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Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf 16 June 1858 - 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 1907. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Reigning until his death at age 92, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the second-longest reigning (after Magnus IV).
Ascending to the throne in 1907, his early reign saw the rise of parliamentary rule in Sweden, although the leadup to World War I pre-empted his overthrow of Liberal Prime Minister Karl Staaff in 1914, replacing him with his own figurehead Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (father of late Dag Hammarskjöld) for most of the war. In 1917 he accepted Staaff's successor Nils Edén to form a new government which de facto stripped the monarchy of its virtual powers and had enacted universal and equal suffrage, including for women, by 1919. Accepting the principles of parliamentary democracy, he remained a popular figurehead for the remainder 31 years of his rule, although not completely without influence - in the days of World War II he allegedly urged Per Albin Hansson's cabinet to accept calls from Nazi Germany to logistics support which, if refused, might have pre-empted an invasion, and remains controversial to date.
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