King of Sweden. Name spelled as per 20th century legal usage (also known as Gustav Adolf). Belonging to the Bernadotte Dynasty, he reigned 1950-1973 and was also Duke of Scania. His parents were King Gustaf V and Queen Viktoria, a Zähringen Dynasty princess of Baden. He did not become king until he was 67, but like his father before him, he decided not to have a coronation and presided over the once formal and ceremonial Swedish kingdom as a democratic monarchy. Speaking to his subjects seated on the Silver Throne of Queen Christina from 1650, he did however continue the magnificent annual throne room ceremony called the 'Solemn Opening of the Parliament' which was not abolished until after his death. He never meddled in politics, but put all his efforts into representative duties and his main hobby of archaeology, often participating in important digs in Italy, and knowledgeable identification and collection of related artifacts. His English marriages were seen as a useful balance in a difficult time of World Wars in Europe, considering the pro-German orientation of his parents. In 1905 he married British Princess Margaret of Connaught, and the couple had 5 children, among whom were Sweden's Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf, father of present King Carl XVI Gustaf, and Queen Ingrid of Denmark. His Crown Princess died suddenly in 1920, leaving him alone with the 5 small children. Three years later he married naturalized Briton Lady Louise Mountbatten, originally a German princess of Battenberg. Notwithstanding his passion for history, Gustav VI Adolf approved and signed into law momentous new constitutional changes the year he died which removed all remaining vestiges of kingly power or influence on the affairs of the Swedish people, leaving his grandson and successor with a role restricted to being a kind of cultural figurehead and custodian of history. Critics felt leftist-republican leanings in parliament had quietly pushed this through by taking advantage of the king's very old age (he was 90) to repeal the several-thousand-years-old right Swedes had to "gå till kungs" and get their grievances heard by a sole non-partisan government authority. Supporters found it an integral and necessary development in consolidating a monarchic form of government, wanted by a vast majority, with democratic principles wanted by everyone. In any case, this was the only major event of his reign involving this king. He was the first king to be buried at Sweden's Royal Cemetery on an island in Solna, north of Stockholm.