Gustavus

(güs-tah'vus,) the name of the under noted kings of Sweden: -G. I. (called VASA), B. at Stockholm, 1496. Proscribed with his family by the Danish usurper, Christian II., G raised a powerful party of adherents in Dale carl i a, and in 1521 captured Stockholm. In 1527, after having previously refused the crown, he became king of Sweden, and reigned wisely and popularly for a period of 33 years. D. 1559.- His grandson, G. II. (ADOLPHUS), one of the greatest generals of modern times, B. 1594, s. to the throne in 1611, and, after defeating the Ru ians and Poles who had attempted to invade his dominions, he acquired a large part of Livonia and Pomerania. He next declared himself the champion of the Protestant cause, then suffering under the persecutions of Ferdinand II. of Germany. In 1630 he landed in that country at the head of an army of 8,000 men, and after being joined by 6,000 Scots under the Duke of Hamilton, he forced the Emperor to offer terms of peace, together with a ce ion of the remainder of Pomerania. Rejecting these propositions, G. advanced southward, his army receiving large acce ions of strength from the Protestant princes and peoples, and in Sept., 1631, encountered and defeated at Leipzig the Imperialists under Count Tilly. In the year following G. won new victories, in one of which, the field of Lützen, the " Lion of the North" fell mortally wounded. -G. III., B. 1746, ascended the throne in 1771. His reign was characterized by a succe ful struggle with the nobility to increase the kingly prerogative. A a inated by Ankarström, a Swedish noble, 1792.- G. IV., B. 1778, s. his father, the preceding monarch, in 1792. Despotically inclined, G. alienated from himself the respect of his subjects, who deposed and imprisoned him, 1809. D. an exile in Switzerland, 1837. [s. 431]