Gustavus

Born in Stockholm, the son of King Charles IX, Gustavus was educated as a Lutheran. When he became king at the age of seventeen, he first had to establish his right to the Swedish throne against a rival contender, his cousin Sigismund of Poland. After protracted wars and negotiations, Sigismund renounced his claimÐ'--though not that of his familyÐ'--to the Swedish throne (treaty of Altmark, 1629). Gustavus then sought to consolidate and extend the territory over which he ruled. Under the Treaty of Stolbava made with Russia in 1617, more lands were ceded to Sweden, and Russia was excluded from the Baltic Sea and its trade. In 1630 Gustavus decided to intervene in the Thirty Years' War (1618Ð'-1648), the last and longest of the post-Reformation religious wars in Europe. His decision was motivated partly by his sincere concern for the Protestant cause and for the German Lutherans, then in danger of complete defeat by the Catholic forces of the Holy Roman emperor under the impetus of the Counter-Reformation. Gustavus also wanted to repel the imperialist advance which threatened Sweden's position on the Baltic. Landing in Germany, he sought to unite the Protestant princes of Brandenburg and Saxony behind him. The sacking of the city of Magdeburg in 1631 by Tilly, the Catholic emperor's veteran general, pointed up to those princes the dangers of neutrality. With John George of Saxony, Gustavus defeated Tilly at the battle of Breitenfeld. In 1632 Gustavus's army, by then Europe's most formidable military force, defeated the Catholic forces (under the mercenary general Wallenstein) at Lutzen. In the course of the battle Gustavus was killed, and the Swedish-Protestant cause lost direction and cohesion. Gustavus was both a successful military commander and an enlightened king who improved educational and economic conditions in Sweden.