Gustav V 1858-1950
King of Sweden

Born in Stockholm, the son and successor (1907) of Oskar II, he was shy and reserved by nature. He disliked pomp and spectacle and refused a coronation ceremony, thus becoming the first uncrowned king on the Swedish throne. Nevertheless, he sought to assert the personal power of the monarchy, and in 1914 he challenged the government with a call for greater spending on defence. Demands for his abdication were stilled by the outbreak of World War I, when Sweden mobilized but remained neutral. Thereafter he reigned as a popular constitutional monarch, and in World War II came to symbolize the unity of the nation. He was the longest-reigning king in Swedish history. In 1881 he married Princess Viktoria, daughter of the Grand Duke of Baden and granddaughter of Sofia of Sweden (Gustav IV Adolf's daughter), thus uniting the reigning Bernadotte dynasty with the former royal House of Vasa. His nephew was Count Folke Bernadotte. He was succeeded by his son, Gustav VI.