Concerned Swedish farmers gathered in the courtyard of Stockholm Place to demand higher defense spending. There were 32,000 of them. King Gustaf declared to them that he shared their concerns, violating the Swedish constitution by taking an issue in a partisan matter. Conservatives supported higher defense spending and had organized the protest against the sitting Liberal government. The resulting controversy resulted in the downfall of the leadership of the Swedish government and the appointment of a government approved of by the King.
Gustav was king from 1907 until his death in 1950. Up until World War One he still held significant power in the country, and was highly influential in the Swedish government during the war. After the war, parliamentary actions would end up stripping the crown of them. He was the last Swedish monarch to exercise royal prerogatives, and 1974 constitutional changes ended them.
Gustav was pro German and anti Communist during the war and after. During World War Two, he had to be stopped by the Swedish prime minister from sending a congratulatory letter to Hitler for invading the Soviet Union. He nonetheless on behalf of tennis Davis Cup stars Jean Borotra of France and his personal trainer and friend Baron Gottfried von Cramm of Germany for better treatment by the Nazis, the latter of which had been imprisoned on the charge of a homosexual relationship with a Jew. Gustav himself was an ardent tennis player.
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