Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden

Gustaf VI Adolf (Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf; 11 November 1882 – 15 September 1973) was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death in 1973. He was the eldest son of Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden. Before Gustaf Adolf acceded to the throne, he was crown prince for nearly 43 years during his father's reign. As king, and shortly before his death, he gave his approval to constitutional changes which removed the Swedish monarchy's last political powers. He was a lifelong amateur archeologist particularly interested in Ancient Italian cultures.

Birth

Gustaf Adolf was born on 11 November 1882, at Stockholm Palace. At birth he was created Duke of Scania. A patrilineal member of the House of Bernadotte, Gustaf Adolf was also descended from the House of Vasa through maternal lines. Through his mother, he was a descendant of Gustav IV Adolf of the House of Holstein-Gottorp. Gustaf Adolf was the eldest child of Crown Prince Gustaf, later Gustaf V, and Victoria of Baden. He was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Oscar II. Through his mother, Gustaf Adolf was a great-grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, who died when Gustaf Adolf was five years old. His maternal grandmother, Princess Louise of Prussia, was the Kaiser's only daughter.

Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf wearing his ducal coronet in Stockholm Palace circa 1900Gustaf Adolf became Crown Prince of Sweden on the death of his grandfather, King Oscar II, on 8 December 1907.

1926 trip to United States July 1926: Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf in Bohemian Grove to see the play Truth by George Sterling. Photo by Gabriel Moulin.In 1926, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess Louise visited the United States. They included a trip to San Francisco, where the Crown Prince visited Bohemian Grove to see the Grove Play Truth by poet George Sterling.

1934–35 trip to the Near East From September to December 1934, the Crown Prince, Crown Princess Louise, Princess Ingrid and Prince Bertil visited a number of countries in the Near East. The journey began on 13 September from Stockholm. The journey went by rail via Malmö, Berlin and Rome to Messina, where the royals boarded the Swedish Oriental Line motor ship Vasaland, destined for Greece. They stopped at Patras and then the journey continued to Aegion. On 20 September, they arrived in Piraeus, from where the royals took a train to Athens, where they were received by the President of Greece and representatives of government agencies. Furthermore, an excursion was made to Delphi, Nafplio and Delos with the cruiser Hellas. After returning to Athens, Vasaland departed for Thessaloniki on 28 September, where the international fair was visited. On 2 October, they arrived in Istanbul. After the ship dropped anchor, the royals were landed on the Asian side of the strait. The sloop docked at the quay in front of Haydarpaşa railway station. At the platform, President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's caravan waited, in which the journey continued to Ankara. At the station, the guests were received by Atatürk, members of the government and the administration. After his arrival, the Crown Prince visited Atatürk as well as Foreign Minister Tevfik Rüştü Aras. The visit to Ankara lasted from 3 to 5 October. On 5 October, a two-day visit to Bursa was made. The stay in Turkey ended with a four-day incognito break in Istanbul, during which several receptions were held at the Swedish legation.

The King died in 1973, at the old hospital in Helsingborg, Scania, close to his summer residence, Sofiero Castle, after a deterioration in his health that culminated in pneumonia. He was succeeded on the throne by his 27-year-old grandson Carl XVI Gustaf, son of his oldest son, the late Prince Gustaf Adolf. He died the day before the election of 1973, which is suggested to have swayed it in support of the incumbent Social Democratic government. In a break with tradition, he was not buried in Riddarholmskyrkan in Stockholm, but in the Royal Cemetery in Haga alongside his wives.

Not long before his death, Gustaf Adolf approved a new constitution that stripped the monarchy of its remaining political powers. The new document took effect in 1975, two years after Gustaf Adolf's death, leaving his grandson as a ceremonial figurehead.

Personal interests Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf meets some English footballers (c. 1910–1914).The King's reputation as a "professional amateur professor" was widely known; nationally and internationally, and among his relatives. Gustaf VI Adolf was a devoted archaeologist, and was admitted to the British Academy for his work in botany in 1958. Gustaf VI Adolf participated in archaeological expeditions in China, Greece, Korea and Italy, and founded the Swedish Institute in Rome.

Gustaf VI Adolf had an enormous private library consisting of 80,000 volumes and – nearly more impressively – he actually had read the main part of the books. He had an interest in specialist literature on Chinese art and East Asian history. Throughout his life, King Gustaf VI Adolf was particularly interested in the history of civilization, and he participated in several archaeological expeditions. His other great area of interest was botany, concentrating in flowers and gardening. He was considered an expert on the Rhododendron flower. At Sofiero Castle (the king's summer residence) he created an admired Rhododendron collection.

Like his sons Prince Gustaf Adolf and Prince Bertil, Gustaf VI Adolf maintained wide, lifelong interests in sports. He enjoyed tennis and golf, and fly fishing for charity. He was president of the Swedish Olympic Committee and the Swedish Sports Confederation from their foundations and until 1933, and these positions were then taken over by his sons in succession, Gustaf Adolf until 1947 and then Bertil until 1997.

According to all six books of memoirs by his sons Sigvard and Carl Johan, nephew Lennart and of wives of the two sons, Gustaf Adolf from the 1930s on took a great and abiding interest in removing their royal titles and privileges (because of marriages that were unconstitutional at the time), persuading his father Gustaf V to do so and to have the Royal Court call the three family members only Mr. Bernadotte.

Family and issue

Gustaf Adolf married Princess Margaret of Connaught on 15 June 1905 in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle. Princess Margaret was the daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of the United Kingdom. Gustaf Adolf and Margaret had five children:

NameBirthDeathNotes Died in a plane crash at Copenhagen Airport; father of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden later Prince Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg Queen of Denmark; grandmother of King Frederik X of Denmark later Prince Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg

Crown Princess Margaret died suddenly on 1 May 1920 with her cause of death given as an infection following surgery. At the time, she was eight months pregnant and expecting their sixth child.

Gustaf Adolf married Lady Louise Mountbatten, formerly Princess Louise of Battenberg, on 3 November 1923 at St. James's Palace with a celebration at Kensington Palace. She was the sister of Lord Mountbatten and aunt of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and a niece of Empress Alexandra of Russia. She was also a first cousin once removed of her husband’s first wife both being descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was Lady Louise who became Queen of Sweden. Both Queen Louise and her stepchildren were great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Crown Princess Margaret having been a first cousin of Queen Louise's mother, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

His second marriage produced only one stillborn daughter on 30 May 1925.

While his first wife visited her native Britain in the early years of their marriage, it was widely rumored in Sweden that Gustaf Adolf had an affair there with operetta star Rosa Grünberg. Swedish vocalist Carl E. Olivebring (1919–2002) in a press interview claimed to be an extramarital son of Gustaf VI Adolf, a claim taken seriously by the king's biographer Kjell Fridh (1944–1998).

Via his son Gustaf Adolf and his daughter Ingrid, respectively, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden was the grandfather of his direct successor King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, as well as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (who is herself the mother of King Frederik X of Denmark) and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, consort of the final Greek king.

By his second marriage, Gustaf Adolf was an uncle to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Honours Swedish

Quasi-Official Orders High Protector (and Honorary Knight) of the Order of St John in Sweden The Medal Illis quorum meruere labores of the 18th size, 1939 Gustav V medal for the 300th Anniversary of the New Sweden Settlement, 1938 Knight of the Order of the Norwegian Lion, 21 January 1904 Austria: Grand Cross of St. Stephen, 1912 Republic of Austria: Grand Star of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, 1960 Grand Cordon of the Royal Order of Leopold Grand Cross of the Southern Cross Knight of the Elephant, 28 October 1903 Cross of Honour of the Order of the Dannebrog, 31 May 1935 King Christian X's Liberty Medal, 1946 Collar with Grand Cross Breast Star of the Order of the Falcon, 1954 Grand Cross of the White Rose, with Collar, 1925 , 1946 (One of seven gold medals awarded in 1941 by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.) Knight of the Annunciation, 1 April 1905 Grand Cross of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 1 April 1905 Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy, 1 April 1905 Italian Republic: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 14 June 1966 Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum Grand Cross of the Netherlands Lion Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class Siam: Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri, 25 October 1911 Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 12 May 1905 Honorary Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (civil), 14 June 1905 Recipient of the King George V Coronation Medal, 1911 Grand Cordon of the Order of the Pioneers of Liberia Doctor of Laws, Yale University (15 June 1926) Doctor of Laws, University of Chicago (25 June 1926) Doctor of Laws, Princeton University (1926) Doctor of Science, Clark University (1926) Doctor of Laws, Cambridge University (4 June 1929) Doctor of Laws, University of Tartu (1932) Doctor of Philosophy, Chernivtsi University (1937) Legum Doctor, Harvard University (11 July 1938) Legum Doctor, University of Pennsylvania (1938) Doctor of Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (1944) Doctor of Philosophy, University of Helsinki (1952) 1903: Lieutenant 1909: Captain 1913: Major

Honorary military ranks Admiral (Royal Navy) 1 May 1951 Colonel-in-Chief, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) 10 August 1956 Air Chief Marshal (Royal Air Force) 15 September 1959 General (Royal Danish Air Force) 1952 In 1938 he was elected an honorary member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati

Arms and monogram Upon his creation as Duke of Skåne, Gustaf Adolf was granted a coat of arms with the arms of Skåne in base. These arms can be seen on his stall-plates both as Knight of the Swedish order of the Seraphim in the Riddarholm Church in Sweden, but also the Frederiksborg Chapel in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a Knight of the Danish Order of the Elephant. Upon his accession to the throne in 1950, he assumed the Royal Arms of Sweden.

Footnotes