t over the
surrounding country. The summit of this height was crowned, at the close
of the fifteenth century, by a celebrated mansion. Time and the ravages
of man have long since thrown this mansion to the ground; but its
foundation, overgrown with moss and fast crumbling to decay, still marks
the site of the ancient structure, and from the midst of the ruins rises
a rough-hewn stone bearing the name Gustavus Vasa. On this spot he was
born, May 12, 1496.[1] The estate was then the property of his
grandmother, Sigrid Baner, with whom his mother was temporarily
residing, and there is no reason to think it continued long the home of
the young Gustavus.

The family from which Gustavus sprang had been, during nearly a hundred
years, one of the foremost families of Sweden. Its coat-of-arms
consisted of a simple _vase_, or bundle of sticks; and the Vasa estate,
at one time the residence of his ancestors, lay only about ten miles to
the north of Lindholm.[2] The first Vasa of whom anything is definitely
known is Kristiern Nilsson, the great-grandfather of Gustavus. This man
became noted in the early part of the fifteenth century as an ardent
monarchist, and under Erik held the post of chancellor. After the fall
of his master, in 1436, his office was taken from him, but he continued
to battle for the cause of royalty until his death. Of the chancellor's
three sons, the two eldest followed zealously in the footsteps of their
father. The other, Johan Kristersson, though in early life a stanch
supporter of King Christiern, and one of the members of his Cabinet,
later married a sister of Sten Sture, and eventually embraced the
Swedish cause. Birgitta, the wife of Johan Kristersson, is said to have
been descended from the ancient Swedish kings.[3] The youngest son of
Johan and Birgitta was Erik Johansson, the father of Gustavus. Of Erik's
early history we know little more than that he married Cecilia, daughter
of Magnus Karlsson and Sigrid Baner, and settled at Rydboholm, an estate
which he inherited from his father. To this place, beautifully situated
on an arm of the Baltic, about ten miles northeast of the capital,
Cecilia returned with her little boy from Lindholm; and here Gustavus
spent the first years of his childhood.

Sweden at this period was in a state of anarchy. In order to appreciate
the exact condition of affairs, it will be necessary to cast a glance at
some political developments that had gone before. Sweden was ori