GUSTAV II ADOLF

born Dec. 9, 1594, Stockholm, Sweden died Nov. 6, 1632, Ltzen, Saxony [now in Germany] Latin Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden (161132) who laid the foundations of the modern Swedish state and made it a major European power. Additional reading The standard work in English is Michael Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus: A History of Sweden 16111632, 2 vol. (195358), which contains a very full bibliography. Nils Ahnlund, Gustav Adolf the Great (1940), is a classic study of selected aspects of the reign by the leading Swedish authority. Discussions of the king's motives and objectives for intervention in the Thirty Years' War are Michael Roberts, Essays in Swedish History (1967), which also includes studies of his significance for the art of war and of the constitutional implications of the reign, and Gustavus Adolphus and the Rise of Sweden (1973).