DESCRIPTION:
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 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 second-longest reigning after Magnus IV; the longest-reigning as an adult. He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise discretionary use of political power, and the political importance of the Monarchy largely died with him, although its prerogatives were formally abolished only with the remaking of the Swedish constitution in 1974.