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Count Gustav of Vasaborg, 1st Count of Nystad

Stockholm, 24 Apr 1616 – Wildeshausen, 25 Oct 1653

8 facts3 sources

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 24 Apr 1616

    Born in Stockholm

  2. 25 Oct 1653

    Dies in Wildeshausen, aged 37

Family

See the tree

Parents

During his lifetime

He lived through 5 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Stockholm.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1610s · Count is born in Stockholm

In the news1613

First Swedish population census conducted

To pay a huge ransom to Denmark to recover the Älvsborg fortress, Sweden conducted one of its first population censuses in 1613.

Getting around

Winter roads on ice

Winter travel was faster and easier because frozen lakes and mires acted as natural roads; in northern coastal regions, travelers could cover 7–9 Swedish miles (approx. 70–90 km) per day by sled.

In the news1618–1648

Destruction of the Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War, lasting from 1618 to 1648, caused a demographic catastrophe where roughly one-third of urban residents and two-fifths of the rural population perished. Soldiers and camp followers frequently destroyed crops and seized food, leading to widespread famine and forcing villagers to abandon their land.

Daily life

Crowded living and fire duties

Students shared a single room with beds, chests, and clothes; usually, only one chair existed, which the senior student claimed, forcing others to sit on chests and trunks. They were also responsible for building fires early enough to be extinguished by 6 a.m. for school.

What people wore

Essential belt accessories

Women often carried keys to the farm on their belts, while both men and women kept leather pouches and knives attached to them.

Music

Wedding music outside the church

In peasant society, wedding marches were played by musicians to accompany the wedding procession to church, but they were rarely allowed to play inside the church building itself.

At the table

Beaver was a fasting fish

Beaver was considered a fish during religious fasts because it lived in water and used its tail to swim.