The House of Vasa or Wasa was an early modern royal house founded in 1523 in Sweden. Its members ruled the Kingdom of Sweden from 1523 to 1654 and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1668; its agnatic line became extinct with the death of King John II Casimir of Poland in 1672.
Eric XIV Vasa
John III Vasa, Queen Catherine Jagiellon and young Sigismund (future King of Poland and Sweden) in Gripsholm Castle
Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland and Sweden, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Finland
Personal coat of arms
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, or simply Poland–Lithuania, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million. Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages, and Roman Catholicism served as the state religion.
The Union of Lublin joined the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569.
Sigismund III Vasa, who reigned between 1587 and 1632, presided over an era of prosperity and territorial expansion of the Commonwealth.
Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century
John III Sobieski, victor over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.