History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus II

In giving this sketch of the life of Gustavus Adolphus, no attempt has been made to present a complete life of the great king.

It is a history difficult for young people to understand, and for that reason only the leading events of a most eventful life have been presented.

It was first written for a lecture and entertainment, after the manner of my other entertainments on Church epochs, to be illustrated by stereopticon views, with three dramatic interludes—the first representing the joy of the Swedish people on Gustavus coming to the throne; the second showing Gustavus taking leave of his Parliament and friends as he is about to embark on the Thirty Years' War; the third, an act called "The Women who Loved Him." The evening was to open and close with church processionals in the native peasant costumes of Sweden and other Protestant countries of Europe.

It has been deemed best to present the story in book form, which will differ somewhat from the original lecture and dramatic representations, for the reason that pictures do away with the necessity for many words.

With the earnest prayer that this history may stir other heroic souls to stand for God in life's difficult places this sketch is submitted.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

Family of Gustavus Vasa 7

CHAPTER II.

Childhood and Youth of Gustavus Adolphus 12

CHAPTER III.

Gustavus as a Man 17

CHAPTER IV.

Gustavus and His Kingdom 21

CHAPTER V.

The Character of the King and His Times 28

CHAPTER VI.

The Thirty Years' War 36

CHAPTER VII.

The Thirty Years' War—Continued 44

CHAPTER VIII.

Conditions in Sweden 53

CHAPTER IX.

Gustavus in Germany 61

CHAPTER X.

Gustavus in Germany—Continued 84

CHAPTER XI.

Gustavus in Germany—Concluded 98

CHAPTER XII.

End of a Valuable Life 115

CHAPTER XIII.

Later History of the Thirty Years' War 132

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II.

CHAPTER I. FAMILY.

Gustavus Adolphus, the hero general of the Reformation, was born at the royal palace at Stockholm, Sweden, December 9th, 1594, a little more than one hundred years after the birth of Luther, nearly fifty years after his death, and five years before the birth of Cromwell.

Washington and Lincoln, as to date of birth, were only seventy-seven years apart; had Washington lived but nine years more, they would have been contemporary.

Washington may, in a sense, be said to have made this country, and Lincoln to have preserved it a united people. Just so Luther brought about the movement known as Protestantism, but it was given to this great king of Sweden, known as the Lion of the North, to preserve Protestantism from extinction on the continent of Europe, even as a little later it was given Cromwell to stop that curious movement toward Romanism which is even yet the puzzle of the historian.

Gustavus II. was the son of Charles, Duke of Sudermania, youngest son of Gustavus Vasa, who may be considered the founder of the Vasa family.

During the entire sixteenth century Sweden was torn by external wars and internal dissensions. Sweden, by the contract of Calmar, in 1397, had become a dependency of Denmark. A trade among rulers had made a brave people the reluctant subjects of an alien power. Gustavus Vasa conceived the project of freeing his country from Denmark. He made one ineffectual attempt, and after severe defeat, pursued by the oppressors, he fled to Delecarlia, whose citizens rallied about him, and, with the help of these sturdy and valiant mountaineers, the Danes were expelled from Sweden and his country was restored to liberty.