Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) wasKing of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of KingOscar II of Sweden andSophia of Nassau, a half-sister ofAdolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Reigning from the death of his father Oscar II in 1907 to his own death nearly 43 years later, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden, dying at the age of 92. Gustaf also had the third-longest reign of a Swedish monarch afterMagnus IV (1319–1364) and his own great-grandson,Carl XVI Gustaf (1973–present). He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise his royal prerogatives, which largely died with him, although they were formally abolished only with theremaking of the Swedish constitution in 1974. He was the first Swedish king since theHigh Middle Ages not to have acoronation and so never wore the king's crown, a practice that has continued ever since.
Gustaf's early reign saw the rise ofparliamentary rule in Sweden although the leadup toWorld War I inducedhis dismissal of Liberal Prime MinisterKarl Staaff in 1914, replacing him with his own figurehead,Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, the father ofDag Hammarskjöld, for most of the war. However, after theLiberals andSocial Democrats secured a parliamentary majority under Staaff's successor,Nils Edén, he allowed Edén to form a new government whichde facto stripped the monarchy of virtually all powers and enacteduniversal and equal suffrage, including for women, by 1919. Bowing to the principles of parliamentary democracy, he remained a popular figurehead for the remaining 31 years of his rule, although not completely without influence. Gustaf V had pro-German and anti-Communist stances which were outwardly expressed duringWorld War I and theRussian Civil War. DuringWorld War II, he allegedly urgedPer Albin Hansson's coalition government to accept requests fromNazi Germany for logistics support, arguing that refusing might provoke an invasion. His intervention remains controversial.
An avid hunter and sportsman, Gustaf presided over the1912 Olympic Games and chaired the Swedish Association of Sports from 1897 to 1907. Most notably, he represented Sweden (under the alias ofMr G.) as a competitive tennis player, keeping up competitive tennis until his eighties, when his eyesight deteriorated rapidly.[1][2] He was succeeded by his son,Gustaf VI Adolf.
On 18 September 1872 his uncleKing Charles XV died, and Gustaf's father ascended the throne as King Oscar II. Upon his father's accession to the throne, Gustaf became crown prince of both Sweden and Norway at the age of 14. The new king and queen and their children now moved into the largeStockholm Palace, and the crown prince's schooling at the Beskowska School was interrupted, as he was now to receive his education as heir to the throne at the palace.
On 8 December 1907 King Oscar II died and the 49-year-old Gustaf succeeded his father as King of Sweden as the fifth monarch from theHouse of Bernadotte.
When he ascended the throne, Gustaf V was, at least on paper, anear-autocrat. The1809 Instrument of Government made the King both head of state and head of government, and ministers were solely responsible to him. However, his father had been forced to accept a government chosen by the majority in Parliament in 1905. Since then, prime ministers had beende facto required to have the confidence of the Riksdag to stay in office.
Early in his reign, in 1910, Gustaf V refused to grant clemency to the convicted murdererJohan Alfred Ander, who thus became the last person to be executed in Sweden.
At first Gustaf V seemed to be willing to acceptparliamentary rule. After theLiberals won a massive landslide victory in 1911, Gustaf appointed Liberal leaderKarl Staaff as Prime Minister. However, during the run-up to World War I, the elites objected to Staaff's defence policy. In February 1914,a large crowd of farmers gathered at the royal palace and demanded that the country's defences be strengthened. In his reply, the so-calledCourtyard Speech—which was actually written by explorerSven Hedin, an ardent conservative—Gustaf promised to strengthen the country's defences. Staaff was outraged, telling the King that parliamentary rule called for the Crown to stay out of partisan politics. He was also angered that he had not been consulted in advance of the speech. However, Gustaf retorted that he still had the right to "communicate freely with the Swedish people". The Staaff government resigned in protest, and Gustaf appointed a government of civil servants headed byHjalmar Hammarskjöld (father of future UN Secretary-GeneralDag Hammarskjöld) in its place.
The 1917 elections showed a heavy gain for the Liberals andSocial Democrats, who between them held a decisive majority. Despite this, Gustaf initially tried to appoint a Conservative government headed byJohan Widén. However, Widén was unable to attract enough support for a coalition. It was now apparent that Gustaf could no longer appoint a government entirely of his own choosing, nor could he keep a government in office against the will of Parliament. With no choice but to appoint a Liberal as prime minister, he appointed a Liberal-Social Democratic coalition government headed by Staaff's successor as Liberal leader,Nils Edén. The Edén government promptly arrogated most of the king's political powers to itself and enacted numerous reforms, most notably the institution of complete (male and female) universal suffrage in 1918–1919. While Gustaf still formally appointed the ministers, they now had to have the confidence of Parliament. He was now also bound to act on the ministers' advice. Although the provision in the Instrument of Government stating that "the King alone shall govern the realm" remained unchanged, the king was now bound by convention to exercise his powers through the ministers. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the ministers did the actual governing. While ministers were already legally responsible to the Riksdag under the Instrument of Government, it was now understood that they were politically responsible to the Riksdag as well. Gustaf accepted his reduced role, and reigned for the rest of his life as a model limited constitutional monarch. Parliamentarianism had become ade facto reality in Sweden, even if it would not be formalised until 1974, when a new Instrument of Government stripped the monarchy of even nominal political power. Gustaf V was considered to have German sympathies during World War I. His political stance during the war was highly influenced by his wife, who felt a strong connection to her German homeland. On 18 December 1914, he sponsored a meeting inMalmö with the other two kings of Scandinavia to demonstrate unity. Another of Gustaf V's objectives was to dispel suspicions that he wanted to bring Sweden into the war on Germany's side.[4]
Although effectively stripped of political power, Gustaf was not completely without influence. In 1938, for instance, he personally summoned the German ambassador to Sweden and told him that if Hitler attackedCzechoslovakia over its refusal to give up theSudetenland, it would trigger a world war that Germany would almost certainly lose.[5] Additionally, his long reign gave him greatmoral authority as a symbol of the nation's unity.
Both the King and his grandsonPrince Gustaf Adolf socialised withNazi leaders before World War II, though arguably for diplomatic purposes. During a visit to Berlin, according to historian Jörgen Weibull, Gustaf V attempted to convinceHitler to soften his persecution of the Jews. He was also noted for appealing toMiklós Horthy, leader of theKingdom of Hungary, to save its Jews "in the name of humanity".
When Nazi Germany invaded theSoviet Union in June 1941, Gustaf V tried to write a private letter to Hitler thanking him for taking care of the "Bolshevik[6] pest" and congratulating him on his "already achieved victories".[7] He was stopped from doing so by Prime MinisterPer Albin Hansson.[8]
According to Prime Minister Hansson, during theMidsummer crisis, the King in a private conversation had threatened to abdicate if the government did not approve a German request to transfer a German infantry division, the so-calledEngelbrecht Division, through Swedish territory from southern Norway to northern Finland in June 1941, aroundMidsummer. The accuracy of the claim is debated, and the King's intention, if he really made the threat, is sometimes alleged to be his desire to avoid conflict with Germany. The event has received considerable attention from Swedish historians and is known asmidsommarkrisen, the Midsummer Crisis.[12]
Confirmation of the King's action is contained in German Foreign Policy documents captured at the end of the war. On 25 June 1941, the German Ambassador in Stockholm sent a "Most Urgent–Top Secret" message to Berlin in which he stated that the King had just informed him that thetransit of German troops would be allowed. He added:
The King's words conveyed the joyful emotion he felt. He had lived through anxious days and had gone far in giving his personal support to the matter. He added confidentially that he had found it necessary to go so far as to mention his abdication.[13]
Gustaf V was thin, and known for his height. He worepince-nez eyeglasses and sported a pointed mustache for most of his teen years.
Gustaf V was a devoted tennis player, appearing under the pseudonymMr G. As a player and promoter of the sport, he was elected to theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame in 1980. The King learned to play tennis during a visit in Britain in 1876 and founded Sweden's first tennis club on his return home. In 1936 he founded the King's Club. During his reign, Gustaf was often seen playing on theRiviera. On a visit to Berlin, Gustaf went straight from a meeting with Hitler to a tennis match with the Jewish playerDaniel Prenn. During World War II, he interceded to obtain better treatment for Davis Cup starJean Borotra of France, and in 1938 on behalf of his personal trainer and friend BaronGottfried von Cramm of Germany, who had been imprisoned by the Nazi Government on the charge of a homosexual relationship with a Jew.
Swedish coastal defence ship HM Pansarskepp Gustaf V (1922–1957).
Allegations of a homosexual love affair between Gustaf V andKurt Haijby led to the court paying 170,000kronor under the threat of blackmail by Haijby.[14] That led to the so-called Haijby Affair and several controversial trials and convictions against Haijby, which spawned considerable controversy about Gustaf V's allegedhomosexuality.[15]
In 2021 the alleged events surrounding the Haijby Affair were adapted into a fictional miniseries forSveriges Television calledEn Kunglig Affär (A Royal Secret), directed byLisa James Larsson and written byBengt Braskered.[16]
Upon his creation as Duke of Värmland, Gustaf V was granted a coat of arms with the Arms of Värmland in base. Upon his accession to the throne, he assumed the Arms of Dominion of Sweden.
Swedish author Anders Lundebeck (1900–1976) allegedly was an extramarital son of King Gustaf V,[50] an allegation purported by Lundebeck himself[51] and to some extent supported by existing facts.[52]
^Gustaf V och andra Världskriget. Carlsson, Erik. 2007.ISBN9789185057887
^Operation Norrsken: Om Stasi och Sverige under kalla kriget, av Christoph Andersson
^Hansson (Wahlbäck,Regeringen och kriget. Ur statsrådens dagböcker 1939–41)
^Documents of German Foreign Policy 1918–1945 Series D Volume XIII The War Years 23 June 1941 – 11 December 1941, Published in UK by HMSO and in US By Government Printing Office.
^Gianoulis, Tina (16 November 2006)."Gustav V, King of Sweden (1858-1950)".GLBTQ - An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Archived fromthe original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved8 April 2023.
^Heumann, Maths (1978).Rättsaffärerna Kejne och Haijby (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt.ISBN91-1-787202-2.
^abBille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1944) [1st pub.:1801].Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1944 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1944](PDF). Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri. p. 16. Retrieved1 May 2020 – viada:DIS Danmark.
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1896), "Großherzogliche Orden"pp. 62,76
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden"p. 7
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (1883), "Großherzogliche Orden und Ehrenzeichen",p. 14
^Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1900), "Großherzogliche Hausorden"p. 16Archived 6 September 2020 at theWayback Machine
^Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden".Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 4 – via hathitrust.org.
^Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg (1907), "Königliche Orden"p. 28
^刑部芳則 (2017).明治時代の勲章外交儀礼(PDF) (in Japanese). 明治聖徳記念学会紀要. p. 143.
1Also prince of Norway 2Also prince of Poland and Lithuania 3Lost his title due to an unequal marriage 4Not Swedish prince by birth, but created prince of Sweden
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