151 Facts About Farouk I

Farouk I was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936.

Farouk I was overthrown in the 1952 coup d'etat, and forced to abdicate in favour of his infant son, Ahmed Fuad, who succeeded him as Fuad II.

Farouk I was of Circassian, Turkish, French, Albanian and Egyptian and Greek descent.

Farouk I was always proud of his Albanian heritage and as king, he was protected by 30 Albanian bodyguards, as he regarded Albanians as the only people he could trust with his life.

King Fuad kept tight control over his only son when he was growing up and Farouk I was only allowed to see his mother once every day for an hour.

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Farouk I had a very spoiled upbringing with the Sudanese servants when meeting him always getting down on their knees to first kiss the ground and then his hand.

Farouk I became fluent in classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, and he always gave his speeches in classical Arabic.

Farouk I was known for his love of practical jokes, a trait that continued as an adult.

When Queen Marie of Romania visited the Koubbeh Palace to see Queen Nazli, Farouk I asked her if she wanted to see his two horses; when she answered in the positive, Farouk I had the horses brought into the royal harem, which greatly displeased the two queens as the animals defecated all over the floor.

The Italophile Fuad wanted to have Farouk I educated at the Turin Military Academy, but the British High Commissioner Sir Miles Lampson vetoed this choice as growing Italian claims for the entire Mediterranean to be Mare Nostrum made it unacceptable for the Crown Prince to be educated in Italy.

In October 1935, Farouk I left Egypt to settle at Kenry House in the countryside of Surrey to attend the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as an extramural student.

Farouk I attended classes occasionally at "the Shop", as the academy was known, to prepare himself for the entrance exam.

Farouk I stayed at Kenry House and twice a week was driven in a Rolls-Royce to the Royal Military Academy to attend classes, but still failed the entrance exam.

When King George V died in January 1936, Farouk I represented Egypt at his funeral in Westminster Abbey.

Farouk I's first act as king was to visit Buckingham Palace to accept the condolences of King Edward VIII, one of the few Englishmen whom Farouk I liked, and then he went to Victoria Station to take a train to Dover and was seen off by the Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden.

At Dover, Farouk I boarded a French ship, the Cote d'Azur, which took him to Calais.

Besides inheriting the throne, Farouk I received all of the land that his father had acquired, which amounted to one seventh of all the arable land in Egypt.

Lampson's plans were derailed when it emerged that Farouk I was more interested in duck-hunting than Ford's lectures and that the king had "bragged" he would "have the hell" with the British, saying they had humiliated him for long enough.

Fact that Farouk I had dismissed all of the British servants employed by his father, while keeping the Italian servants, suggested he had inherited Fuad's Italophilia.

Farouk I especially resented Lampson's attempts to set himself up as a surrogate father, finding him impossibly patronising and rude, complaining that at one moment Lampson would address him as a king and the next moment would call him to his face a "naughty boy".

Lampson was 55 when Farouk I acceded to the throne and he never learned how to treat the teenage Farouk I as an equal.

Farouk I's personal vehicle was a red 1947 Bentley Mark VI, with coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi; he dictated that, other than the military jeeps which made up the rest of his entourage, no other cars were to be painted red.

Farouk I was most popular in his early years, and the nobility largely celebrated him.

However, the situation was not the same with some Egyptian politicians and elected government officials, with whom Farouk I quarreled frequently, despite their loyalty in principle to his throne.

Farouk I's accession had changed the dynamic of Egyptian politics from being a struggle of an unpopular king vs the popular Wafd party as it was under his father to that of a popular Wafd vs an even more popular king.

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Lampson personally favored deposing Farouk I and putting his cousin Prince Mohammad Ali on the throne in order to keep the Wafd in power, but feared that a coup would destroy the popular legitimacy of Nahas.

When Farouk I asked for a new railroad station to be built outside of the Montazah palace, the council refused under the grounds that station was only used twice a year by the royal family, when they arrived at the Montazah palace to escape the summer heat in Cairo and when they returned to Cairo in the fall.

Unwilling to take no for an answer, Farouk I called out his servants and led them to demolish the station, forcing the regency council to approve building a new station.

Farouk I was known in his early years as the "pious king" as unlike his predecessors he went out of his way to be seen as a devout Muslim.

However, the attacks by the secularist Wafd on Farouk I for being too pious a Muslim estranged conservative Muslim opinion who rallied in defense of the "pious king".

In turn, Farouk I explained to Ford why upper-class Egyptian men were still using the titles left over from the Ottoman Empire such as pasha, bey and effendi, which Ford learned that a pasha was equivalent to being an aristocrat, a bey was equivalent to a title of knighthood and an effendi to being an esquire.

When Farouk I went on his tour of Upper Egypt in January 1937, going down the Nile on the royal yacht Kassed el Kheir, Ford complained that Farouk I never asked for a single lesson, as he was more interested in watching the latest films from Hollywood.

On 29 June 1937, Farouk I turned 17 under the Islamic lunar calendar, and since in the Islamic world a baby is considered to be one year old at the time of birth, by Muslim standards he was celebrating his 18th birthday.

Farouk I's coronation, held in Cairo, on 20 July 1937, outdid the coronation of George VI, which had just taken place that May, as Farouk I held larger parades and fireworks displays than had taken place in London.

Unwilling to take no for an answer, Farouk I phoned the police chief of Alexandria, who arrested Judge Zulficar as he was boarding the ship for Beirut, and the judge was taken to the Montaza Palace.

At the Montaza palace, Farouk I was waiting and bribed Judge Zulficar into granting permission for the marriage by making him into a pasha.

At Salfinaz Zulficar's 16th birthday party, Farouk I arrived in his Alfa Romeo automobile to propose marriage, and at the same time renamed her Farida because he believed names that started with F were lucky.

Farouk I gave Farida a cheque for a sum in Egyptian pounds equivalent to $50,000 US dollars as a wedding dowry and a diamond ring worth just as much for the engagement.

Farouk I told Lampson that he didn't care if the Wafd had a majority in Parliament, as he was the king and he wanted a prime minister who would obey him, not Parliament.

On 20 January 1938, Farouk I married Farida in a sumptuous public event with Cairo lit up by floodlights and colored lights on the public buildings while boats on the Nile had likewise had colored lights, making the river seem a ribbon of light at night.

Farida wore a wedding dress that Farouk I had brought her, which was handmade in Paris and cost about $30,000 US dollars.

In 1938, Farouk I was approached by the Iranian ambassador with a message from Reza Khan, the Shah of Iran, asking that his sister be married to Mohammad Reza, the Crown Prince of Iran.

Nonetheless, Farouk I agreed in a joint press communique issued with Reza Khan on 26 May 1938, that Princess Fawzia would marry Crown Prince Mohammad Reza, who first learned that he was now engaged to Fawzia when he read the press release.

Farouk I broke with Muslim tradition by taking Queen Farida everywhere with him, and letting her go unveiled.

On 17 November 1938, Farouk I became a father when Farida gave birth to Princess Farial, a considerable disappointment as Farouk I wanted a son, all the more because he knew his cousin, Prince Mohammad Ali, was scheming to take the throne.

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In March 1939, Farouk I sent the royal yacht Mahroussa to Iran to pick up the Crown Prince.

On 15 March 1939, Mohammad Reza married Fawzia in Cairo and afterwards Farouk I took his brother-in-law on a tour of Egypt, showing him his five palaces, the Pyramids, Al-Azhar University and other sites in Egypt.

The Danzig crisis which led to World War II later that year had already begun when Farouk I met Goebbels, and the meeting caused Lampson much alarm, as he suspected the king was an Axis sympathizer.

Egypt remained neutral in World War II, but under heavy pressure from Lampson, Farouk I broke diplomatic relations with Germany in September 1939.

In Egypt, a son was much more valued than daughters for the kingdom's legacy, according to Egyptian law at the time a daughter couldn't inherit nor ascend to the throne, and Farouk I was becoming widely viewed as lacking in masculinity due to the absence of a son.

Farouk I was greatly upset in 1940 when he learned that his mother, Queen Nazli, whom he viewed as a rather chaste figure, was having an affair with his former tutor, Prince Ahmed Hassanein, who as a desert explorer, poet, Olympic athlete and aviator, was one of the most famous Egyptians alive.

When Farouk I caught Hassanein reading passages from the Koran to his mother in her bedroom, he pulled out a handgun and threatened to shoot them, saying "you are disgracing the memory of my father, and if I end it by killing one of you, then God will forgive me, for it is according to our holy law as you both know".

Distracting Farouk I from thoughts of matricide was a meeting on 17 June 1940, with Lampson who demanded that Farouk I dismiss Maher as prime minister and General al-Misri as chief of staff of the Egyptian Army, saying both were pro-Axis.

On 28 June 1940, Farouk I dismissed Maher Pasha as prime minister, but refused to appoint Nahas Pasha as prime minister as Lampson wanted, saying that Nahas was full of "Bolshevik schemes".

Farouk I felt very lonely as a king, not having any real friends, made worse by the very public feud between Queen Farida and Queen Nazli as the former hated the latter for her attempts to dominate her.

The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that the fact that Farouk I wanted to see his country occupied by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany was not a sign of great wisdom on his part and that he never understood "that Axis rule of Egypt was likely to be far more oppressive than British".

Consequently, Farouk I's Italian servants were not interned, and there is an unconfirmed story that Farouk I told British Ambassador Sir Miles Lampson, "I'll get rid of my Italians when you get rid of yours".

In January 1942, when Farouk I was away on vacation, Lampson pressured Serry Pasha into breaking diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

Reluctantly, Lampson agreed that Farouk I could stay if he agreed to make Nahas prime minister.

Farouk I asked his military how long the Egyptian Army could hold Cairo against the British and was told at most they could for two hours.

Rather than have the kleptomaniac Farouk I stay at their estate and wipe out the gazelles on their island, the Adeses agreed that their 16-year-old daughter would go to the Abdeen palace to be courted by the king.

On 2 July 1942, Lampson visited the Abdeen Palace to tell Farouk I that there was a real possibility of Axis forces taking Cairo and suggested that the king should flee to Khartoum if the Afrika Corps took Cairo.

Farouk I who had no intention of decamping to Khartoum simply walked out of the room.

Air Marshal Douglas, one of the few British people whom Farouk I was friends with, gave him the uniform of a RAF officer, which became the king's favorite uniform.

Farouk I had something of a mania for collecting things ranging from Coca-Cola bottles to European art to ancient Egyptian antiques.

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Farouk I became addicted to eating and drinking soft-drinks, ordering his French chefs at the Abdeen palace to cook enormous meals of the finest French food, which he devoured and which caused him to become obese.

Farouk I came to be known as "the king of the night" owing to the amount of time he spent in the exclusive Auberge des Pyramides nightclub in Cairo, where he spent his time socializing, smoking cigars and drinking orangeade.

The American financier and diplomat Winthrop W Aldrich discovered that Farouk was very informed about the workings of the international gold market, saying the king had a sharp eye for business.

However, a meeting with the British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1942 when Farouk I stole his watch did not make the best impression; though Farouk I later returned the watch, presenting his theft of Churchill's watch as merely a practical joke, saying he knew "the English had a great sense of humor".

Farouk I had pardoned a thief in exchange for teaching him how to be a pickpocket, a skill that Farouk I used on Churchill, much to the latter's chagrin.

Lampson in a dispatch to Sir Anthony Eden, who was Foreign Secretary, argued that Egypt needed political calm and to allow Farouk I to dismiss Nahas would cause chaos as the latter would start "ranting" against the British.

Farouk I had three telephones by his bed, which he would use to ring up his so-called friends at three in the morning and invite them to come over to his palace to play cards.

Farouk I didn't have the stuff to be a great king, he was too childish.

In November 1943, Farouk I went driving with Pulli in his red Cadillac to Ismalia to see a yacht he just purchased when he was involved in an automobile incident when his attempt to bypass a British Army truck by speeding caused him to hit another car head-on.

Farouk I had suffered two broken ribs as a result of the car accident, but he liked being in a British Army hospital so much, flirting with the nurses, that he pretended to be injured far longer than what he really was.

On 15 December 1943, Farouk I was finally forced to end his convalescence when Farida gave birth to another daughter, Princess Fadia, which disappointed him, and caused him to lash out in anger against her for only giving him daughters.

In late 1943, Farouk I started a policy giving support to student and working men's association and in early 1944 paid a visit to Upper Egypt, when he donated money to victims of the malaria epidemic.

Farouk I told Lampson that "there could not be two kings in Egypt" and the "semi-royal" nature of Nahas's tour of Upper Egypt was an insult to him.

Farouk I attempted to soften the blow by announcing the new prime minister would be the well known Anglophile Prince Hassanein, but Lampson refused to accept him.

Lampson attempted to have Farouk I deposed again, sending off a telegram to Churchill advising him to take "direct control" of Egypt.

Day before Farouk I was tentatively due to be deposed, Prince Hassanein arrived at the British Embassy with a letter for Lampson saying: "I am commanded by His Majesty to inform Your Excellency that he has decided to leave the present Government in Office for the time being".

In October 1944, when Lampson went away for a vacation in South Africa, Farouk I finally dismissed Nahas as prime minister on 8 October 1944, and replaced him with Ahmed Maher, the brother of Ali Maher.

Farouk I came under strong pressure from American Zionist groups to pardon the two assassins while Lampson pressured him not to pardon the assassins.

In March 1945, the assassins of Lord Moyne were hanged, and for the first time, Farouk I was accused in the United States of being anti-Semitic.

Farouk I declared war on the Axis Powers, long after the fighting in Egypt's Western Desert had ceased.

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On 13 February 1945, Farouk met President Franklin D Roosevelt of the United States on abroad the cruiser USS Quincy, anchored in the Great Bitter Lake.

Farouk I seemed confused by the purpose of the meeting with Roosevelt, talking much about how after the war he hoped more American tourists would visit Egypt and Egyptian-American trade would increase.

Farouk I ventured to affirm that nowhere in the world were the conditions of extreme wealth and extreme poverty so glaring.

Farouk I was more interested in learning if Egypt would be allowed to join the new United Nations and learned from Churchill that only nations that were at war with the Axis powers would be allowed to join the United Nations, which would replace the League of Nations after the war.

Farouk I was determined that this time that Egypt would be a founding member of the United Nations, which would show the world that the country was ending British influence in Egyptian affairs.

When Lampson arrived at the Koubbeh Palace to see Farouk I, he wrote he was shocked instead to see instead "it was the wicked Aly Maher who was receiving condolences".

The new Labour government that came into office in July 1945 wanted a new relationship with Egypt, and Farouk I let it be known he wanted a new British ambassador.

Farouk I had vaguely promised to carry out social reforms, a major concern in London as the wartime inflation had led to increases in support for the Egyptian Communist Party on the left and the Muslim Brotherhood on the right, and was willing to negotiate a new relationship with Britain.

The Egyptian ambassador in London passed on messages from Farouk I blaming Lampson all the problems in Anglo-Egyptian relations, and stated that Farouk I would be willing to return to his father's policies of opposing the Wafd and of seeking British "moral support" after the war.

King Farouk I had traditionally posed as the friend of the poor, but by 1945 such gestures that the king liked to engage in such as throwing gold coins at the fellaheen or dropping ping-pong balls from his plane that could be redeemed for candy were no longer felt to be sufficient.

Increasingly, demands were being made that the king should engage in social reforms instead of theatrical gestures like handing out gold coins during royal visits, and as Farouk I was unwilling to consider land reform or improving the water sanitation, his popularity began to decline.

In May 1946, Farouk I granted asylum to former king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, who had abdicated on 9 May 1946.

In June 1946, Farouk I granted asylum to Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who escaped from France where he was being held on charges of being a war criminal, arriving in Egypt on a forged passport.

Farouk I did not care that al-Husseini was urgently wanted in Yugoslavia on charges of being a Nazi war criminal for his role in organizing the massacres of Bosnian Serbs and Jews.

Farouk I wanted the British to keep the 1936 agreement by pulling their troops out of Cairo and Alexandria, and felt having notoriously Anglophobic rabble-rousing Grand Mufti in Egypt would be a useful way of threatening them.

However, the way that Farouk I addressed al-Hussenini as the "king of Jerusalem" appeared to suggest that he envisioned the Grand Mufti as the future leader of a Palestinian state.

Farouk I continued to press the British to leave Egypt altogether, but the question of who would control the Sudan led to the collapse of the talks in December 1946.

Farouk I considered the Sudan to be part of Egypt, and wanted the Anglo-Egyptian condominium over the Sudan to end at the same time that the British would pull out of Egypt, which the British were unwilling to accept.

Farouk I himself welcomed the Grand Mufti to royal receptions, and his speeches calling for jihad against Zionism did much to put the "Palestine Question" on the public agenda.

Farouk I himself was not personally anti-Semitic, having a Jewish mistress, the singer Lilianne Cohen, better known by her stage name Camelia, but given increasing discontent with the very stark income inequalities in Egypt, Farouk I felt taking a militantly anti-Zionist line was the best way of distracting public attention.

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Farouk I did not bother to tell the prime minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha about his decision for war with Israel, who only learned of his decision a few days before the war was due to start on 15 May 1948, from the Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff.

However, King Farouk I overruled him, as he feared the growing popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was clamoring for war with Israel.

Farouk I declared that Egypt would fight Israel as otherwise he feared the Muslim Brotherhood would overthrow him.

On 17 November 1948, Farouk I divorced the very popular Queen Farida which, coming in middle of the losing war with Israel, was a profound shock to the Egyptian people.

In 1950, Farouk I's fortune was estimated to be about £50 million pounds sterling or about US$140 million, making him into one of the world's richest men, and a billionaire many times over in today's money.

At his first night at the casino in Deuville, Farouk I won 20 million francs gambling at baccarat, and on his second night won 15 million francs.

From Deauville, Farouk I went to Biarritz, where he stayed at the Hotel du Palais and resumed his friendship with the Duke of Windsor as the former King Edward VIII was now known.

Farouk I then crossed over to San Sebastian in Spain to attend a film festival with four "of his ladies of the moment" as the British ambassador to Spain called them.

However, whatever goodwill Farouk I acquired by his wedding was lost by his three-month-long honeymoon in Europe, where both he and his new queen spent vast amounts of money while the king ate gargantuan amounts of food in the day during the holy month of Ramadan.

In Turin, Farouk I purchased from Fiat a $2 million US private train to ship back to Egypt complete with a TV, air-conditioning, 14 phones and alligator-trimmed furniture, which he took the press on during a trial run.

At Cannes, Farouk played a 7-hour game of baccarat against the Hollywood mogul Darryl F Zanuck and lost some $150,000, a record sum.

In Paris, Farouk I told the Aga Khan that he was feeling depressed over his "unnatural" alliance with Nahas, saying he knew he was becoming unpopular and he would appoint a new prime minister when he returned.

In December 1951, Farouk I backed General Sirri Amer for the president of the Cairo Officers' Club, and in a surprise upset, Amer was defeated in the election by General Mohamed Naguib, which was the first public sign of military dissatisfaction with the king as the secret Free Officers group had issued pamphlets urging other officers to vote for Naguib under the slogan "The Army says NO to Farouk I".

Farouk I was so pleased that he made Dr Magdi who delivered Fuad a pasha.

Farouk I blamed the Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day.

In early May 1952, Farouk I confessed to Caffery that Hilaly was his last hope as for once he did not have an alternative prime minister if he should have to sack him.

Farouk I's conclusion was that Hilay Pasha must be discharged from office immediately.

Thabet then issued a press release claiming that genealogists had discovered that Farouk I was a direct descendant of Muhammad, a claim that caused widespread mockery.

General Mohammad Naguib wrote: "If there was any Arabic blood in Farouk I's veins, it was so diluted that it couldn't possibly have been traced back to Mohammad and it was a sacrilege for anyone to have tried to do so".

Farouk I was always very anti-communist, but by 1952, a conviction arose among American decision-makers that based on the way that things were going in Egypt, a communist revolution was inevitable unless the government started social reforms at once.

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When Farouk I asked Serry to read out a list of who was involved in the conspiracy, he laughingly dismissed them as too junior to pose a threat, appointed his brother-in-law Ismail Chirine War Minister with orders to "clean up" the Army and returned to the Montaza Palace, unworried.

Farouk I had his loyal Sudanese Guard, which was 800 strong, build barricades around the palace.

Farouk I, who was an expert marksman, used his hunting gun to kill four of the attackers himself as they sought to race across the palace grounds.

At about 5:30 pm Farouk I left the palace, was saluted by the Sudanese Guard, said farewell to his best friend Pulli who was not allowed to leave Egypt, and at the dock, boarded the royal yacht El Mahrousa to leave Egypt for the last time.

Farouk I was forced to abdicate and went into exile in Monaco and Italy, where he lived for the rest of his life, arriving in Naples on 29 July 1952.

At the Koubbeh Palace, it was discovered that Farouk I had collected 2,000 silk shirts, 10,000 silk ties, 50 diamond-studded golden walking sticks and one autographed portrait of Adolf Hitler.

Farouk I fled Egypt in great haste, and his abandoned possessions—including a huge collection of pornography—became objects of curiosity and ridicule.

At his first press conference on 30 July 1952, on the island of Capri, Farouk I took questions in English, French and Italian, maintaining he was now a poor man, though reporters noted he hired Carlo d'Emilio, a Rome lawyer known in Italy as the "king of lawyers", to represent him.

In October 1952, Farouk I was indicted for treason in Egypt, though no extradition request was filed with the Italian government.

Farouk I chose the Miss Naples of 1953, Irma Capece Minutolo, to be his last "official" mistress.

Farouk I's parents disapproved of their teenage daughter being courted by a much older, married man, but after Farouk offered a considerable sum of money, they consented to their daughter losing her virginity to him.

Ultimately, Capece Minutolo objected to living in the Villa Dusmet, which she considered a gloomy and depressing estate, and Farouk I moved into a luxury apartment on the Via Archimede in Rome.

Shortly afterwards, Farouk I fired one of his aides, Amin Fahim, for trying to seduce his 14-year-old daughter, Princess Ferial, whom he subsequently discovered had been working as a spy for Egypt.

Farouk I was granted Monegasque citizenship in 1959 by his close friend Prince Rainier III.

Farouk I's daughter, Princess Ferial, recalled that in exile he was a loving father whose only rules for her as a teenager were that she never wear a dress that exposed any decolletage or dance to rock n' roll music, which he hated.

Farouk I disapproved of the social changes of the 1960s, and often wished he could relive his youth in the 1930s.

Farouk I collapsed at the Ile de France restaurant in Rome after a midnight dinner of oysters and lamb, was rushed to San Camilo Hospital, and died immediately thereafter on 18 March 1965.

Farouk I's will stipulated that he be buried in the Al Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo, but the request was denied by the Egyptian government under Gamal Abdel Nasser, and he was buried in Italy.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stated he would be willing to have King Farouk I buried in Saudi Arabia, upon which President Nasser said that the former monarch could be buried in Egypt, but not in Rifai' mosque.

The body of King Farouk I returned to Egypt on 31 March 1965, at night and was secretly buried in Hosh al-Basha, the Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Burial Site in Imam Al-Shafi'i area.

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Farouk I was married twice, with a claim of a third marriage.

In 1950, Farouk I was smitten by a commoner named Narriman Sadek and after courting, the two married in 1951.

Farouk I got what he wanted when Sadek gave birth to the future King Fuad II on 16 January 1952.

Farouk I had many affairs, among them, in 1950, British writer Barbara Skelton.

King Farouk I amassed one of the most famous coin collections in history which included an extremely rare American gold minted 1933 double eagle coin and, two 1913 Liberty Head nickels.

One apocryphal story tells how Farouk I suffered from nightmares in which he was chased by a lion.