Frederick Charles Louis Constantine, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (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: 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.

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 • undefined: Honorary Grand Cross of the Bath (civil), 22 June 1897 • Baden: Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1902

Ancestry