17th century battleship Vasa pleasure to see

Richard Collins visits a Stockholm museum to see a naval wonder from a bygone era.

BACK from the deep Gustav II Adolf, known in this part of the world as Gustavus Adolphus, was the Swedish equivalent of England’s Henry VIII.

There were many parallels between the two kings. Both were larger than life figures who changed the course of their country’s histories. Famous daughters succeeded them. Elizabeth, the English virgin queen, would repulse the Spanish Armada. Christina, the Swedish virgin queen, who spoke seven languages and employed René Descartes as her tutor, would abdicate, run away to Rome and become a Catholic. Appropriately for a monarch whose greatest campaigns were in the bedroom trying to acquire a male heir, Henry died of syphilis. Gustavus’ demise, too, was appropriate; his bravery was his undoing. Gustavus led his army from the front and Napoleon regarded him as one of the greatest military commanders ever to have lived. Leading a cavalry charge on the field of Lützen, he died in a battle which he won.