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Gustavus Adolphus (9 December [N.S 19 December] ... The Protestant Duke Charles forced the Catholic Sigismund to abandon the throne of Sweden in 1599, ...
Gustavus Adolphus' father, Charles IX of Sweden – the uncle of Sigisimund – also a Vasa, was awarded the throne, in part because he was an ardent Lutheran. Soon after, Sweden became engaged in wars with the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway and the Tsardom of Russia .
This reignited the Protestant cause and in 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden landed in the Duchy of Pomerania, expelling Wallenstein. Richelieu used this to create an anti-Habsburg alliance, including Sweden, Saxony, Brandenburg and other German Protestants.
When Gustavus Adolphus landed in Pomerania, the German Protestant nobility met his intervention with distrust. [15] [33] In April 1631, at a convention in Leipzig, they decided to set up a third front on their own, [28] and except for Magdeburg, who had allied with Sweden already on 1 August 1630, [15] did not side with Sweden. [33]
In addition, the acquisition of territories within the empire by rulers like Christian IV of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden gave them and other foreign powers an ongoing motive to intervene. Combined with fears the Protestant religion in general was threatened, what started as an internal dynastic dispute became a European conflict.
The eleven Riksdags held by Gustavus Adolphus were almost exclusively occupied in finding ways and means for supporting the ever-increasing burdens of the Polish and German wars. Gustavus owed much of his success as an empire-builder to the religious and patriotic zeal of the Swedes, and their willingness to sacrifice. [6]
Gustavus Adolphus had thus taken control of the entire territory northeast of Frankfurt and was able to exert diplomatic pressure on the Protestant electors. In May 1631, he marched his troops against Potsdam and Berlin , held by his brother-in-law, Elector George William of Brandenburg , and succeeded in capturing the fortress of Spandau .
As a ruler, Charles is the link between his great father and his still greater son. He consolidated the work of Gustav I, the creation of a great Protestant state; he prepared the way for the erection of the Protestant empire of Gustavus Adolphus. [2]