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Gustav II Adolf (9 December 1594 – 6 November 1632, O.S.); widely known in English by his Latinised name Gustavus Adolphus or as Gustav II Adolph,〔David Williamson in ''Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe'' ISBN 0-86350-194-X pp. 124, 128, 194, 207〕 or as Gustavus Adolphus the Great ((スウェーデン語:Gustav Adolf den store), (ラテン語:Gustavus Adolphus Magnus), a formal posthumous distinction passed by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634); was the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 and is credited as the founder of Sweden as a Great Power ((スウェーデン語:Stormaktstiden)). He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms.〔In Chapter V of Clausewitz' ''On War'', he lists Gustavus Adolphus as an example of an outstanding military leader, along with: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Alexander Farnese, Charles XII, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.〕 His most notable military victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld. With a superb military machine with good weapons, excellent training, and effective field artillery, backed by an efficient government which could provide necessary funds, Gustavus Adolphus was poised to make himself a major European leader, but he was killed at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. He was ably assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, who also acted as regent after his death. In an era characterized by almost endless warfare, he led his armies as king from 1611 (at age 16) until his death in battle in 1632 while leading a charge—as Sweden rose from the status of a mere regional power to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Within only a few years of his accession, Sweden had become the largest nation in Europe after Russia and Spain. Some have called him the "father of modern warfare", or the first great modern general. Under his tutelage, Sweden and the Protestant cause developed a number of excellent commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to defeat Sweden's enemies and expand the boundaries and the power of the empire long after Gustavus Adolphus' death in battle. He was known by the epithets "The Golden King" and "The Lion of the North" by neighboring sovereigns. Gustavus Adolphus is commemorated today with city squares in major Swedish cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsingborg. Gustavus Adolphus College, a Lutheran college in St. Peter, Minnesota, is also named for the Swedish King. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) of the Evangelical Church in Germany has as its object the aid of feeble sister churches, and commemorates the king's legacy. The GAW was founded on the bicentennial celebration of the battle of Lützen. Swedish royalty visited the GAW headquarters in Leipzig on the festivities of Gustavus Adolphus' 400th birthday, in 1994.〔(GAW Chronicles (in German) )〕 ==Life== Gustavus Adolphus was born in Stockholm as the oldest son of Duke Charles of the Vasa dynasty and his second wife, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp. At the time, the King of Sweden was Gustavus Adolphus' cousin Sigismund. The staunch Protestant Duke Charles forced the Catholic Sigismund to let go of the throne of Sweden in 1599, a part of the preliminary religious strife before the Thirty Years' War, and reigned as regent before taking the throne as Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. Crown Prince Gustav Adolph had Gagnef-Floda in Dalecarlia as a duchy from 1610. Upon his father's death in October 1611, a sixteen-year-old Gustavus inherited the throne (declared of age and able to reign himself at seventeen as of 16 December〔Otto Wilhelm Ålund in ''Gustaf II Adolf ett trehundraårsminne'' Bonniers 1894 p. 12〕), as well as an ongoing succession of occasionally belligerent dynastic disputes with his Polish cousin. Sigismund III wanted to regain the throne of Sweden and tried to force Gustavus Adolphus to renounce the title. In a round of this dynastic dispute, Gustavus invaded Livonia when he was , beginning the Polish-Swedish War (1625–1629). He intervened on behalf of the Lutherans in Germany, who opened the gates to their cities to him. His reign became famous from his actions a few years later when in June 1630 he landed in Germany, marking the Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War. Gustavus intervened on the anti-Imperial side, which at the time was losing to the Holy Roman Empire and its Catholic allies; the Swedish forces would quickly reverse that situation. Gustavus was married to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and chose the Prussian city of Elbing as the base for his operations in Germany. He died in the Battle of Lützen in 1632. His early death was a great loss to the Lutheran side. This resulted in large parts of Germany and other countries, which had been conquered for Lutheranism, to be reconquered for Catholicism (via the Counter-Reformation). His involvement in the Thirty Years' War gave rise to the saying that he was the incarnation of "the Lion of the North", or as it is called in German "Der Löwe von Mitternacht" (''Literally: "The Lion of Midnight"''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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