Finnish Nobility - Swedish Nobility in Finland (between 1561 and 1809)

Swedish Nobility in Finland (between 1561 and 1809)

On one hand Finland, and on the other the Sweden proper, west of the Gulf of Bothnia, had approximately equal number of nobles. This was a medieval legacy and lasted the whole 16th century. According to research, the number of adult-aged male nobles, in average, was around 300-400 in Sweden proper and around 250-350 in Finland. (Actually, in the 1520s, their number was exceptionally low in Sweden proper, only 174, whereas the more usual size, 320, inhabited in Finland. This was in part a result of executions of the Stockholm bloodbath and other killings just around 1520.) However, their social level differed drastically.

A minority of all nobility belonged to an informal circle of high nobility, measured by wealth, High Councillorships held by the family, and impressive medieval ancestors. Lower nobility was a larger group, clearly lower in terms of wealth, position and respect from social, economic and political regard. Generally, their members made cavalry service on behalf of one farm, or just a few in maximum. There was only a fraction of tax-exempted noble land in Finland compared with its proportion in the Sweden proper. The Swedish manors were much concentrated in hands of families of high nobility. In Finland, as the contrary case, the nobility was generally so-called soldier nobility, and the vast majority of Finnish noble families had only one or at most, a few of manors, and mostly were regarded as lower nobility.

However, the situation of the 16th century favored soldiers, because the kingdom was in almost constant external warfare and kings trusted their military officers much more than other nobles, also when building administrative machineries. Soldier nobility gained even some improvements to their position and wealth, whereas in general the noble class and its privileges were decreasing in importance during the harsh early Vasa kings. Soldier nobles from Finland benefited from this development.

Already in the late Middle Ages, some distinction had been occasionally made between on one hand 'rälssi', tax exemption; and on the other hand a proper ennoblement. It was part of the custom that only kings were entitled to dub knights and ennoble, while in addition several other authorities, including at least important castellans of big castle fiefs, were able to grant tax exemption ('rälssi') to landholdings and useful local gentrymen. Only the increasing precision (and greed for tax revenues) of the Vasa kings brought implications of these differences afront in 16th century and particularly then in 17th century when the House of Knoghts and Nobility had been established. While a number of not-ennobled families with 'rälssi' rights were ultimately allowed to enroll to the House, also a vast number of 'rälssi' families (which did not have a proper documentation of any grant of nobility left, and generally were of the poorer scale of the rälssi class) were not accepted. One of latter groups (which has gained wider awareness in historical research) was the Squires of Vehkalahti ('Vehkalahden knaapit').

At the time of Late Middle Ages, Latin was still the language of instruction from the secondary school upwards and in use among the educated class and priests. As Finland was part of Sweden for 500 years, Swedish was the language of the nobility, administration and education. Hence the two highest estates of the realm, i.e. nobles and priests, had Swedish as the language of the gentry. In the two minor estates, burghers and peasants, Swedish also held sway, but in a more varying degree depending on regional differences.

In the entire 16th century, only a moderate number of ennoblements actually took place. The size of the Finnish and the Swedish nobility did not increase by much. Nobility in general was yet formed of so-called old nobility.

Already Gustav I of Sweden appointed exceptionally many Finnish nobles as High Councillors of the Realm, partly because of trust and loyalty, partly because almost all adult male Swedish high nobles had been efficiently axed just a few of years earlier by Christian II and thus were not available for appointments.

At the coronation of King Eric XIV in 1561, some nobility became hereditary, when the hereditary higher titles of greve (Count) and friherre (Baron) were created (two of the grantees were ethnically Finnish: Lord Lars Ivarsson Fleming, 1st Baron of Sundholm (Fi. Arvasalo), and lord Klas Kristersson, 1st Baron of Åminne (Fi. Joensuu); and their designated baronial estates were in Finland). In Eric's reign, those titles were intended to be inherited in an English and French manner, eldest heir succeeding. (This is attested by several examples: Nils Sture, eldest son of Count of Vestervik and Stegeholm, was personally titled Baron of Hörningsholm during the lifetime of his father, and not a count himself. Also, king Eric made one younger son, Erik Gustavsson Stenbock, of a baron, Gustav Olavsson of barony Torpa, a baron also, in order to him have the title and status too - that grant was made in same occasion as father's elevation.) Eric's successor, King John III of Sweden, however changed the rules into more German and Polish model, allowing all male-line members of a comital or a baronial family to have the same title, although the senior member was the "Head of the House" and held the actual county or the baronial estate (John's alteration however caused another development: if the male-line family went extinct, the title extinguished too - in France and England model, heiresses were often entitled to succeed to family's baronies and counties in case of brothers dying out). John III also recognized all nobility as formally hereditary when he decreed that a noble not capable of maintaining a cavalryman lost neither the tax exemption of the nobility nor the rank (in 1536 John's father Gustav I had already introduced non-noble sources of cavalrymen, the so-called rusthåll organization). The Swedish House of Nobility was organized in 1626. For a list of Lord Marshal of the nobility, the chairman of the House of Nobility, see fi:Maamarsalkka. Rigid, formal ranks were established, in place of a fluctuating network of relationships and a somewhat open entry. The requisite ground for introduction to the rolls of nobility was either birth into an "ancient" noble family, or ennoblement by the king. A great interest in genealogy ensued.

The feudal system of maintaining a cavalry soldier as the requisite of nobility vanished gradually at same time in the 16th century when nobility became an established and restricted class and now officially hereditary, not allowing for example marriages with commoners withous loss of nobility of children. Frälse grew gradually more restricted as a class, and also economically less feasible to be granted just for one cavalryman.

In the 16th century, Finland had a relatively high number of recognized noble families (derived often from the Middle Ages), whereas in Sweden proper, the proportionally much rarer nobility often was at the level of high nobility (which is measured by having members of the royal council as ancestors) as Fleming and Wadenstierna. Only a few Finnish families can be seen as recognized high nobles. This high number of lower nobility in Finland is explained to come from its military location, there having been a constant need of tapping the frälse system for troops and officers which led to a high number of ennoblements to Finland, whereas Sweden proper had lived more peacefully as to foreign wars and additionally had its nobility axed from time to time by civil war.

According to several precedents, medieval nobility was inheritable in female line in case of extinction of male line (and sometimes just because of inheritance of the manor with frälse status), shown for example by the accepted introductions (registrations) of later Stiernkors, Carpelan and Kurck female-line families to the rolls of nobility.

There was a special group of petty nobility, the so-called knapadel, derived from the last centuries of the Middle Ages, who generally were not able to produce a royal letter of ennoblement to support their status. Regarding certain districts where there existed a disproportionally high number of such families, their introduction to the House of Nobility was often denied. However, in most cases, such petty noble families were ultimately registered as nobles (the concept of "ancient nobility" was a loose one, in many cases demonstrated only by privileges enjoyed for a long time, for example in taxation or holding offices). Thus, quite many families confirmed in their nobility in the 17th century were presumably actually without any original royal ennoblement, but only became frälse by decisions of past royal bailiffs of castles and such.

Nobility's marriages became restricted: generally, only a noblewoman was eligible for valid marriage of a nobleman in order to transmit the noble status to children. Because before 17th-century mass ennoblements, the number of nobles was actually only in hundreds, daughters of lower nobility became more often brides for wealthy Swedish noble families and even for magnate families. This was one of reasons why many Swedish family of high nobility got also one or more Finnish foremothers (a phenomenon very rare in medieval centuries when already geography was a sort of obstacle). Finnish nobles very often moved to other parts of the realm, to have an office in military or in government.

Count Axel Oxenstierna, 1st Count of Södermöre, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, was the architect of the Instrument of Government of 1634, which laid the foundation of modern Sweden, and in extension that of Finland. It secured that all government appointments had to be filled by candidates from the nobility, a move which helped to mobilize support for, rather than opposition against, a centralized national government. This helped a lot of low-nobility Finns to a more or less lucrative career.

Due to the many wars, the crown needed a means to reward officers, and since cash was not plentiful, ennoblement and grants of land and other fiefs (rights to draw taxes) were used instead. During the 17th century, the number of noble families grew by a factor of five, an immense new influx being generated by royal ennoblements of hitherto commoners. (Most Swedish nobles derive their nobility no further than from ennoblements of the 17th century, usually military officers, or from 18th century ennoblements of usually civil servants.) In a few decades in midst of 17th century, the nobility's share of Swedish land rose from 16% to over 60%, which led to considerably lower tax incomes. The "reductions" of 1655 and 1680 however brought back most of that land to the crown.

Between 1561 and 1680, there thus existed tens of official baronies and counties, fiefs, in the area of Finland.

When a family was ennobled, it was usually given a name - just as lordships of England and other Western European countries. In 17th and 18th centuries, he name only rarely was the original family name of the ennobled, rather they chose fanciful new names. This was a period which produced a myriad of two-word Swedish-language finery names for nobility (very favored prefixes were Adler, "noble"; Ehren - "ära", "honor"; Silfver, "silver"; and Gyllen, "golden"). The regular difference with Britain was that it became the new surname of the whole house, and the old surname was dropped altogether. To understand ennoblements better, we may think a noble as, using a Finnish example, Augustin Schaeffer, Lord Ehrensvärd when ennobled, but they did not continue to use the old, thus he was, starting from the ennoblement, "Lord Augustin Ehrensvärd".

These centuries, particularly the centralization of government in the 17th century, saw a gradual mass exodus of Finnish nobility, almost all families of high nobility and a good portion of more capable others, from Finland to the capital of Sweden and manors therearound.

On the other hand, branches of other noble families (from all around the Swedish realm) settled in Finland, mostly due to an office gained by the newcomer nobleman. These were generally of poorer families or branches, because most noblemen pursued towards positions in Stockholm, and the most resourceful generally did not fail.

As a result, when Russia conquered Finland, no particularly powerful class of nobility still inhabited it. They were generally just modestly propertied (or sometimes outright impoverished) families with traditions for serving in the military and/or administration at regular levels, and to create careers starting from junior positions. This was enormously helpful for Emperors to create a functioning administrative machinery, and to have a loyal country. There simply were no powerful magnates to foment feudal rebellion, or to disrupt the building of a bureaucratic state by their important privileges.