Sweden Elects Gustav Vasa

1523

A young nobleman named Gustav Eriksson, who had escaped captivity in Denmark disguised as a peasant, was crowned King of Sweden at Strangnas. He dissolved the Kalmar Union, broke with Rome, and founded a dynasty that would produce warrior-kings and remake northern Europe. His seizure of Church property anticipated Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, establishing Protestant state-building through ecclesiastical confiscation.