Gustav I Vasa - King of Sweden:
12th great-granduncle
Gustav I Vasa (1496-1560), King of Sweden (1523-1560), founder of the Swedish royal House of Vasa and creator of an independent Sweden. Gustav was born in 1496 and was educated at the University of Uppsala. As a young man he entered the army, and from 1518 to 1519 he fought against Christian II, King of Denmark, who had invaded Sweden to regain the throne that the Danes had lost in 1501. Gustav was taken hostage but managed to escape. He was still a fugitive when he heard of Christian's massacre of his father and other nationalist Swedish nobles in Stockholm in 1520.
From 1521 to 1523, with an army of peasants, Gustav led a successful revolt and drove the Danes out of Sweden. His victory resulted in the dissolution of the Union of Kalmar, which in 1397 had placed Sweden and Norway under the Danish Crown. Gustav was administrator of the kingdom from 1521 to 1523, when the Riksdag, or national assembly, elected him king. Gustav created a strongly united state by introducing a sound financial administration, strengthening manufacturing, trade, and agricultural interests, and increasing the military forces. In 1544 he made the Swedish crown hereditary through his line, the House of Vasa. |
Back to Kinship with famous Nordic figures
Tilbage til min slægtsside Back to my genealogy page
Tilbage til Amerikanske Billeder Back to American Pictures