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Frederick Charles
Frederick Charles c. 1917
King-elect of Finland
Reign	9 October 1918 – 14 December 1918 (never reigned)
Successor	Monarchy abolished
Regent	P. E. Svinhufvud C. G. E. Mannerheim
Head of the House of Hesse
Tenure	16 March 1925 – 28 May 1940
Predecessor	Alexander Frederick
Successor	Philipp
Born	(1868-05-01)1 May 1868 Panker Castle, Plön, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	28 May 1940(1940-05-28) (aged 72) Kassel, Nazi Germany
Burial	Schloss Friedrichshof, Kronberg im Taunus, Germany
Spouse	Princess Margaret of Prussia ​ ​(m. 1893)​
Issue	Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Prince Maximilian Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse Prince Wolfgang Prince Christoph Prince Richard
Names Frederick Charles Louis Constantine
House	Hesse-Kassel
Father	Frederick William, Landgrave of Hesse
Mother	Princess Anna of Prussia

Frederick Charles Louis Constantine, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (German: Friedrich Karl Ludwig Konstantin Prinz und Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel; Finnish: Fredrik Kaarle; 1 May 1868 – 28 May 1940), was the brother-in-law of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II. He was elected King of Finland on 9 October 1918, but renounced the throne on 14 December 1918.

Early life

Frederick was born at his family's Panker Castle, in Plön, Holstein. He was the third son of Frederick William of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse, and his second wife Princess Anna of Prussia, daughter of Prince Charles of Prussia and Princess Marie Louise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Frederick William, a Danish military officer, had been one (and perhaps the foremost) of the candidates of Christian VIII of Denmark in the 1840s to succeed to the Danish throne if the latter's male line died out, but renounced his rights to the throne in 1851 in favor of his aunt, Louise. Frederick William was of practically Danish upbringing, having lived all his life in Denmark, but in 1875, when the senior branch of Hesse-Kassel became extinct, he settled in northern Germany, where the House had substantial landholdings.

Marriage and issue

On 25 January 1893, Frederick Charles married Princess Margaret of Prussia, youngest sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. They had six children, all sons, including two sets of twins:

• Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse (23 November 1893 – 12 September 1916), died in World War I, during the Dobrujan campaign
• Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm Georg (20 October 1894 – 13 October 1914), died in World War I
• Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse (1896–1980), twin with his brother Wolfgang; married Princess Mafalda of Savoy (1902–1944, Buchenwald), daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and had issue.
• Prince Wolfgang of Hesse (1896–1989), twin with his brother Philipp. He was the designated Crown Prince of Finland officially until 14 December 1918. He married Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden, no issue
• Prince Christoph Ernst August of Hesse (1901–1943), twin with his brother Richard. An SS officer who died in active service during World War II, he married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) and had issue.
• Prince Richard Wilhelm Leopold (1901–1969), twin with his brother Christoph; unmarried

Upon their father's death in 1884, Frederick's eldest brother Frederick William became the head of the House of Hesse, and afterwards his next brother Alexander.

The Finnish throne

Frederick Charles was elected the King of Finland by the Parliament of Finland on 9 October 1918. However, with the end of World War I, in light of his German birth (and despite his Danish roots through his paternal grandmother) and the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany ending monarchies in Germany, the arrangement was quickly considered untenable by influential Finns of the time and by Frederick himself. Not much is known of the official stance of the victorious Allied Powers. Frederick Charles renounced the throne on 14 December 1918, without ever arriving in the country, much less taking up his position. Finland's subsequent elections were a victory for anti-monarchists, and the parliament quickly adopted a republican constitution.

The electoral document refers to Prince Frederick Charles with the Finnish name Fredrik Kaarle. Other proposals for a Finnish regnal name included Kaarle and Kaarlo. The regnal name "Väinö I", which lived on in the memory of the Finns, probably came from a newspaper causerie: in 1927 in Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, "Hesekiel" (Heikki Välisalmi) claimed Väinö had been the intended name; already in 1918 in Uusi Päivä , "Olli" (Väinö Nuorteva) had suggested "Ilmari, Väinö, Kauko, Jouko, Usko, Jaska?".

Later life

Landgrave Alexander Frederick of Hesse abdicated as the head of the House of Hesse on 16 March 1925, and was succeeded by Frederick Charles, his younger brother.

At Frederick's death, his eldest surviving son, Philipp, succeeded him as head.

However, according to certain family documents and correspondence, his successor as King of Finland would have been his second surviving son Prince Wolfgang of Hesse (1896–1989), apparently because Philipp was already the designated heir of the rights over the Electorate of Hesse, but certainly because Wolfgang was with his parents in 1918 and ready to travel to Finland, where a wedding to a Finnish lady was already in preparation for the coming crown prince. Philipp was in the military and unable to be contacted at the time.

Notes

1. He was de facto succeeded by Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg as President of the Republic.

Honours

•  Grand Duchy of Hesse:
  • Knight of the Golden Lion, with Collar, 4 August 1885
  • Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 1 May 1892
  • Wedding Medal of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and Grand Duchess Victoria Melita, 1894
• Duchy of Anhalt: Grand Cross of the Order of Albert the Bear, 1886
•  Principality of Bulgaria: Grand Cross of St. Alexander
• Kingdom of Greece: Grand Cross of the Redeemer
•  Oldenburg: Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown
•  Kingdom of Prussia:
  • Knight of the Black Eagle, 24 December 1892; with Collar, 17 January 1893
  • Grand Cross of the Red Eagle
•  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the White Falcon, 1893
•  Denmark: Knight of the Elephant, with Collar, 24 June 1895
•  United Kingdom: Honorary Grand Cross of the Bath (civil), 22 June 1897
•  Baden: Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1902

Ancestry

See also

• List of Finnish monarchs
• Rulers of Hesse
• Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria
• Mindaugas II of Lithuania

References

1. Biener, Bernhard (17 June 2018). "Wie Friedrich Karl von Hessen zum finnischen König wurde". FAZ.NET (in German). Retrieved 29 June 2024.
2. Huldén, Anders: Kuningasseikkailu Suomessa 1918. Helsinki: Kirjayhtymä, 1988. ISBN 951-26-2980-1.
3. Baer, Katarina: Suomen kuningas. Helsingin Sanomat monthly supplement #8/2002.
4. Väinö, Suomen Sosialidemokraatti 17 February 1927, issue #39.
5. Vihdoinkin, Uusi Päivä 11 September 1918, issue #147.
6. ^ "Genealogy", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (in German), Darmstadt: Im Verlag der Invalidenanstalt, 1912–1913, p. 4 – via hathitrust.org
7. ^ Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1914, pp. 2, 4 – via hathitrust.org
8. Hof- und Staats-Handbuch für des Herzogtum Anhalt (1894), "Herzoglicher Haus-Orden Albrecht des Bären" p. 17
9. "Schwarzer Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (supp.) (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1886, p. 5 – via hathitrust.org{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach Archived 6 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine (1900), "Großherzogliche Hausorden" p. 17
11. Jørgen Pedersen (2009). Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009 (in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 465. ISBN 978-87-7674-434-2.
12. Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) The Knights of England, I, London, p. 212
13. Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1910), "Großherzogliche Orden" p. 41

• Large article on Helsingin Sanomat newspaper Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine about Friedrich Karl and his descendants, including the current "pretender" for the throne.
• Nash, Michael L (2012) The last King of Finland. Royalty Digest Quarterly, 2012 : 1

External links

• Portraits of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse at the National Portrait Gallery, London

• 1868 births
• 1940 deaths
• People from Plön (district)
• People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein
• Heads of state of Finland
• House of Hesse-Kassel
• Princes in the German Empire
• German male equestrians
• German art collectors
• Princes of Hesse
• Generals of Cavalry (Prussia)
• Annulled Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
• Pretenders