Gustavus Adolphus had been given a thorough classical education and spoke Latin and several modern languages. He was an organiser of great capacity alike in military and in internal administration. His personal influence was due to a strong and good character and a clear and far-sighted vision. In all his work he had assistance of extraordinary value from his Chan cellor of State, Axel Oxenstjerna (q.v.).
Sweden next desired peace and a fixed frontier with Russia. The war was continued until the conclusion of peace at Stolbova —also with King James's mediation—in 1617. Sweden won East ern Carelia and Ingermanland, whereby land-connection was ob tained between Finland and Estonia, but gave up Novgorod. Dur ing and after these wars a great task of organisation was carried out in Sweden. The council acquired a stronger position as the king's advisers at the head of the administration. Ministerial offices were set up after the French-Burgundian model ; a method of judicial procedure was instituted and courts of appeal were established. The nobility was incorporated in the social system as officials of the Government and much was done to improve local administration. The king promised not to begin war or conclude peace or make a treaty with other powers without the sanction of the Riksdag. The ransom of Alvsborg made heavy taxes necessary and even so the town of Amsterdam had to help with a loan; the financing of the State and the raising of the loan were based in a high degree on the copper-ore in the Falu mines. In Jan. 1619, the ransom-sum was paid and Alvsborg was returned to Sweden. Gustavus Adolphus endeavoured to promote com merce. New towns were founded, of which GOteborg on the west coast was the most prominent (1621). A source of future dif ficulties lay in the privileges of the nobles ; their graduated free dom from taxes—the reward of the servants of the State—was to diminish thereby the State's revenue from taxation : this danger, however, did not present itself until later. The nobility secured
the stability which it needed through the founding of the Riddar hus, or House of the Nobles, in 1626, in which records were in scribed of the noble families. Higher education was furthered. The University of Uppsala got from the king in 1624 a great donation of lands. Great attention was given to equipment of the army and navy.
Relations with Poland were settled by armistices until the year 1617 when negotiations led to no result. Sigismund had never abandoned his claim to the Swedish crown and therein lay a menace for the future. Open war began again and Gustavus Adolphus took personal part in it. Livonia and Riga were con quered and for several years the Swedes carried the war into Pol ish Prussia. Through the mediation of Brandenburg, France and England, a six years' truce was agreed to at Altmark in Sept. 1629; some Prussian seaports continued to be a Swedish possession, the Swedes retaining the right to levy tolls. While the Polish war was in progress the great conflict which was to be known as the Thirty Years' War (q.v.) started within the German Kingdom, and Sigismund's efforts were menacing to the religious peace of Sweden. The emperor's troops were sent to Prussia to help Poland. The royal houses of Sweden and Denmark were related to German princes who asked for help. Catholic France sought to check the emperor's increasing influence and negotiated with Sweden and Denmark: the English Government was working to the same end. Christian IV. of Denmark entered into the war but was completely defeated, and Wallenstein's imperial army took up its position on the Baltic ; Wallenstein was made duke of Mecklenburg and imperial admiral over the Atlantic ocean and the Baltic ; an imperial fleet was to be built. When Stralsund was threatened, Gustavus Adolphus sent help and after long and many deliberations with the council and the Riksdag he made his way with 13,000 men to Pomerania in June 1630; he preferred to have Germany as his theatre of war rather than to await an attack in Sweden. When success attended his invasion of the country, France concluded a subsidiary treaty with him at Barwalde in Jan. 1631. The evangelical princes of Germany took up a dubious attitude at first, and the Swedes were blamed when they did not succeed in relieving the town of Magdeburg which was taken by the imperial general, Tilly. After various negotia tions, a decisive victory was won at Breitenfeld in Sept. 1631.