Gustav II Adolf, originally Gustavus Adolphus, known as the Lion of the North 1594-1632
King of Sweden, a champion of Protestantism

Born in Stockholm, he was the son and successor of Karl IX and grandson of Gustav I Vasa. When he came to the throne in 1611 he found the country immersed in wars and disorder, but he quickly conciliated the nobility, reorganized the government, and revitalized the army. He made a favourable peace at Kn�red (1613) with Denmark which, under Kristian IV, invaded Sweden in 1611. He defeated Russia (1613-17) and received a large part of Finland and Livonia from Poland through the Treaty of Stolbova (1617). He fought King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland (1621-29) for the Swedish throne, took Livonia and forced a favourable six-year truce with the Treaty of Altmark (1629). This left him free to intervene directly in the Thirty Years War (1618-48), on behalf of the Protestants against the Catholic League of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, and his victorious general Albrecht von Wallenstein. Leaving the government in the care of the chancellor, Axel Oxenstjerna, he crossed to Pomerania in 1630 with 15,000 men and took Stettino. In 1631 he failed to prevent the massacre of Magdeburg by Count von Tilly, who had supplanted Wallenstein, but in September of that year he decisively defeated Tilly at Breitenfeld, near Leipzig, and took the Palatinate and Mainz. In the spring of 1632 he advanced into Bavaria, defeated and killed Tilly and captured Augsburg and Munich. The Emperor Ferdinand recalled Wallenstein, and in November 1632 the two armies met in a furious battle at L�tzen, near Leipzig. The Swedes won, but Gustav Adolf was killed. A compelling leader of impressive abilities and military achievement, he left Sweden the strongest power in Europe and reformed the country's central and local administration, establishing Stockholm as the administrative capital.