Queer Places:
Riddarholmen Church, Kungliga slottet, 107 70 Stockholm, Sweden
Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950)
was
King of Sweden from 1907 until his death in 1950. 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 from the death of his father
Oscar II in 1907 until his own death 43 years later, he holds the record
of being the oldest monarch of Sweden and the third-longest reigning after
Magnus IV and
Carl XVI Gustaf. He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise his
royal prerogatives, which largely died with him, although formally abolished
only with the
remaking of the Swedish constitution in 1974. He was the first Swedish
king since the
High Middle Ages not to have a
coronation and hence never wore a crown, a tradition continuing to date.
Gustaf's 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
Dag Hammarskjöld) for most of the war. However, after the
Liberals and
Social Democrats secured a parliamentary majority under Staaff's
successor,
Nils Edén, he allowed Edén to form a new government which de facto
stripped the monarchy of all virtual powers and enacted
universal and equal suffrage, including for women, by 1919. Bowing fully
to the principles of parliamentary democracy, he remained a popular figurehead
for the remaining 31 years of his rule, although not completely without
influence – during
World War II he allegedly urged
Per Albin Hansson's coalition government to accept requests from
Nazi
Germany for logistics support, refusing which might have provoked an
invasion. This remains controversial to date, although he is not known to have
shown much support for
fascism or
radical nationalism; his pro-German and anti-Communist stance was well known
also in
World
War I.
Following his death at age 92, he was implicated in a
homosexual affair in the
Haijby affair. His alleged lover Kurt Haijby was imprisoned in 1952 for blackmail
of the court in the 1930s. (Homosexuality was a criminal offense in Sweden
until 1944, though Gustaf's position would have granted automatic immunity.)
An avid hunter and sportsman, he presided over the
1912 Olympic Games and chaired the Swedish Association of Sports from 1897
to 1907. Most notably, he represented Sweden (under the alias of Mr G.)
as a competitive
tennis player, keeping up competitive tennis until his 80s, when his
eyesight deteriorated rapidly.[1][2]
He died from flu complications and was succeeded by his son,
Gustaf VI Adolf.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustaf_V_of_Sweden
- Woods, Gregory. Homintern . Yale University Press. Edizione del
Kindle.