Gustaf V (born 1858) is the King of Sweden since 1907.
Early Life[]
Gustaf V was born in 1858, the son of Prince Oscar and Princess Sofia. He became the Crown Prince of Sweden when his father ascended to the throne as Oscar II in 1872. He married Princess Victoria in 1881. She was the great-grandchild of deposed King of Sweden Gustav IV Adolf, therefore uniting the former royal dynasty of Holstein-Gottorp with the reigning Bernadotte dynasty. Together they have had three children, the current Crown Prince of Sweden Gustaf Adolf (born 1882), Wilhelm (born 1884) and Erik (born 1889), who died in 1918.
Reign[]
Crown Prince Gustav became King Gustav V on the 8th of December 1907, when his father Oscar II died. Gustav V was the first King of Sweden to not be crowned. During the Great War Sweden stayed neutral, but were obviously German-friendly as they would mine the Öresund strait at the wish of the Germans and restricted trade with the Entente while continuing trade with the Central Powers. As a punishment, the Entente in return blockaded Sweden in 1917, increasing the resource crisis that the Great War had brought to Sweden. 1917 would be a tumultuous year for Sweden and its monarchy, with food riots and demonstrations regularly occurring across the country, and escalating during the spring of 1917. After the Bloodbath at Gustav Adolf's Square, where the military fired at and killed protesters, uprisings began all over Sweden, starting the Swedish Revolution of 1917. Gustav was forced to flee Stockholm, and served as an important figurehead for the loyalists. After the defeat of the revolutionaries in late 1917, Gustav was given more powers as King, and elections were cancelled until the situation stabilized. Because of the revolution Gustav had not been able to focus on international politics, specifically the independence of Finland. The war was not looking good for Germany as America had joined the Entente during the Spring of 1917. A great success however, was the defeat of Russia because of the Russian Revolution, which also led to the independence of Finland. Sweden would provide help to the Whites during the Finnish Civil War. At the end of the war Sweden occupied the Åland Islands and allowed the White government, including King Frederik Kaarle I and Pehr Svinhhufvud, to establish a government in exile in Sweden. Gustav has since ruled as an authoritarian King, having the power to dismiss the government at will. He focuses on making Sweden the dominant power in the Baltic Sea, rivaling the Soviets by strengthening ties to the German Reich and the United Baltic States.