Faisal II of Iraq

Killed with the royal family on 14 July 1958 in Baghdad by army officers of the July 14 Revolution; the Hashemite monarchy of Iraq was destroyed in a morning.

Overview

Faisal II, young king under the regency and then rule shadowed by his uncle the crown prince Abd al-Ilah and prime minister Nuri al-Said, governed in alliance with Britain while pan-Arab republicanism swept the region. As the revolution began at dawn, officers entered the Rihab palace; the king, his grandmother, his aunt, the crown prince, and household members were killed in circumstances still disputed, their bodies displayed at the radio station, and the crowds tore Nuri al-Said apart the following day. Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim proclaimed the republic, taking Iraq into a decade of upheaval, coups, and eventually Baathist rule. The regicide ended the Arab oldest surviving monarchy allied to the West and marked the high tide of the 1958 revolutionary wave.