Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden

Born 11 November 1882, eldest son of Gustaf V and Victoria of Baden, he endured what may be the longest apprenticeship in modern royal history: nearly 43 years as crown prince before his father's death in 1950. He finally took the throne at 67. His reign ran until 15 September 1973, and in its final stretch he approved the constitutional reforms that stripped the Swedish crown of its last political authority - a monarch dismantling his own office. Away from statecraft, he spent his life in the dirt: a serious amateur archeologist with a passion for Ancient Italian cultures, more at home on a dig than in a palace.