Gustavus II Adolphus

King of Sweden (r. 1611-1632)

• Born: December 9, 1594
• Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
• Died: November 6, 1632
• Place of death: Lützen, Saxony (now in Germany)

Gustavus was one of the greatest military commanders in the history of warfare. He was responsible for brilliant military innovations in strategy and tactics, and in the development of modern weaponry. He also transformed Sweden into one of the leading nations in Europe by implementing wide-ranging domestic reforms in the fields of government administration, economic development, and education.

Early Life

Gustavus II Adolphus (geh-STAY-vuhs ah-DAWL-fuhs) was born the first son of Charles IX and Christina of Holstein. As a youthful member of the royal family, he received a traditional education, and his childhood was largely uneventful. When his father died in 1611, however, Gustavus found himself king of Sweden at the age of sixteen. As the new king, Gustavus inherited what appeared to be unsurmountable problems. In 1600, his father had usurped the throne and deposed his nephew Sigismund, who was also king of Poland at the time. That resulted in a dynastic dispute between Sweden and Poland that continued for almost sixty years; for twenty years of his own reign, Gustavus always had to confront the possibility of a legitimate invasion by Poland to restore the vanquished monarchy. As if that were not enough, Charles IX also precipitated a war in Russia to place his own candidate on the vacant Russian throne; while his troops were deeply inside foreign territory, he recklessly started a war with Denmark.

Charles’s domestic policies were no less harmful. His rule of Sweden after taking the throne was harsh and arbitrary; soon afterward, he did away with the aristocratic constitutionalism that had functioned under the previous king, and he executed five leading members of the aristocracy. In addition, although Charles had replaced a Catholic sovereign who had threatened the very existence of Swedish Lutheranism, his strict religious views, most probably a form of Calvinism, put him into endless conflict with the Lutheran church. When Charles died, the country suffered from religious strife, the monarchy was unpopular, and the people themselves were tired of the incessant warfare. Gustavus was only permitted to succeed his father as king and assume control of the government by agreeing to important constitutional concessions demanded by the Swedish Estates (or assembly).

Life’s Work

When Gustavus therefore assumed the throne in 1611, he was faced not only with three major foreign wars but also with a constitutional crisis in Sweden. Since he regarded the war with Denmark as lost, he immediately decided to end it. The terms stated in the Peace of Knäred (1613) required Sweden to give its only North Sea port to Denmark to function as a guarantee for the payment of an extremely large war idemnity. The war with Poland could not be concluded as easily, and it continued intermittently for years.

The consequences of the war with Russia were much more serious for Gustavus—it was here that he learned the strategy and tactics of warfare. His father had initally invaded Russia to prevent a Polish candidate from being crowned czar, but with the election of Michael Romanov , a Russian, this threat had ended. Gustavus, however, continued the war with the intention of occupying as much Russian land as possible. He was driven by the fear that, once Russia’s political situation had stabilized, the country might become a major military and naval power in the Baltic region. The Treaty of Stolbovo (1617) rewarded his efforts; according to the terms of the treaty, Sweden annexed Ingria and Kexholm and established a continuous strip of occupied territory from Finland to Estonia. The result—Russia was denied access to the Baltic and turned back toward Asia, thereby delaying its emergence as a major power in Europe for more than one hundred years.

In the meantime, the domestic situation in Sweden had improved markedly. The concessions demanded from Gustavus by the Estates might have resulted in the nobility dominating the monarchy. That did not happen, because the man who had actually drawn up the demands, Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna , became Gustavus’s confidant and collaborator for the entire duration of his reign. These two men complemented each other’s capabilities and temperaments; the result was a unique and historic partnership that led to sweeping domestic reforms.

In 1614, a new Swedish supreme court was established along with a permanent treasury and chancery four years later; both an admiralty and a war office were founded by the end of Gustavus’s reign. For the first time in Sweden’s history, the Council of State became a permanent fixture of the government and assumed responsibilities for the nation’s affairs while the king was fighting overseas. While one reform professionalized local government and subsumed it under the control of the king, another limited the number of estates at four, including the nobles, clergy, peasants, and burghers. By 1634, Sweden had the most progressive and efficient central government administration in all Europe. Yet the most impressive of Gustavus’s domestic accomplishments was in the field of education. He provided financial security to the University of Uppsala so that it could continue its development; he founded the University of Dorpat (modern Tartu State University); and, during the 1620’s, he was deeply involved in the creation of the Gymnasia in Sweden.

Gustavus renewed the war with Sigismund in 1621 with the intention of ending the continual Polish claim to the Swedish throne; by 1626, he had concentrated his main point of attack in Prussia, where he hoped to control the Vistula River and defeat the Polish commanders. Yet his attention was gradually directed toward the danger posed to German Protestantism by the brilliant and successful Catholic generals of the Habsburg Empire, Albrecht Wenzel von Wallenstein and Johan Tserclaes. Thus, for Gustavus, the war in Poland became part of the Protestant resistance against the Catholic Counter-Reformation; if Sigismund were victorious, all of Scandinavia would be recatholicized. When the Protestant cause in Germany began to experience one military defeat after another, its leaders looked to Gustavus as the one person who could save Europe from complete Catholic domination.

The Polish struggle ended with the Truce of Altmark in 1629; in June of 1630, Gustavus landed with his Swedish force at Peenemünde to enter the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). What had been an inconclusive war waged by traditional strategies, tactics, and weapons was now revolutionized by Gustavus’s presence. In Germany, the king completed the transformation of the art of warfare started by Maurice of Nassau , prince of Orange, and one of the greatest military commanders in the early seventeenth century. Gustavus adhered to Maurice’s idea that a professional army should be paid on a regular basis; that prevented looting in time of war and desertion in time of peace. He also followed Maurice’s advice on discipline: The Swedish army under Gustavus’s command was instilled with a sense of corporate discipline, which meant that each soldier was thoroughly prepared for large-scale maneuvers, reorganization on the battlefield, and coordination among artillery, cavalry, and infantry units. Largely as a result of Gustavus’s articles of war, his army was one of the best behaved in all Europe: Swearing, blasphemy, fornication, looting, and drunkenness were strictly forbidden. In arming his men with weapons he thought necessary to fight a modern war, Gustavus decreased the weight of the musket to make it less cumbersome and made large strides in standardizing powder and caliber. These reforms and innovations gave the Swedish army extraordinary power and mobility—Europe was both amazed and frightened by the unusual quality of Gustavus’s forces.

At Breitenfeld, in September of 1631, Gustavus’s army routed Tserclaes’s Catholic forces in a battle that forever changed the course of German history. This one battle ensured the survival of Protestantism in Germany and is regarded by historians as a textbook example of the art of war. Over the next few months, Gustavus swept through central Germany rather easily, consolidating his control as he advanced. By the end of the year, he was being called the “Lion of the North,” the Protestant hero of the Thirty Years’ War.

At the end of 1631, with the liberation of north and central Germany complete and the plans for a campaign in southern Germany well under way, Gustavus broadened his strategy. He was now convinced that the only means whereby the German Protestant princes could guarantee their security against the Catholic forces lay in the formation of a Corpus Evangelicorum, or Protestant Union . This union would consist of a comprehensive and permanent association of all the German princes for their mutual defense. Most important, Gustavus would become its political leader and military director.

The formation of the union and its establishment depended to a large extent upon the result of Gustavus’s campaign of 1632; the Catholic control over Bavaria was to be broken as a prelude to the conquest of Vienna in 1633. At the River Lech in Bavaria, Gustavus brilliantly managed to cross boats over a bridge while concealing his exact location by burning damp straw for a smokescreen and to rout Tserclaes’s new army on the opposite bank. The road was now open to Munich.

Wallenstein, however, appeared to threaten the Swedish-controlled city of Nürnberg. To relieve the city, Gustavus attacked Wallenstein’s forces in the Battle of the Alte Feste but failed because of the Catholic commander’s prepared fortifications and the inability of the Swedish calvary and artillery to play their part. After a period of maneuvering by both armies, Gustavus finally met Wallenstein in the open field at Lützen on November 6, 1632. Mist and bad weather deprived Gustavus of the advantage of surprise, but the Swedish army fought fiercely and appeared to be gaining ground. At the very moment when victory seemed certain, Gustavus led a calvary charge against the enemy, was separated from his men, and was shot in the back. He fell from his horse and lay in the mud until one of Wallenstein’s men killed him with a pistol.

Significance

The Swedish army won a tactical victory at the Battle of Lützen; Gustavus II Adolphus’s innovations in strategy and tactics, logistics, and weaponry made it the most powerful armed force in Europe—and it continued to influence the course of German history even after his death. Yet, with Gustavus gone, the army lost its vital spark, and Sweden’s presence in European affairs began gradually to diminish. Less than a century later, Sweden’s military and political influence on the Continent was negligible. Yet Gustavus had personally guided the course of history for the few short years before his death and had transformed Sweden into one of the most modern and powerful nations of the era. Not the least of his accomplishments were the domestic reforms in the areas of government administration, education, and economic development that he bequeathed to his country.

Bibliography

Dupuy, Trevor N. The Military Life of Gustavus Adolphus: Father of Modern War. New York: Franklin Watts, 1969. A good description of Gustavus’s military genius and technical innovations. Focuses on his development as the first great modern commander.

Fletcher, C. R. L. Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890. An account of the king’s participation in the Thirty Years’ War. Fletcher contends that Gustavus actually saved Protestantism in Central Europe because of his involvement.

Garstein, Oskar. Rome and the Counter-Reformation in Scandinavia: The Age of Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina of Sweden, 1622-1656. New York: E. J. Brill, 1992. Completes Garstein’s earlier study of the Counter-Reformation in Scandinavia from 1537 until 1622. This book recounts an underground campaign, funded by the Holy See, to lure Scandinavian students to attend Jesuit colleges. Campaign supporters hoped the students would return to Scandinavia and infiltrate themselves into the area’s political and religious life. Garstein evaluates the success of this campaign.

Parker, Geoffrey, ed. The Thirty Years’ War. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. An excellent treatment of the Swedish influence on Europe during the Thirty Years’ War. Deals with the diplomatic and economic elements of Swedish influence as well as Swedish military prowess.

Roberts, Michael. Gustavus Adolphus. London: Longman, 1992. A well-written biography that places Gustavus’s life and actions within the context of European historical events. Examines Gustavus’s foreign policy, domestic and military reforms, and other aspects of his reign.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Gustavus Adolphus: A History of Sweden, 1611-1632. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1953-1958. The standard work in English on Gustavus’s relationship to his own nation and his influence on an era. A masterfully written study, placing Gustavus’s military achievements in a rich historical perspective.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Gustavus Adolphus and the Rise of Sweden. London: English Universities Press, 1973. A classic study on selected aspects of Sweden’s rise to power in Europe. Emphasizes the personal traits and characteristics that contributed to the king’s leadership.

Wedgwood, C. V. The Thirty Years’ War. New York: Doubleday, 1961. Includes an examination of Gustavus’s motives for declining to intervene in the Thirty Years’ War and a discussion of his contribution to the art of warfare up to that time.