VASA, HOUSE OF

Swedish (and Polish) dynasty descended from an old family of Uppland, related both to the Sture family and to the Bonde family of Sweden's King Charles VIII (d. 1470). Its founder was Gustav Eriksson Vasa, who became regent of Sweden in 1521 and King Gustav I Vasa in 1523. His descendants reigned until 1818, the last being Charles XIII. It was succeeded by the house of Bernadotte. A grandson of Gustav I Vasa became king of Poland, as Sigismund III Vasa, in 1587 and was concurrently king of Sweden from 1592. On Sigismund's death in 1604, a son, Wladyslaw IV Vasa, was elected to the Polish throne; and an uncle, Charles IX, already regent, received the Swedish crown. The Vasa dynasty in Poland ended a generation later, in 1668, with the resignation of Sigismund's second son, John II Casimir Vasa.