Al-Walid was the son of Umayyad caliph Yazid II and his wife Umm al-Hajjaj bint Muhammad al-Thaqafi in 709.

Yazid II died in Irbid in the Balqa (i.e. Transjordan) subdistrict of Jund Dimashq (military district of Damascus) on 26 Sha'ban 105 AH (28 January 724 CE).

[5][6][7] Afterward, Hisham sought to undermine al-Walid and secretly gathered support for Maslama.

He named his two sons, al-Hakam and Uthman, to succeed him in that order as documented by a letter dated 21 May 743 in al-Tabari.

When approached, Khalid ibn Abdallah al-Qasri declined to join in and even cautioned al-Walid.

He imprisoned Khalid and then gave him to Yusuf ibn Umar for fifty million dirhams.

During the reign of al-Walid II, Yazid ibn al-Walid spoke out against Walid's "immorality" which included discrimination on behalf of the Banu Qays Arabs against Yemenis and non-Arab Muslims, and Yazid received further support from the Qadariya and Murji'iya.

[14] Hearing of the plot, Marwan ibn Muhammad wrote from Armenia urging a more prudent course of action, one more promising for the stability of the state and the preservation of the Umayyad house.

Yazid slipped into Damascus and deposed al-Walid in a coup, following this up with a disbursement of funds from the treasury.

He fought well, but on April 16, 744, at Al-Aghdaf, in modern Jordan, he was defeated and killed by the forces of Sulayman ibn Hisham.

[16] 'Abd al-Aziz offered to set up a tribal assembly (shura) to decide the future of the realm.