His father prepared him for his role as king by having
him taught Latin, Italian, and Dutch by the age of 12
and Spanish, Russian, and Polish later. Introduced into
public life early, he was responsible for administering his
own estates at 15. When his father died in 1611, Gusta-
vus was, despite his young age, accepted unanimously as
the new king, Gustav II.
Gustav began by reorganizing the government
and its finances and went on to make peace with Den-
mark, with whom Sweden had long been at war; this
was achieved by the Peace of Knared (28 January 1613).
Sweden had also laid claim to and occupied areas across
the Baltic Sea to the east, specifically regions of Finland
and today’s Estonia and Latvia, claims resisted by both
Denmark and Poland. He strengthened his hold on
these with the treaty of Stolbova (27 February 1617),
which excluded the Duchy of Muscovy from access to
the Baltic. In 1621, he went to war with Poland and
invaded Livonia (today’s Latvia), capturing Riga on 13
September 1621. He invaded Lithuania in 1625 and de-
feated the Polish army at Walhof in January 1626. He
then went on to strengthen his hold on the south Baltic
by isolating Danzig, but the Polish commander, Stan-
islaus Koniecpolski, frustrated his efforts, and Gustavus
was forced to withdraw after the battle of Stuhm (29
June 1629). He was, however, able to consolidate much
of his gains by the six-year truce of Altmark.
Having secured his flanks, Gustav led his army
south into Germany in 1630 to aid the Protestant armies
fighting against the Catholic League in the Thirty Years
War (1618–48). While he overtly declared the reason
was to aid the Protestant states of north Germany against
the attempts of the Emperor Ferdinand II to restore Ca-
tholicism throughout Germany, his real purpose was to
ensure that Sweden kept her position of primacy in the
Baltic. Imperial success anywhere in the south Baltic
could threaten Sweden’s commerce, and Gustav was de-
termined that would not happen. He began by landing
his army in Pomerania (east Prussia) on 9 June 1630 and
promptly attacked and took Stettin, the capital, which
he then fortified.
Gustav drove the imperial army out of Pomerania,
but while the Swedish army was besieging Spandau and
Kustrin, the Catholic forces under the count von tilly
captured Magdeburg, the strongest fortress in north
Germany. Gustav now made a treaty with the French
(treaty of Barwalde, 13 January 1631), but because of
the reluctance of the rulers of Saxony and Brandenburg
to join him, he was unable to relieve Magdeburg, which
fell on 20 May 1631. On 17 September, however, a
combined Saxonian-Swedish army under Gustav’s com-
mand defeated Tilly at Breitenfeld, just north of Liepzig,
and advanced west, occupying the Palatinate and Mainz
by the end of 1631.
In April 1632, the Swedes marched east, crossed
the Danube, and harried Tilly’s forces, pursuing them
to the fortress of Ingolstadt, where Tilly died of wounds
received. Gustav then advanced and took Munich and
would have had a clear road to Vienna itself, if the Holy
Roman Emperor Ferdinand had not recalled to ser-
vice his experienced general Albrecht von Wallenstein
(1583–1634), who took up position with his army near
Nuremburg. After repulsing Gustav’s advance, the Cath-
olic army was forced to retreat into Thuringia, but Wal-
lenstein still had enough troops to challenge Gustavus,
and the two armies met again at Lutzen, near Leipzig,
on 16 November 1632. The Swedes were initially suc-
cessful, but Wallenstein pushed back the Swedish center.
Gustav, galloping to restore the line, ran into a cavalry
detachment of the enemy, was shot several times, and
fell mortally wounded. The Swedes, furious at his death,
then went on to win the day, but they had lost a great
leader.
Gustav’s wife, Maria Eleanora of Brandenburg, kept
his body in her bedroom until her death. It now lies in
the Riddarholmskyrkan in Stockholm.
In his monumental History of Europe, H. A. L.
Fisher summarizes Gustav’s gifts: “In any computation
of human excellence, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
should stand high. A brilliant linguist, for he spoke
eight languages, a great soldier and trainer of soldiers... Gustavus out-tops the statesmen of his age in en-
ergy, simplicity and integrity of character.” Fisher goes
on to explain some of the reasons for Gustav’s military
success. Describing his improvements to the Swedish
army, Fisher writes that the army was “notable for five
characteristics. The men wore uniform. The regiments
were small and equipped for speed. A light, mobile field
artillery, easy to handle and brilliantly manoeuvered, re-
inforced the infantry arm. The muskets were of a type
superior to that in general use. The cavalry, instead of
galloping up to the enemy, discharging their pistols in
the Dutch manner, and then turning round and gallop-
ing back to reload, charged home with naked steel. To
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