Faisal II

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Faisal II
Faisal in the 1950s
King of Iraq
Reign	4 April 1939 – 14 July 1958
Regency ended	2 May 1953
Predecessor	Ghazi I
Successor	Monarchy abolished (Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i, President of Iraq) (Zeid bin Hussein as head of Iraqi and Syrian royal family)
Prime Minister	See list Nuri al-Said (7 times) Rashid Ali al-Gaylani (twice) Taha al-Hashimi Jamil al-Midfai (twice) Hamdi al-Pachachi Tawfiq al-Suwaidi (twice) Arshad al-Umari (Twice) Salih Jabr Muhammad as-Sadr Muzahim al-Pachachi Ali Jawdat al-Aiyubi (twice) Mustafa Mahmud al-Umari Nureddin Mahmud Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali Abdul-Wahab Mirjan Ahmad Mukhtar Baban
Regent (1939–1953)	Prince Abdullah
Born	(1935-05-02)2 May 1935 Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq
Died	14 July 1958(1958-07-14) (aged 23) Baghdad, Arab Federation
Burial	Iraqi Royal Cemetery, Baghdad[1]
Names Faisal bin Ghazi bin Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali
House	Hashemite
Father	Ghazi I
Mother	Aliya of Hejaz
Religion	Sunni Islam[2]

Faisal II (Arabic: الملك فيصل الثاني, romanized: al-Malik Fayṣal al-thānī; 2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution. This regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven-year-old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which then became a republic.

The only son of King Ghazi and Queen Aliya of Iraq, Faisal acceded to the throne at the age of three after his father was killed in a car crash. A regency was set up under his uncle Prince 'Abd al-Ilah.^[3] In 1941, a pro-Axis coup d'état overthrew the regent. The British responded by initiating an invasion of Iraq a month later and restored 'Abd al-Ilah to power. During the Second World War, Faisal was evacuated along with his mother to the United Kingdom. There, he attended Harrow School alongside his cousin Hussein, the future King of Jordan.^[3] The regency ended in May 1953 when Faisal came of age.

The overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1953 and the formation of the United Arab Republic in February 1958 only provided impetuses to ideas of a revolution. The Hashemite Arab Federation was formed between Iraq and Jordan in February 1958 with Faisal as its head, which did not quell widespread opposition. In July 1958, a group of Royal Iraqi Army officers led by Abd al-Karim Qasim mounted a coup d'état and overthrew the monarchy. Faisal was executed along with numerous members of his family in the process.