Sigismund III Vasa 1566-1632
King of Poland and of Sweden

Born in Gripsholm, the Catholic son of King Johan III of Sweden and nephew of Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, he was elected to the Polish throne in 1587. He was haughty and na�ve, and most of his reign was dominated by the chancellor, John Zamoyski, who defeated an attempt by the Archduke Maximilian to invade Poland and obliged the emperor to relinquish all Habsburg claims there (1588-89). In 1592 he succeeded his father as King of Sweden (1592-99), but before his coronation (1594), his uncle, the future Karl IX, promoted a convention renouncing Catholicism in Sweden, and after Sigismund's return to Poland, Karl ruled as Regent. In 1598 he was defeated by Karl at St�ngebro, and for several years he tried without success to regain the Swedish throne. In 1609 he invaded Russia in pursuit of the Russian Crown, and captured Moscow and Smolensk, causing his son Ladislas to be temporarily elected tsar. He fought in Moldavia against Ottoman forces (1617-21), and lost Livonia and the Prussian ports in a war with Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (1621-29). He was succeeded in Poland by his son, Ladislas IV Vasa.