King Idris used the oil money to strengthen family and tribal alliances that would support the monarchy, rather than using it to build up the economic or political apparatus of the state.
According to Vandewalle, King Idris "showed no real interest in ruling the three provinces as a unified political community".
Idris' regime had little support outside Cyrenaica.
It had been weakened by endemic corruption and cronyism in the country, and growing Arab nationalist sentiment following the 1967 Six-Day War.

On 1 September 1969, while King Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, he was deposed in a coup d'état by a group of Libyan Army officers under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi.
The monarchy was abolished and a republic proclaimed.
The coup pre-empted King Idris's intended abdication and the succession of his heir the following day.
From Turkey, he and the Queen traveled to Kamena Vourla, Greece, by ship and went into exile in Egypt.
After the 1969 coup, King Idris was put on trial in absentia in the Libyan People's Court and sentenced to death in November 1971.

Muammar Gaddafi's regime portrayed King Idris's administration as having been weak, inept, corrupt, anachronistic, and lacking in nationalist credentials, a presentation of it that would come to be widely adopted.

In 1983, at age 94, King Idris died in a hospital in the district of Dokki in Cairo.
He was buried at Al-Baqi' Cemetery, Medina, Saudi Arabia.
King Idris used the oil money to strengthen family and tribal alliances that would support the monarchy, rather than using it to build up the economic or political apparatus of the state. According to Vandewalle, King Idris "showed no real interest in ruling the three provinces as a unified political community". Idris' regime had little support outside Cyrenaica. It had been weakened by endemic corruption and cronyism in the country, and growing Arab nationalist sentiment following the 1967 Six-Day War.
On 1 September 1969, while King Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, he was deposed in a coup d'état by a group of Libyan Army officers under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi. The monarchy was abolished and a republic proclaimed. The coup pre-empted King Idris's intended abdication and the succession of his heir the following day. From Turkey, he and the Queen traveled to Kamena Vourla, Greece, by ship and went into exile in Egypt. After the 1969 coup, King Idris was put on trial in absentia in the Libyan People's Court and sentenced to death in November 1971.
Muammar Gaddafi's regime portrayed King Idris's administration as having been weak, inept, corrupt, anachronistic, and lacking in nationalist credentials, a presentation of it that would come to be widely adopted.
In 1983, at age 94, King Idris died in a hospital in the district of Dokki in Cairo. He was buried at Al-Baqi' Cemetery, Medina, Saudi Arabia.
Idris of Libya