The Swedish nation and Swedes the world over today will observe the goth birthday of their beloved King, Gustaf V. During his long and eventful reign the principals of liberal monarchy, powerful cabinet and a democratic nation firmly have become established.
When Oscar Gustaf Adolf was born in the summer of 1858 as the eldest son of the then Duke and Duchess of Östergötland, the Bernadotte dynasty was still relatively young; the generation to which the present King of Sweden belongs was the first, to be seriously connected by links of birth and relationship to the ruling royal lines of Europe, Prince Gustaf, Duke of Varmland, in 1872 became Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway (the latter until 1905), Gustaf's 35-year long Crown Princeship fell in an epoch when monarchical Europe was yet strong and powerful. On the Continent the German Empire was dominant, and it was not surprising that Crown Prince Gustaf, like his father, sought his bride in its royal constellation, His marriage with Victoria of Baden was celebrated in Karlsruhe on September 20, 1881, Subsequently the Swedish Royal Family became united by marriage with foreign ruling dynasties.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.