76 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. IV. 



By Dr. FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Evidence from Sweden. 

 Gustavus Vasa to Charles XIII. 

 fT^HE houses of Vasa, Palatine and Holstein, which held the throne 

 -*- of Sweden from 1527 to 1818, give us the names of 48 related 

 persons in the direct family and cover a period of eleven generations. 

 By including the ancestors to the third degree for each generation of 

 children, we bring in 122 more names, and have in this total of 170 

 an abundant and interesting field for the study of heredity. These 

 families of Sweden are full of eccentricities, abilities and weaknesses, 

 and the tracing of these peculiarities will be the subject of this section 

 of the work. 



Gustavus I. Vasa, 1496-1560, the founder of the celebrated dynasty 

 bearing his name, was a most remarkable and inspiring character. 

 Of a noble though poor and uninfluential family, young Gustavus 

 gave proof even in youth of that striking personality which was des- 

 tined to deliver Sweden from the terrors of misrule and foreign con- 

 trol, and make his name ever cherished in the hearts of his country- 

 men. Even as a boy he 'played the king' and declared he would live 

 to drive the Danes out of Sweden. 



In 1517 Gustavus was captured by a Danish ship of war and im- 

 prisoned for a year in castle Kalloe in North Jutland. Having escaped 

 from prison, he fled to the mountains of Dalencaride, where, after 

 enduring great hardships, he at last succeeded in attaching to himself 

 a powerful party, with which he marched towards Stockholm, which 

 finally surrendered in 1524 after an obstinate defense. The throne of 

 Sweden was now offered to him, but he at first refused. At last, after 

 general solicitation with the interest of the welfare of his country at 

 heart, he accepted and was crowned king in June, 1527. 



Bom in a private station and bred in the school of adversity, equally great 

 in the public characters of a legislator, warrior and politician, he distin- 

 guished himself in every station of life, whether we consider his cool intrepidity 

 and political foresight, his talents for legislation, his propensity to letters and 

 encouragement of learning, his affability to the lowest ranks and his solid and 

 enlightened piety. 



All his qualities set off by a majestic and graceful person and still further 

 heightened by the most commanding eloquence, drew the esteem and admiration 



