Titles
The lowest, non-titled level of hereditary nobility was "adelsman" (i.e., "nobleman"). The untitled nobility was basically a rank without a fief. In practice, however, the majority of noble houses were fiefholder's until the late 19th century.
Following the German example, all members of a noble family received equal noble status – not only the head of the house. If the family is of the rank of Prince, Count or Baron, all members receive that title as well. There are two families forming an exception to the aforesaid (Mannerheim, Aminoff) where all members are barons but only the head and his eldest son is a Count.
The female members of a noble family marrying within the estate bears the higher of titles which they were born to or married to, i.e. a baroness marrying a count becomes a countess, and a countess or baroness marrying an untitled nobleman remains countess or baroness.
In contrast to the United Kingdom and the Benelux countries, no hereditary titles or honours have been possible to grant since 1917. The last baron created was August Langhoff in 1912; he was Minister State Secretary of Finland.
Furste (Sw.) or Ruhtinas (Fi.) (crowned or sovereign prince) was granted in Finland by the Monarch of Finland to only one – Russian – prince family, that of prince Menschikoff (Alexander, Prince Menschikoff), a descendant of Alexander, Duke of Ingria on 1 July 1833. These Menschikoff thenceforward were premier "peers" of Finland, but the branch went extinct in the 20th century.
Knighthood in knightly orders has generally not been counted as nobility in itself in the modern Finnish system. See also squire and esquire.
- Compare with Royal and noble ranks.
Read more about this topic: Finnish Nobility
Famous quotes containing the word titles:
“Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy?
Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy, or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)