GUSTAVUS I., king of Sweden—known in history as GUSTAVUS VASA, but designated before his accession to power, by himself and others, GUSTAVUS ExtcssoN—Was b. at Lindholm, in Sweden, on May 12, 1496, and d. in 1560. As the descendant of an ancient Swedish family, which had given members to the national diet for nearly 200 years, and which had been distinguished for hatred of and opposition to Danish supremacy, Gus tavus was involved at an early age in the unfortunate quarrels and domestic. wars which distracted Sweden at that period, and the first. achievement of the future king was to take an active part in the defense made against Christian II. of Denmark, who, in 1517, in person commanded an assault upon Stockholm, the object of which wits to compel the Swedish administrator, Svante Sture, and his senate to acknowlege him as king of Sweden. When famine compelled Christian to relinquish the siege. he had recourse to fraud; and having enticed a deputation from the senate, among whom was Gustavus, on board his ship, he set sail, and treacherously carried his captives to Den mark, where Gustavus spent a year in confinement in the custody of his maternal relative, Erich Barter, lord of Kalloe, in Jutland. While under couliumnent, Gustavus heard such alarming rumors of the expedition which the king was preparing against Sweden, that, irritated beyond endurance, he broke his parole, and escaped in the dis guise of a pilgrim, or, according to others, as a drover, and after encountering numerous dangers, reached Lubeck (Sept., 1519), from which he was with difficulty conveyed to Sweden, where he landed, in May, 1520, near Calmar, the only place of note, except Stockholm, that still held out against the Danes. Gustavus with difficulty made his way into the castle of Calmar, which was defended by foreign mercenaries; but as his admonitions to the garrison to show more zeal in their defense were met by threats of delivering hint to the Danes, he left Calmar, and took refuge among his father's peasantry in Sataland. The Smaalanders had, however, already taken the oaths of
allegiance to the envoys who had been sent through the country by Christian H. to ascertain the sentiments of the people, and Gustavus was soon compelled to retreat to Dalecarlia, where he wandered for several months, in poverty and disguise, with a price set on his head, and finally made his way, penniless and almost naked, to the house of his brother-in-law, Joachim Brahe, just as the latter was preparing to obey the summons of Christian II. to attend his coronation. Having failed to dissuade Brahe from attending this ceremony, which took place in Nov., 1520, Gustavus retired to his father's property of Hafsnits, where he remained till he beard of the massacre known as the Blood-bath. which followed three days after the coronation. and in which, on the plea of their being the enemies of the true church, the greater number of the nobles and leaders of Sweden, including Bridle himself and Gustavns's father, Eric Johansson. were slaughtered in cold blood. Gustavus next retreated to the less frequented parts of Dalecarlia, where for a time he earned his living as a field-laborer, and more than once owed his life and safety to the generosity of the peasant-women of the district. This period of his life has been so long made the subject of tradi tionary lore and romance, that it is difficult now to separate the trne from the false; but the fame of his supposed adventures still lives in the minds of the people of Sweden, who cherish as sacred every spot associated with his wanderings and dangers. His appeals to the Dalecarlians met with no success, until his account of the tyranny of the Danes was corroborated by the testimony of several fugitives front Stockholm, when it reaction followed, the national enthusiasm was roused, and the men of Dalecarlia. having called together a diet at Mora, proclaimed hint head of theirown and other com munes of Sweden.