Gustav King of Sweden

Gustav V was born on June 16, 1858, the eldest son of Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway and Sophia of Nassau. He married Princess Victoria of Baden on September 20, 1881 in a ceremony that united the two houses of the reigning Bernadotte dynasty and the house of Vasa. He ascended to the throne on Dec. 8, 1907.

Gustav V was the last of Sweden’s reining monarchs to play a direct part in the politics of the country. He was also known for his socialization with the Nazis before WWI. At one point, Gustav V congratulated Hitler for his conquest of the Soviet Union, thanking the Nazi fuehrer for eliminating the ‘Boleshvik pest” in a letter that he sent without the Swedish government’s knowledge. His reputed leanings towards the Nazis were largely attributed to his wife’s German origins. However, he was able to maintain Sweden’s neutrality during WWII and was known reported to have requested Hitler to soften his actions against the Jews.

Gustav V discovered his passion for tennis in 1876 when he visited Britain, and founded the country’s first tennis club soon thereafter. He was known in tennis circles as Mr. G and was reported to have loved playing the sport so much that that he went straight from a meeting with Hitler in Germany to a tennis match with Daniel Prenn, a Jewish tennis player.

He was also instrumental in the promotion of both the sport and the better treatment of tennis players such as Jean Borotra and Gottfried von Cramm who were imprisoned by Germany during WWII. Because of his efforts to develop the sport in Sweden, Gustav V was posthumously elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1980.