Moulay Hassan childhood in France, Digi Mart USA News (Rabat, Morocco): A report published by Maghreb Online, drawing on a French-language article by Ignace Dalles, examines the early life of Moulay Hassan, the future King Hassan II. Born on July 9, 1929, at the Imperial Palace in Rabat, he was named by Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, who was on an official visit to France at the time.
The article notes that most available accounts of his infancy and adolescence come from court-aligned writers, including Issa Babana el Alaoui, a biographer of Hassan II. These sources portray an idyllic childhood, though Hassan II himself later described his father as strict and sometimes harsh with him.
Photographs in French archives show the young prince at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris and later on the knees of Charles Noguès, the French resident-general in Morocco from 1936 to 1943. The writer also cites psychiatrist Jean Thuillier, who recalled playing football with the prince between La Rochelle and Royan shortly before World War II.
In a 1960s interview with the magazine Point de vue, Hassan II described his birth as a modern break with tradition. He said his father insisted on a French doctor and midwife rather than a traditional birth attendant, and that his layettes were bought in Paris rather than made in Morocco.
He said he was among the first Moroccans to use a baby bottle.
The sultan sent his son to France at age two, where a French tutor, M. Deville, and two French governesses helped him speak French without an accent.
The article notes that the sultan also saw French fluency as a way for his son to better understand the power that occupied the country under the protectorate.
