Matti Kurki | |
---|---|
Died | 13th-century |
Other names | Matts Kurck |
Known for | Legendary chieftain of the birkarls |
Matti Kurki, in Swedish Matts Kurck, was a legendary Finnish chieftain of the birkarls. [1] If he was a real person, he is thought to have lived in the late 13th century, at that time when king Magnus the Barnlock ruled the Kingdom of Sweden.
Folklore tales tell about Matti Kurki, particularly in the Satakunta province (Vesilahti, Pirkkala), but also in Lapland. The first written reference to Matti Kurki dates from the 17th century.[ citation needed ]
The best known tale concerns his duel with Pohto, a Russian-Karelian warrior. The battle would have taken place near the Manor of Laukko.
Matti Kurki was supposedly the ancestor of the Finnish noble family of Kurki. The lands of the Laukko manor were, according to legends, either compensation for subjugating some of the Sami to the Swedish crown by extracting taxes from them, or for his valor and deeds in the wars against the Danish enemies of the King of Sweden, or defending the eastern frontier from Novgorodian raiding parties. There is also a possibility that the manor was already in the family for many generations and that this gift was merely a tax exemption for the manor in perpetuity.
The name has been used as a traditional name in the Finnish Navy, two ships have so far carried the name in the 20th century:
Kangasala is a city in Finland which is situated about 16 kilometres east of Tampere. The city was founded in 1865 and had a population of 32,982 people as of 28 February 2023. Kangasala covers an area of 870.86 km2 (336.24 sq mi) of which 212.83 km2 (82.17 sq mi) is water. The population density is 50.12 inhabitants per square kilometre (129.8/sq mi).
The monarchy of Sweden is centered on the monarchical head of state of Sweden, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. There have been kings in what now is the Kingdom of Sweden for more than a millennium. Originally an elective monarchy, it became a hereditary monarchy in the 16th century during the reign of Gustav Vasa, though virtually all monarchs before that belonged to a limited and small number of families which are considered to be the royal dynasties of Sweden.
Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to Vårt land which became an unofficial Finnish national anthem. Runeberg was also involved in the modernization of the Finnish Lutheran hymnal and produced many texts for the new edition.
Matinkylä is one of the major districts of Espoo, a city on the southern coast of Finland. Matinkylä sits between the Länsiväylä highway and the coast of the Gulf of Finland, between the areas of Haukilahti and Iivisniemi.
The Swedish nobility has historically been a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called frälse. The archaic term for nobility, frälse, also included the clergy, a classification defined by tax exemptions and representation in the diet. Today the nobility does not maintain its former legal privileges although family names, titles and coats of arms are still protected. The Swedish nobility consists of both "introduced" and "unintroduced" nobility, where the latter has not been formally "introduced" at the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset). The House of Nobility still maintains a fee for male members over the age of 18 for upkeep on pertinent buildings in Stockholm.
Henry was a medieval English clergyman. He came to Sweden with Cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare in 1153 and was most likely designated to be the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but the independent church province of Sweden could only be established in 1164 after the civil war, and Henry would have been sent to organize the Church in Finland, where Christians had already existed for two centuries.
Duchies in Sweden have been allotted since the 13th century to powerful Swedes, almost always to princes of Sweden and wives of the latter. From the beginning these duchies were often centers of regional power, where their dukes and duchesses had considerable executive authority of their own, under the central power of their kings or queens regnant. Since the reign of King Gustav III the titles have practically been nominal, with which their bearers only rarely have enjoyed any ducal authority, though often maintaining specially selected leisure residences in their provinces and some limited measure of cultural attachment to them.
Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Qwenland, Kænland, and similar terms in medieval sources, is an ancient name for an area in Fennoscandia and Scandinavia. Kvenland, in that or nearly that spelling, is known from an Old English account written in the 9th century, which used information provided by Norwegian adventurer and traveler Ohthere, and from Nordic sources, primarily Icelandic. A possible additional source was written in the modern-day area of Norway. All known Nordic sources date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Other possible references to Kvenland by other names and spellings are also discussed here.
The House of Bjelbo, also known as the House of Folkung (Folkungaätten), was an Ostrogothian Swedish family that provided several medieval Swedish bishops, jarls and kings. It also provided three kings of Norway and one king of Denmark in the 14th century.
The Finnish nobility was historically a privileged class in Finland, deriving from its period as part of Sweden and the Russian Empire. Noble families and their descendants are still a part of Finnish republican society, but except for the titles themselves, no longer retain any specific or granted privileges. A majority of Finnish nobles have traditionally been Swedish-speakers using their titles mostly in Swedish. The Finnish nobility today has some 6,000 male and female members.
The Kurki or Kurck family, also known as the family of Laukko, is a medievally-originated Finnish noble family that produced several historically prominent persons. It is documented in the late 14th century. The family is usually divided in several lineages as it continued through female succession.
Carl Olof Cronstedt the elder was a Swedish naval commander responsible for the overwhelming Swedish victory at the Second Battle of Svensksund, one of the largest naval battles in history. He is often better remembered, however, as the commander of the fortress of Sveaborg during the Finnish War in 1808–09, which was fought between Sweden and Imperial Russia, and ended in Cronstedt surrendering the fortress.
In Finland, a person must have a surname and at least one given name with up to three given names permitted. Surnames are inherited either patrilineally or matrilineally, while given names are usually chosen by a person's parents. Finnish names come from a variety of dissimilar traditions that were consolidated only in the early 20th century. The first national act on names came into force in 1921, and it made surnames mandatory. Between 1930 and 1985, the Western Finnish tradition whereby a married woman took her husband's surname was mandatory. Previously in Eastern Finland, this was not necessarily the case. On 1 January 2019, the reformed Act on Forenames and Surnames came into force.
Axel Jönsson Kurck, born 1555, died 30 March 1630 in Nakkila) was a colonel in the Swedish army and nobleman. He was a member of the Kurki of Laukko family.
A slottslän was an administrative division in Sweden and Finland from late 13th century to 1634. The term slottslän can be translated as "castle fief". Although the word "län" literally means fief, in Sweden it is translated as "county" and in Finland as "province".
In Swedish and Finnish history, Finland under Swedish rule is the historical period when the bulk of the area that later came to constitute Finland was an integral part of Sweden. The starting point of Swedish rule is uncertain and controversial. Historical evidence of the establishment of Swedish rule in Finland exists from the late 13th century onwards.
Tottijärvi is a village and a former municipality in Nokia, Finland. It is located by the lake Pyhäjärvi, about 30 kilometres southwest of the city of Tampere. The population of Tottijärvi is 717 (2008).
Sadan miekan mies is a Finnish historical adventure comedy film from 1951 directed by Ilmari Unho. The film takes place in the 1630s in the Finnish county Varsinais-Suomi, and tells the story of a heroic swordsman on an assignment from the king, and on their journey, the swordsman and he's partner encounter foes and damsels. The film was first shown on television on 7 March 1964.
Hatanpää Manor was a manor in the area of the current city of Tampere on the shores of Lake Pyhäjärvi in Pirkanmaa, Finland. It was founded in the 1690s, but the current main building of Hatanpää Manor, designed by architect Sebastian Gripenberg, was completed in 1885. The manor has preserved the manor park on the Hatanpää's peninsula, as well as the main building and villa building built in the late 19th century. The former land areas of the manor are now residential and industrial areas.
Laukontori is a market square in the southern part of the city center of Tampere, Finland, on the shores of Lake Pyhäjärvi. It is located just a few hundred meters from Tampere Central Square. Square's beach serves as a harbor for cruise ships to the Viikinsaari island and the city of Hämeenlinna in the summer.