In 1595 the Diet had closed the throne to every Catholic candidate. Charles IX., as the king was now called, was generous enough to assure the Estates that if any son of Sigismund should become a Protestant he should inherit the throne. He also made this reservation in his will, showing that he had the conscience of a Christian who desires to do justice, while Sigismund, as king of Poland, never failed to act on the principle that the end justifies the means.
The Finns, urged to rebellion by the king of Poland, proved to be troublesome subjects to King Charles. They submitted to his rule only after a bloody contest. The king took Gustavus, who was barely seven years old, with him on an expedition against the Finns. The ship became icebound and had to be abandoned. The child and his father continued their way on foot in the midst of the severities of a Russian winter. The exposure seems to have done them no harm.
On one occasion his father took him to visit the fleet at Calmar, and on being asked by an officer which vessel he preferred, he answered, "The 'Black Knight,' because it has the most guns."
The generosity for which he was so noted in later years began to show itself in his childhood. A peasant had brought him a handsome little pony from the island of Oeland. The good man said, "I want you to accept the pony as a gift; as a sign of my love and devotion to you." The young prince replied, "I am glad to have the horse, but I will pay you for it, as the gift would exceed your resources." The child gave the man all the money in his purse. The peasant was amazed at the amount of the money and at the child's great liberality.
His father, foreseeing that Gustavus would need to command people of different nationalities, saw that he had instruction in many languages, so that at the age of seventeen he spoke fluently the Swedish, Latin, German, Dutch, French and Italian languages, and could make himself understood in Russian and Polish. He afterward became proficient in Greek.
Special attention was given to the development of a symmetrical character, and everything possible was done to make him love the Lutheran faith.
The tendencies of both father and son are well illustrated by a letter, still extant, from King Charles to his son, as his farewell advice: "Above all fear God, honor thy father and mother, show for thy brothers and sisters a deep attachment; love the faithful servants of thy father and reward each one according to his merits. Be humane towards thy subjects, punish the wicked, love the good; trust everybody, though not unreservedly; observe the law without respect to person; injure no one's well-acquired privileges, if they are consistent with the law."
Character molded on such principles as these would certainly touch the sublimities.
The mother of Gustavus Adolphus was a German princess of superior education for the times. A haughty queen, a strict disciplinarian, thereby developing in her son a quick and ready obedience to the laws of the family. Who would command must first learn to obey.
She much preferred her second son, Charles Philip, and, had Gustavus been less generous, or less noble, an unnatural jealousy might have divided the brothers, but the young Duke of Finland, as Gustavus was called, acted as though he thought his mother could do no wrong.