With his resources, logistics, and support, Gustavus Adolphus was positioned to become a major European leader,[7] but he was killed a year later at the Battle of Lützen.

Coming to the throne at the age of 16, Gustavus Adolphus inherited three wars from his father Charles IX of Sweden: border conflicts with Russia and Denmark–Norway, and a dynastic struggle with his first cousin, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.

He taught a number of other military commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to expand the boundaries and power of the Swedish Empire after Gustavus Adolphus's death.

[12] He is also widely commemorated by Protestants in Europe as the main defender of their cause during the Thirty Years' War, with multiple churches, foundations and other undertakings named after him, including the Gustav-Adolf-Werk.

[13][14] Gustavus Adolphus was born in Stockholm on 9 December 1594, eldest son of Duke Charles of the House of Vasa and his second wife, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp.

[15] He also inherited an ongoing succession of occasionally belligerent dynastic disputes with his Polish cousin, Sigismund III, who persisted in his effort to regain the Swedish throne.

Gustavus Adolphus 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.

[21] Historian Ronald S. Love wrote that in 1560–1660 there were "a few innovators, notably Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, whom many scholars credit with revolutionary developments in warfare and with having laid the foundations of military practice for the next two centuries.

[citation needed] Gustavus Adolphus was the main figure responsible for the success of Swedish arms during the Thirty Years' War and led his nation to great prestige.

Among other innovations, he installed an early form of combined arms in his formations, where the cavalry could attack from the safety of an infantry line reinforced by cannon, and retire again within to regroup after their foray.

[24][25] His artillery were themselves different—in addition to the usual complements of heavy cannon, he introduced light mobile guns for the first time into the Renaissance battlefield.

[26] Carl von Clausewitz and Napoleon Bonaparte considered him one of the greatest generals of all time, an evaluation agreed with by George S. Patton and others.

B. H. Liddell Hart says it is an exaggeration to credit him with a uniquely disciplined conscript army, or call his the first military state to fight a protracted war on the continent.

[26] Gustavus Adolphus' politics also show progressive tendencies:[citation needed] for example, in 1631, in the conquered territory of Estonia he forced the local nobility into granting more individual rights to the commoners.

During this war, Gustavus Adolphus let his soldiers plunder towns and villages, and as he met little resistance from Danish forces in Scania, they pillaged and devastated twenty-four Scanian parishes.

The Brandenburg minister and diplomat baron Samuel von Winterfeld [de] influenced Gustavus Adolphus to support and protect the Protestant side in Germany.

Though he was initially convinced the wound was fatal he survived, but the doctors could not remove the bullet, so from that point on, he could not wear iron armor and two fingers of his right hand were paralyzed.

[36] Due to the bullet wound the plate cuirass, (normally worn by important officers at that time), was replaced by a buff coat made of moose hide, which would have serious consequences later.

[38] On 6 November 1632, Gustavus Adolphus encountered the Imperial Army under Albrecht von Wallenstein at Lützen, in what would prove to be one of the most significant battles of the Thirty Years' War.

[39] Lützen was a victory for the Protestants, but cost them their leader, which caused their campaign to lose direction and finally suffer a crushing defeat at Nördlingen.

Towards 1:00 pm, in the thick mix of gun smoke and fog covering the field, the king was separated from his fellow riders and suffered multiple shots.

In most of them the assassin was named as Prince Francis Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg [de], who was next to the king on the occasion and was thought to be acting on behalf of the enemy.

As those Vasa princes who descended from deposed monarchs were excluded from the throne and Gustavus Adolphus's younger brother had died ten years before, his young daughter Christina became his successor, with Maria Eleonora and other ministers governing on her behalf.

Gustavus Adolphus is widely commemorated by Protestants in Europe as the main defender of their cause during the Thirty Years' War, with multiple churches, foundations and other undertakings named after him.

[41] The Columbia Encyclopedia sums up his record: The German Socialist Franz Mehring wrote a biography of Gustavus Adolphus with a Marxist perspective on the actions of the Swedish king during the Thirty Years' War.

[citation needed] In his book "Ofredsår" ("Years of Warfare"), the Swedish historian and author Peter Englund argues that there was probably no single all-important reason for the king's decision to go to war.

From Swedish Finland, Gustavus Adolphus advanced along the Baltic Sea coast and eventually to Augsburg and Munich and he even urged the Swiss Confederacy to join him.

Prior to his embarkment to northern Germany, Gustavus urged the Swedish nobility to follow the example of conquests set by their Gothic ancestors.

[45] He is also a significant supporting character in the best-selling[46] alternate history book series, 1632, written by American author Eric Flint (first published in 2000).

[47][48] The song "The Lion from the North" from the album Carolus Rex, released in 2012 by Swedish power metal band Sabaton, is about Gustavus Adolphus.