W HEN lists are compiled of great military commanders, Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden’s king from 1611 to 1632, is often near the top. Innovation and daring were his watchwords, and had to be. Aged 16 when he took the throne, he inherited a realm embroiled in three separate wars. Sweden has “no friends” and “all our neighbours are our enemies”, the teenage king bleakly wrote.

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