Charles IX of Sweden

Charles was the youngest son of Gustav I, given the Duchy of Södermanland by his father's will but kept waiting until his half-brother Eric fell and brother John took the throne in 1569. When John died in 1592, the crown passed to Charles' nephew Sigismund - a Catholic ruling Protestant Sweden from his seat in Poland. Charles, alarmed, ruled in Sigismund's name while Sweden's estates grew restless. In 1595 the Riksdag forced Sigismund's abdication and Charles claimed the throne, launching nearly seventy years of dynastic war between the two branches of the House of Vasa. He reigned from 1604 until his death in 1611, his Protestant zeal hardening the religious lines that would ignite the Thirty Years' War seven years later. He took his regnal number from a invented Swedish history - he was actually the third King Charles.