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Grand Duke of Finland

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Grand Duke of Finland, more correctly Grand Prince of Finland, (Finnish: Suomen suuriruhtinas, Swedish: Storfurste av Finland) was a title in use, sometimes sporadically, between 1584 and 1808 by the King of Sweden. In 1809–1917 it was the official title of the head of the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland, the Tsar of Russia.

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[edit] History of the title

In 1581, King John III of Sweden, who had previously (1556–63) been Duke of Finland (a royal duke), assumed the subsidiary title Grand Prince of Finland (in Swedish Storfurste till Finland) to the Kings of Sweden. This is to be seen as a marking of the Swedish sovereign's power in Finland, as well as the import of Finland as a part of the Sweden Proper. It did not result in any increase of Finnish autonomy.

King of Sweden, the Goths, the Wends;
Grand Prince of Finland;
Duke of Karelia, Wätski Pethin, Ingria, and the Estonians in Livonia[1]

In those years, John was and had been in quarrel with his eastern neighbor, Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, who had a litany of subsidiary titles as Grand Prince of several ancient Russian principalities and provinces. The use of Grand Prince on John's behalf was a countermeasure to signify his mighty position as sovereign of Sweden, also a multinational or multi-country realm, and equal to a Tsardom. Not only was Finland added, but Karelia, Ingria, and Livonia that all were along the Swedish-Russian border. It is said that the first use of the new title was in an occasion to contact Tsar Ivan.

During the next two centuries, the title was used by some of John's successors on the throne, but not all (e.g. his brother Charles IX used King of the Finns instead). Usually it was just a subsidiary title of the King, and so it was used only at very formal occasions. However, in 1802, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.

In 21 August 1772, there was a new nominal arrangement that henceforwards, Finland was in personal union with Sweden, as grand principality (often called a grand duchy in other languages). That apparently did not change essentially its administration.

During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four Estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on March 29, 1809 to pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on September 17, 1809, Finland became a true autonomous grand principality as a part of the Russian Empire.

The Tsar ruled Finland, as Grand Duke of Finland, through his governor and a native Senate appointed by him. The country nevertheless enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, until its independence in 1917. Finland was declared an independent republic, but after the Civil War there was a brief period of monarchy. The new elected monarch (Frederick Charles of Hesse) was to be king but he abdicated immediately when Germany capitulated.

[edit] Sources and references

(incomplete; not yet fully exploited)

[edit] Succession of Grand Dukes of Finland

The list starts from the 1604 Norrköping Pact of succession.

[edit] Swedish lineage

[edit] rivalry

legitimist view:

  • de facto only Old Finland in 1762: Peter of Holstein-Gottorp (de jure 1741-62 as successor of his childless great-aunt Ulrica; the 1743 renunciation on his behalf made when he was underage is deemed invalid); was 1742 proclaimed King of Finland when Russian troops occupied the entire Swedish Finland
  • de facto only Old Finland 1796-1801: Paul of Holstein-Gottorp (de jure 1762-1801)
  • de facto only Old Finland 1801-08, ince 1808 alse Swedish Finland Alexander I of Finland (de jure since 1801, from 1808 also de facto)

[edit] Russian lineage

[edit] Legitimist line of heirs

The Constitution of Finland (1772) preserved the stipulations of the 1544 Succession Law (made in Vesteros) and its 1604 Nörrköping amendment, which stipulated the succession rights to females in absence of male heirs. That legitimate order of succession was in 1809 a factor that Alexander I, the rightful heir according to those laws, received oaths of fealty in Finland. The 1719 succession of Ulrica Eleonora (or her challenger Charles Frederick) established a precedent that succession rights of a more distant male heir (as then was Gustav Samuel Leopold, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken, a male-line grandson of Charles IX's daughter who had been Charles X's mother) are weaker than those of female heiress of the direct line. So, a more distant male Kiril was not necessarily the successor ahead of Xenia (Christina), a female heiress of the direct line.

[edit] Two rival lines of heirs

(The pertinent succession law of Finland, based on pacts of 1544 and 1604 and which did not include any Pauline Law, made for Russian succession but never for that of Finland, held no prohibitions against "inequal" marriages)

cognatic line:

  • Xenia (Christina) (1875-1960), also known as Kirsti/Kristina (de jure grand duchess suo jure 1918-60), aunt, elder daughter of Alexander III of Finland and Dagmar of Denmark, closest female relative in absence of male heir of direct line; her husband was Grand Duke Alexander of Russia (1866-1933), matrilineal great-grandson of Gustav IV Adolf the aforementioned (ruler of Swedish Finland until 1808), being son of Cecilia of Baden, daughter of Sofia of Sweden; the throne was offered to her by a private delegation in London in 1918 but nothing more came of that as the Parliament proceeded towards election of her second cousin Frederick Charles of Hesse as king whose reign never started
  • Andrew of Romanov (1960-81)
  • Michael Romanovsky (born 1920); his heir is his brother Andrew (born 1923), and then the latter's eldest son Alexis (born 1953)

agnatic line:

[edit] See also

de:Grossfurst von Finnland fr:grand-duc de Finlande fi:Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta sv:Finlands historia: Storfurstendömet

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