Back in 9th grade hostory class, my teacher mentioned that the king had even been given the title ”Yrjö I”, roughly translating to ”George I” (I’m a Finn, btw). Another fun fact, while Yrjö is an old name in Finland, nowadays yrjö means barf. We could have had a long line of King Barfs.

It wasn’t Yrjö I. He was given the name Väinö I.

Honestly, now I'm sad we couldn't have King Barf on the throne

As an American who has lived in Finland nearly 12 years...Leaning Finnish is like getting a long tattoo. It will hurt and hurt and hurt until it just becomes numb. Everything, numb.

My condolences

As the Polish November Uprising was briefly mentioned in the video, I have an excuse to share a fun fact: there was a certain Finnish-Swedish guy, who joined the Uprising - August Maximilian Myhrberg. He previously fought for the liberals in Spain and in the Greek War of Independence. Later in his life he served in the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy for some time, and after returning to Europe, was involved in organizing support for yet another Polish uprising in 1863 (the January Uprising).

Thanks for sharing this information, mate :D that might have been too much excitement for one lifetime

The preparation had been crazy. We had prepared a crown, a castle was planned, uniforms for the royal guard, and even a badass title to the king: "King of Finland and Karelia, Duke of Åland, Grand Duke of Lapland, lord of Kaleva and the North."

would be really cool if this all went through

All those preparations were probably done to really solidify the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Finland, noone could have known that his rule would be so short ;)

I always wondered why Finland never revolted against Russia, thanks for the great video, mate. You deserve so many more subscribers.

you might find, russia was revolting enough without the finns doing anything

He will always be king in Kaiserreich.

I have to try that run, any recommendations? I'm not used to play Kaiserreich

@Fadhillah Sidik thanks

Came down to find this comment

Can't believe he had to spend alot of time learning the finish language. It's extremely difficult and they have written and spoken finish. All for nothing hahaha

What's the story behind Ylilauta's mascot, though?

Good luck for him, then, that Germany was defeated and he got out of that commitment.

Yeah I don't envy him

Kings residence is still in helsinki in the middle of the Botanical gargen in Kaisaniemi right next to the central railway station. It's a professional botanical museum, open on request.

@Sir Manatee Looks like youtube ate my response because of the link. It's "helsinki botanical garden" and the main building "botanical museum" was supposed to be the royal residence. It's just a bit northeast from the central railway station.

I didn't know that :o what's it called?

Great summary of a very complex era of Finnish history, but the title is kind of wrong. Friedrich Karl never accepted the Finnish crown and obviously wasn't crowned so he never ruled over Finland. Unlike in Hungary where Horthy made himself regent of the kingdom without a king, Finland never became a kingdom and the interregnum continued until 1919 when the first Finnish constitution confirmed Finland to be republic as was already stated in the declaration of independence in 1917.

Good point, a king can't really be a king if he never got crowned or even set foot on his kingdom. I just will change the title, thanks for pointing that out! :)

Imagine if he actually did become the King of Finland, due to the process being shorter/quicker than in real life. I'd imagine that he'd still abdicate (if he'd still do) when Germany surrendered, so Finland could make better relations with the Entente nations. So what would then happen, if he got the crown sooner AND managed to do things that made him stand out or make the people love/like him in the short period? Would he still abdicate then?

Criminally underrated channel

@Adam Kerman And that is great. I am new, too. :)

@Christoph Becker indeed, However his subscriber count is rising very rapidly as of late!

@Adam Kerman Still is!

Agreed.

As someone who lives in Sweden I can approve calling Finnish a cursed language.

A great an underrated matter of history well presented

Funny thing about the mentioned Swedish law that would stay in Finland. It's still in effect, so the oath of judges is to "deliver justice by god, law and the king of Sweden.

Not anymore. It was effectively repealed in 2017.

Interesting, you'd think they would have gotten rid of that a long time ago.

Great video and channel, must say, it's underrated. Btw, does someone know why they didn't just turn a Finnish monarch, I think Finland was a Grand Duchy, into their king?

I find it very intresting as this would have connected the royal lineage of Sweden and Finland, through the house of Hesse-Kassel that ruled in Sweden during 1720-1751 under the monarch Frederick I.

Keep on going Sir. Your channel will soon become big. You do amazing work. Weiter so!

Long live the king

1:44 Not only polish, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine participated on a same level for their independence.

We also considered a Danish candidate, i believe the second son of the Danish king. We dodged a bullet there.

Ahhh Hessian Finnland. One of my favourite what ifs.

When Germany had its 150th Anniversary, it only got big on the Internet like on Twitter and that only through patriots, but nowhere else. The German chancellor congratulating Finland's Anniversary is like your Mother going to the birthday party of the neighbour's kid but not coming to yours.

"Svinhufved" actually means "pigshead", in Swedish.

@mikitz *third. He was the first prime minister thou.

He also became the first president.

Some further details about the February manifesto and the nature of the Grand Duchy of Finland: Alexander I had sworn that the laws existing in Finland in 1809 would remain in force and would be respected, thus leading to the interpretation that Finland was a constitutional monarchy in personal or real union with the Russian Empire through the throne of the czar. None of the czars before Nikolai II had spoken anything to the contrary to this interpretation and imperial decrees didn't go against the diet or the senate. Furthermore each had sworn during their crowning to retain the oath that Alexander I had made. Thus the concept of the emperor being an autocrat never took root, like it was in Russia. Finnish state structures were formed under the watch of the czar, including the post office, mass transit, local currency, local legislature and a local military consisting of a number of marksman battalions as well as squadrons of dragoons. While these units were sent out to fight in Russia's wars, they were Finnish troops. Therefore the February Manifesto was seen as the czar breaking his oath of office and moving to dismantle the very state structure of Finland. Since the Finns were loyal to their emperor, subsequent rebuffs by the czar to reverse the decision were seen as a dastardly betrayal of that loyalty.

Very historical, very nice, easy to understand for them foreigners. All in all good job

why were kings of england russia spain and france german? because yes

Yes

As a Fin this is like watching a video someone else cut together of your family trip 10 years ago and they weren't there and have no idea in what order or how things played together.

Excellent info here, but for the next time: it’s just Ukraine, not “the Ukraine”.

@Sir Manatee oh, you’re German? You speak such excellent English, but then the German sounded really natural, too. Greetings from Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮

Yeah, I blame that on the force of habit because Ukraine has an article in German. And one year ago, I was not aware yet that saying it like this in English could have any negative connotations, so I apologise in retrospect

We stole Portugals flag XD I think the Belem tower was just their own old flag

nice to see some light shun on our king ;)

Could of a Swedish King Worked for Finland or would that only heighten the Aland conflict?

No one wouldve accepted a swedish king

🇫🇮

Hmmm... the Spring Offensive was the last credible possibility for Germany to win the war, I guess.

German princes trying not to found another dozen of dynasties across Europe (impossible)

Lol probably the same way a guy named mannerheim became prime Minister

Tragedy.

Wish a monarch lead us to this day.

If I remember correctly from history class, the reds were generally richer and more educated than the whites. As the white movement was sort of an aristocrat-peasant alliance while the reds consisted mostly of workers and students. You can see on the map that the reds controlled most if not all major towns and cities in Finland. While the whites controlled mostly rural areas and forests.

digga du bist doch deutsch

:o

Sorry, king ever ruled in independent Finland… he never ruled. Fact!

I wish we became a monarchy

hello from german guy to our finish brothers

@Adam Kerman True! Totta! Eläköön Monarkkia!

@KaksiDaksi Monarchy is based.

@Adam Kerman Why

@KaksiDaksi Hell yah!

IMHO it was the safest thing to do I believe Germany was on the right side fighting evil at the time ,what happened to the tsar of Russia was tragic and it was spreading west im sticking to facts Finland had every right to safeguard its borders ,I hope they don't suffer the same fate as some of the rest of todays European countries especially England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇫🇮

Yes.

Well said.

After WW2 they could have made Mannerheim their king, wasted oppertunity.

Mannerheim was offered the power already after the Monarchy plan didn't work out. He declined and only then did Finland become a republic.