Gustavus I Vasa (1496 to 1560)
Reform King Founds the House of Vasa.
Birth of Gustavus I, Vasa, who founded the House of Vasa when elected king of Sweden in 1523. The family held direct possession of the throne until 1654. Even before Sweden's reformation, which took place under him, he had had some Lutheran training. He became king after leading a rebellion against Denmark's King Christian II who had butchered his father and several other nobles in cold blood at the Bloodbath of Stockholm. In 1559 missionaries were sent by the newly established Lutheran Church to the formerly-despised pagan Laplanders.
