Hassan II of Morocco

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Hassan II of Morocco bigraphy, stories - Moroccan monarch

Hassan II of Morocco : biography

9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999

King Hassan II ( MSA: (a)l-ḥasan aṯ-ṯānī, Darija: el-ḥasan ett(s)âni); 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco (1909–1961) and his wife Lalla Abla bint Tahar (1909–1992).

References and links

a. Succeeded to throne as HM King Mohammed VI upon the death of his father, 1999.

Family

King Hassan II had five children with his wife Lalla Latifa Hammou, a member of the Zaiane tribe, whom he married in 1961:

  • HRH Princess Lalla Meryem (born 1962)
  • HM King Mohammed VI (born 1963)
  • HRH Princess Lalla Asma (born 1965)
  • HRH Princess Lalla Hasna (born 1967)
  • HRH Prince Moulay Rachid (born 1970)

The king also had one other wife, Lalla Fatima bint Qaid Amhourok with whom married also in 1961, they had no children.

The father of Hassan II was Mohammed V of Morocco, his mother was Lalla Abla bint Tahar. King Hassan II had five sisters and one brother:

  • Lalla Fatima Zohra, born 29 June 1929, (from the first marriage of Mohammed V of Morocco)
  • Lalla Aicha, born 17 June 1930 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V, with Lalla Abla)
  • Lalla Malika, born 14 March 1933 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V)
  • Moulay Abdallah, born 30 July 1935 in Rabat, died in 1983 (from the second marriage of Mohammed V)
  • Lalla Nuzha, born 1953 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V)
  • Lalla Amina, born in Madagascar on 8 April 1954 (from the third marriage of Mohammed V of Morocco, with Lalla Bahia, died in September 2008)

Biography

Youth and education

King Hassan was educated at the Imperial College at Rabat and earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux.

He was exiled to Corsica by French authorities on 20 August 1953, together with his father Sultan Mohammed V. They were transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Moulay Hassan acted as his father’s political advisor during the exile. Mohammed V and his family returned from exile on 16 November 1955.

Prince Moulay Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco’s independence with his father, who later appointed him Chief of Staff of the newly founded Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents battling rebels in the mountains of the Rif. Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957. Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 19 July 1957, and became King on 26 February 1961, after his father’s death. U.S. Ambassador Charles W. Yost saw King Mohammed V hours before his death and was among those who suspected that Hassan II had a hand in his father’s sudden death.

Rule

Hassan’s conservative rule, one characterized by a poor human rights record, strengthened the Alaouite dynasty. In Morocco’s first constitution of 1963, Hassan II reaffirmed Morocco’s choice of a multi-party political system, the only one in the Maghreb. The constitution gave the King large powers he eventually used to strengthen his rule, which provoked strong political protest from the UNFP and the Istiqlal parties that formed the backbone of the opposition. In 1965, Hassan dissolved Parliament and ruled directly, although he did not abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. When elections were eventually held, they were mostly rigged in favor of loyal parties. This caused severe discontent among the opposition, and protest demonstrations and riots challenged the King’s rule. A US report observed that "Hassan appears obsessed with the preservation of his power rather than with its application toward the resolution of Morocco’s multiplying domestic problems."

In the early 1970s, King Hassan survived two assassination attempts. The first, in 1971, was coup d’état attempt allegedly supported by Libya, organized by General Mohamed Medbouh and Colonel M’hamed Ababou and carried out by cadets during a function at the King’s summer palace in Rabat during his forty-second birthday party. Important guests, including the Belgian Ambassador Marcel Dupert, were placed under house arrest, and the King himself was taken to a small pavilion. Rabat’s main radio station was taken over by the rebels and broadcast propaganda stating that the King had been murdered and a republic founded. The coup ended the same day when royalist troops took over the palace in combat against the rebels.