Paul Watson 
Gustav Vasa and the Swedish Revolution 

Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa, was King of Sweden from 1523 until his 1560 death, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm from 1521, during the ongoing Swedish War of Liberation against King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Initially of low standing, Gustav rose to lead the rebel movement following the Stockholm Bloodbath, in which his father perished. Gustav’s election as King on 6 June 1523 and his triumphant entry into Stockholm eleven days later meant the end of Medieval Sweden’s elective monarchy and the Kalmar Union, and the birth of a hereditary monarchy under the House of Vasa and its successors, including the current House of Bernadotte.