Gustav's father was a very aggressive and assertive man. What he wanted he took. There are stories of how he took farmland from people without a by your leave. Nevertheless his son got the best education a young nobleman could get in Sweden.
When still very young Gustav was sent to Sten Sture the Elders' court in Stockholm, so he could be taught to read and write with other noble kids.
At the age of thirteen he continued his studies in Uppsala. He studied German and Latin during four years. But one day he got bored with the poor schoolmaster so he walked up to him and rammed his knife through the schoolbook and said "you and you're school may go to the devil". Then he walked out and never went back.
After a while his father sent him to the Swedish court again. At this time Sten Sture the Younger was National Chancellor. The Swedes had been for some hundred years united with Denmark and Norway and the Danish king ruled all the countries. Sometimes the other countries tried to break lose from Denmark and rule themselves. This was just such a time.
So young Gustav lived at Sten Stures court and learned all about the polite ways, doing battle, fencing etc. And there was to be some interesting conflicts to happen soon.
The Danes came again 1518. There was another battle at Braennkyrka and the Suedes defended themselves. At Braennkyrka Gustav was the carrier of the flag. When the peace negotiations started Sten Sture gave Gustav Vasa and some others as hostages to Kristian II. They were some kind of security so that Kristian would dare to come and negotiate with Sten Sture. Well, Kristian was'n't the trustworthiest guy in the Scandinavia at that time; he took the hostages onto his ship and sailed to Denmark and imprisoned them there in a castle called Kaloe at the mainland of Denmark - in Jylland.
Late in the year 1519 Kristian started battle again on Sweden. The same year Gustav Vasa fled from his prison and went to Lübeck in Germany where he stayed hidden for a while.
This time Kristian changed tactics and he started down in the south and fought his way north so that he could control all the countryside. Before he's just taken his ship to the capital Stockholm and tried to control Sweden from there. The swedish hero Sten Sture went to meet him but was unfortunately killed very early on in the battle (this was in february 1520). Kristian came closer to Swedens capital and he won all the countryside. The Stockholm castle was defended by Sten Stures widow - the very brave Kristina Gyllenstierna (she was also Gustav's aunt).
In late may 1520 Gustav Vasa, who had decided to go back to Sweden, went ashore in the port of Kalmar. He tried to get the people of all the towns and villages where he travelled to rebel against Kristian but he didnt succeed. During the summer 1520 he travelled through the south of Sweden up to one of his fathers many homes - Reavsnaes (=Foxes Peak) where Gustav went into hiding again. This place was a good hiding place situated by the lake Maelaren not far from Stockholm and within easy reach of Norway or to the county of Dalarna where one always could try to make the people rebel against the king.
Kristian sieged Stockholm during the summer 1520. Kristina Gyllenstierna gave up in early september 1520. King Kristian walked into Stockholm the 9th september 1520.
They shouldn't have gone - late at night the 8th of November 1520 king Kristian closed the city gates and rounded up a lot of the most important nobleman, clergy, city counsellors, important servants of powerful nobleman. On some pretext or other he had them condemned to death and almost immediately executed at the City Square in the centre of Stockholm. 82 persons were executed and there was blood pouring in the streets. Many of Gustav's relatives and friends was killed that night, though his mother and sister was imprisoned and sent to Denmark.
At this point in his life Gustav was around 23 years of age and he was bereft of all his relatives and friends, completely bancrupt as king Kristian had confiscated all of the familys property.
The 25th November 1520 Gustav started to travel to the county of Dalarna. Dalarna is situated a west of Uppland and north-west of Stockholm.
When Gustav had gone the people of Mora suddenly got information that king Kristian really was a bad guy so they changed there minds and the fastest skiier of them got hold of Gustav and brought him back. Sweden have something called "Vasaloppet". It's a skiing-competition/game that's held every year in honour of Gustav Vasas start of the rebellion.
When Gustav got the inhabitants of Mora town to join him the rebellion started. In February 1521 they attacked the town of Falun where they got a lot of money and proviant from the mining company of Kopparberg.
Gustav battled for three years against Kristians underlings. During these years he slowly won the support of the Suedes of all the counties and he conquered the most important towns and cities. He got the Finns to join the rebellion and got support from his very powerful new friends, the merchant confederation of the Hansa (the center of the Hansa-confederation was always the german city of Lübeck). The Hanseatic support came in the form of guns, soldiers, ships and money.
Gustav was elected king in the little Maelaren city of Vaesteraas the 6th of june 1523 (this day is still celebrated as Swedens national day) and he entered Stockholm as king a beautiful midsummersday (24th of June) 1523.
In the year 1524 Gustav borrowed a lot of money from the church but it still wasn't enough. He also took back to the state castles and farms that been given to nobility by Kristian and former kings but even that wouldn't help.
In august 1524 he started negotiations for peace with the Danes. At this time King Kristian of Denmark was gone from the throne (the Danes had forced him from the throne). The new king was king Fredrik who tried to say that he should be some kind of overking over the Swedish king. Gustav didn't accept this and the matter were never brought up again.
In 1527 a Riksdag (it's a sort of ancient Swedish parliament) decided that the nobles should get back what the ancestors given to the church. The Riksdag also decided that the state should take out of the church's money to pay the governments debts. At this time Sweden became Protestantic. Gustav took all the money and valuable stuff he could from the churches and monasteries. The monasteries were closed and churches were whitepainted. Psalms and preaching were from now on in Swedish.
In 1529 there were a lot of small uprisings against Gustav because of the decisions in 1527. Amongst others Gustavs former allies the people of Dalarna made an uprising. Gustav sweet-talked the opposition and made them give up the rebellion. After a while he executed some of the rebel leaders (even some of the heroes who helped him against king Kristian). Gustav was a very typical renaissance monarch and sometimes he was really very cruel.
1531 Gustav married a German princess - Katharina of Sachsen-Launberg. The European monarchs regarded Gustav as an usurpator and a scoundrel so Gustav had to look high and low for his princess but he got one!!! The marriage wasn't so happy. They had one son - Erik. He became king after his father under the name Erik the XIV. Katharina died 1535. She could have died because of a pregnancy. Some rumours at the time said that Gustav because of his temperamental nature should have hit her in anger and killed her. I don't believe that. In those day's pregnancy and childbirth was the most common reason for the premature death of women. Being of the royal family didn't help. Medicinal knowledge wasn't very good.
Gustav married again 1536 to the Swedish noble lady Margareta Leijonhufvud (who was the daughter of one of the victims of Stockholm's bloodbath). The marriage was very happy and they got 10 children. She died in 1551.
In 1536 Gustav co-operated with the Danes who yet again had a new king - Kristian III. They're goal was to get rid of the Lübeckians power over them both. They succeeded.
During the years 1540-1543 there came the "Dacke rising". Under the leadership of Nils Dacke the Swedish peasants were revolting in some of the southern landscapes. Gustav brought the army in to crush the rebellion this time. During 1543 the leader was killed. The leader is still thought of as a national heroe in some parts of Sweden today.
A riksdag in Vaesteraas the year 1544 decided formally that Sweden was to be Protestantic.
The Swedish-Danish conflicts were finally settled in the peace of Broemsebro the same year.
Queen Margareta dies in 1551.
Gustav's third marriage was with a young relative to Margareta Leijonhufvud. Her name was Katarina Stenbock. Gustav was very disappointed in the marriage. He wanted to make a law who forbade young and old people to marry. Katarina was 16 years old when they married 1552 and Gustav was around 55 years old. They never got any children and she survived him and lived for a very long time. She died 1621.
During the forties the administration can be said to be strengthened. The tax-system was improved. The Swedish economy was on its feet. Gustav invested a little to get the mining industry advanced. He brought foreign black-smiths to Sweden to teach the Suede's their knowledge. This helped the Swedish export industry.
1560 Gustav forced the Riksdag to agree that his son should inherit the throne. The Riksdag promised this before but now they had to sign a paper about the royal succession. From now on the Swedish kingdom was inherited. Before this time the king was always elected.
In the spring 1560 Gustav became very ill and in the end of September 1560 he died. He was buried in Uppsala the 21 December in the same grave as his two first queens. At the end of the very regale ceremony Sweden's foremost nobleman - Svante Sture - stomped the royal sword in the floor three times and shouted "the king is dead" then he gave it to Erik XIV and said to him "govern the country well".
The end
Gustav I - dates and genealogy
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