the lights of his palace on as the rest of Alexandria was ordered to start a blackout during Axis bombing raids; he maintained his Italian servants even after the order was given to arrest all "enemy aliens"; he maintained friendly relations with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany; and he kept Egypt officially neutral until the last year of the war, 1945. On 4 February 1942, the British Army surrounded Abdeen Palace and forced him to create a new government with the Wafd Party at its head, and he ruled as an unpopular British puppet for ten years. In July 1952, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Free Officers Movement overthrew Farouk, who was forced to abdicate and go into exile in Italy. Farouk died in Rome on 18 March 1965 at the age of 45.