ABSTRACT
Gustavus Adolphus transformed Sweden from a remote kingdom into a powerful European empire. He fought successful wars around the Baltic and his intervention in the Thirty Years War helped to preserve Protestantism. Gustavus was born in Stockholm in 1594. His father, King Karl IX, had usurped the Swedish throne after the former king, Sigismund, abandoned it to become the king of Roman Catholic Poland. Concurrently, Gustavus was faced with a military crisis. Denmark had attacked Sweden shortly before his accession; only in 1613 was peace gained through the Treaty of Knared. When he was killed at Liitzen, Gustavus Adolphus left behind a transformed Swedish state and a military tradition that would alter the course of European history. Gustavus's tireless wars in the Baltic region greatly enhanced the power of Sweden. Gustavus defended Protestantism—historians regard his victory at Breitenfeld as a turning point in the Thirty Years War.
