Karl Staaff in the context of "Hjalmar Hammarskjöld"

Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. 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 to his own death nearly 43 years later, he holds the record of being the oldest monarch of Sweden with the third-longest reign after Magnus IV (1319–1364) and his own great-grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf (1973–present). He was also the last Swedish monarch to exercise his royal prerogatives, which largely died with him, although they were formally abolished only with the remaking of the Swedish constitution in 1974. He was the first Swedish king since the High Middle Ages not to have a coronation and so never wore the king's crown, a practice that has continued ever since.

Gustaf's early reign saw the rise of parliamentary rule in Sweden although the leadup to World War I induced his dismissal of Liberal Prime Minister Karl Staaff in 1914, replacing him with his own figurehead, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, the father of Dag Hammarskjöld, for most of the war. However, after the Liberals and Social Democrats secured a parliamentary majority under Staaff's successor, Nils Edén, he allowed Edén to form a new government which de facto stripped the monarchy of virtually all powers and enacted universal and equal suffrage, including for women, by 1919. Bowing to the principles of parliamentary democracy, he remained a popular figurehead for the remaining 31 years of his rule, although not completely without influence. Gustaf V had pro-German and anti-Communist stances which were outwardly expressed during World War I and the Russian Civil War. During World War II, he allegedly urged Per Albin Hansson's coalition government to accept requests from Nazi Germany for logistics support, arguing that refusing might provoke an invasion. His intervention remains controversial.

The Courtyard Crisis (Swedish: Borggårdskrisen) was a constitutional conflict between Sweden's King Gustaf V and the Liberal Prime Minister Karl Staaff.

The crisis has been seen as the culmination of the struggle between the pro-King conservatives and the pro-parliamentary forces. It was rooted in differing views on how much money should be spent on defense - Gustaf V advocated higher funding than the government. World War I broke out in July 1914, six months after the Courtyard Speech, and united the parties on the defense issue.

The Free-minded National Association (Swedish: Frisinnade Landsföreningen) was a political party in Sweden. The party was in government from 1905 to 1906 and from 1911 to 1914 under the leadership of Karl Staaff, from 1917 to 1920 under the leadership of Nils Edén, from 1926 to 1928 and from 1930 to 1932 under the leadership of Carl Gustaf Ekman and briefly from August to September 1932 under the leadership of Felix Hamrin.

Established in 1902, in 1923 the party split over the issue of alcohol prohibition and the anti-ban minority formed the Liberal Party of Sweden. The two parties reunited again in 1934 as the People's Party.