I would like to find information on the Royal Family of Finland, like the members of the Family.

Posted
11.4.2002

I would like to find information on the Royal Family of Finland, like the members of the Family.

Answer

Answered
11.4.2002
Last updated
11.4.2002

Finland is a republic and therefore does not have a monarch but a president. Some people view the president as having a similar role in society as a king or a queen has in a monarchy. In case you are interested in the incumbent president, Tarja Halonen, and her family, you can find relevant information from the following web-site: http://www.tpk.fi/netcomm/

Finland was under Swedish rule for c. 700 years during which time the country was ruled by a monarch. In 1809 Napoleon and Tsar Alexander 1st made a deal in which Finland was taken away from Sweden and became a Grand Duchy of Tsarist Russia for a little over 100 years. From 1809 to 1917 Finland was ruled by a Russian Tsar. There was a monarchist movement right after the independence in 1917. Two eligible candidates were named, Friedrich Karl, Prince of Hessen and Oscar, the son of Wilhelm II of Germany. The main reason behind this endeavour was to create viable security ties with a much larger military power with whom to keep the Russians at bay. However, the majority of the Finnish people were in favour of a republic with an elected president as the head of the state. There are a quite a number of rather quaint movies made of both of these epochs by the Finnish film industry. Should you be interested in those, you can contact the Finnish Film Archive:
http://www.sea.fi/english/

Although Finland does not have a royalty, there are families which can be seen as a part of a landed gentry; their roots go back to the Finnish-Swedish and Finnish-Swedish-Russian aristocracy, albeit aristocracy as such is no longer extant in Finland. Needless to say, many of these families still hold sway in Finland and for some people they still have an aristocratic aura about them. Today, Finland has its own Order of Merit system which has replaced the old aristocratic order. However, the present Order of Merits is granted for services rendered to the state. It granted to an indivudual for a lifetime only and is not hereditary in any way. To learn more about the old aristocracy and aristocratic order, you can write to the following address: kansli@riddarhuset.fi

Also, Miss Finland is seen by many Finnish women as the equivalent of a princess or a queen in a Finnish context. This great enthusiasm seems to be a peculiarly Finnish phenomenon, not known in any other country. The media coverage is thorough; radio, TV and especially the women's weeklies pursue relentlessly everything a Miss does, says or wears. The whole pageantry has its own web-site:
http://www.misssuomi.fi/
Unfortunately the web-site is in Finnish, but you can write to the following address:
finnartist@misssuomi.fi

Other relevant web-sites are:
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/hist.html
http://ky.hkkk.fi/~k21206/finhist.html
http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~pkr01/historia/history.html

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