Mohammad Hassan Mirza (Persian: شاهزاده محمدحسن میرزا قاجار; 20 November 1899 – 7 January 1943) was the last crown prince of the Qajar dynasty, who served as the Regent of Iran from 1924 till 1925, after his brother, Ahmad Shah Qajar, permanently departed from Iran in late 1923. In 1924, he successfully halted Reza Khan's attempt to declare Iran a republic, unifying a parliamentary alliance against the legislative votes required to change Iran's constitution from a monarchy to a republic. The following year, Reza Shah deposed the Qajar dynasty and installed himself as Shah of Iran in 1925, Mohammad Hassan and his family were sent into permanent exile to England.
In 1930, he declared himself the rightful heir to the crown as pretender to the throne. He died on 7 January 1943 in Maidenhead, England and was buried in Karbala, Iraq.
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Tension with Ahmad Shah Qajar
Even before the dethronement of his brother Ahmad Shah Qajar by Reza Shah, he was still an inconsequential figure in Iranian politics. This was not from a lack of trying however; in early March 1921, Mohammad Hassan Mirza approached the British legation with proposals to supplant his brother, the shah of Iran at the time. The High Commissioner's office in Baghdad informed Herman Norman in a telegram that Zia'eddin Tabatabaee informed them that Mohammad Hassan Mirza was "very dissatisfied with the shah and fears for safety of Persia from the Bolsheviks...", and that "he [Mohammad Hassan Mirza] is prepared to form new government as he considers the Shah useless...". Mohammad Hassan Mirza's proposals were ignored, except by Percy Cox who was the former attache of Britain in Iran. Herman Norman who was current British diplomat to Iran thought of the dethronement of Ahmad Shah by his brother as a tactical mistake which would divide Iran; "[I am prevented] from encouraging any movement which has for its object dethronement of His Majesty. It is also my duty to do my best to preserve the unity of Persia".