A butler's story, a Finland AAR

On the 29th of March 1809 Finland was ceded into the Russian empire after hundreds of years of Swedish rule. The Swedish soon gained Norway instead from the declining power Denmark.
But Finland never became a true part of Russia. They had a certain intependence within the Russian empire. Finnish laws were with in Finland, the little tax that the Russians gained from Finland was used to improve Finland and Finnish representives, put to office by wealthy Finns had a great deal of power. Still, Finland was officially a part of Russia for the next 26 years.
But on the 21th of December 1835 the Finns were finally given their intependence and on the 24th of December 1835 the crown of Finland was offered to Johann Nepomuk, an Austrian prince exiled from Austria after a failed revolt. It is said that this was the largest christmas present in history.
The day later, on the 25th of December Johann was crowned as Johann the I, king of Finland of the Viipuri house.
That same day he married a Finnish lady, now named Veera Viipuri.

Note: In real Johann Nepomuk died at the age of three. In this AAR he did not.

The cencus​

Shortly after the Austrian prince Johan Nepomuk acended to the throne of Finland on the 25th of December 1835 he ordered that a population cenus should be conducted.
Finland had 1,48 million people, the majority, around 65 %, were laborers and 25 % were famers. The other classes were very small. Finland had 2 major nationalities and 2 minor.

First of all there were the Finns. The middle and low class of Finland. They made up 88,1 % of the population.They spoke a language unlike the Indoeuro languages and the Finns closest relatives were the Sami people and the Hungarians. They had been ruled from the west, Sweden, for centuries and from the east, Russia, for 26 years. The people of Finland were there for generally very happy in those days. However, most of them did not have voting rights since only the rich men had voting rights. At that time there were only 12 Finns allowed to vote in Finland. At the same time there were over 2000 Swedish and 400 Russian voters.
The king was however very populer, he had travaled to Finland in the late 1820s as a young man and married the Finnish lady Veere the same day he became a king. He was almost considered a Finn and the Finnish people thought of him as their main representive in the Finnish politics.

Then there were the Swedes. They had settled there during Swedish rule. They made up 11,6 % of the population. Most of them had been borned in Finland and spoke Finnish as well as any Finn.
Most of the high class were Swedish

Next there were the few strong Russians that had settled in Finland during Russian rule. They were only 0,3 % of the people in Finland. Most of them emigrated to Russia or blended among the crowd.

Finally there were 2341 Sami in Lapland, northren Finland. They roamed an arear as large England south of Manchester, but only populated by almost 15 000 people, most of them young woodcutters that lived far away from their families.
These Sami owned almost 70 000 reindeers and were one of the richest people in Finland. They had converted to christianity, at least officially.

A letter sent by lord Wellington to king Johann.

"Your highness, king Johann the I of Finland.

I will try not to waste your valuable time with a long letter. I have heard that your highness is need of a good butler. It is not likely that you will recieve any help from Austria so I here by offer you my personal butler, Lupus Lloyd. A welshman and the best butler that I have ever had. He has no objection to my suggestion.

I hope you will be able to contact me soon, Lord Wellington."

The description that Torbjörn, the captain that transported him to Finland, gave to interested

“He looked as he was around fourty. He had blue eyes and a brown beard that lied from his upper check, down the check and but the two ends stopped finally and met above the mouth and under the nose. He was wearing green and black suit and had good shoes on his feet. He made no proplem on the ship and seemed to be an honorable man.”


Lloyd's personal diary, the 13th of January, 1836.

"It was almost midday when the wagon turned into the driveway and I saw my new home, the royal palace. It had grey walls and a red roof. It was surrounded by large fields that would be green in the summer. As we came closer we saw the garden closest to the Palace. The strange thing about the palice was that my previous lord, sir Wellington palace, was larger. But I am told that this was the home to the Russian governor.
As the wagon stopped and I stepped out I was surpriced to see that his Highness, the king of Finland, came outside just to greet me. He welcomed me and wished me good luck on my new jop with I dare say, bad english. I suggested that we should chance into German since it is only approciative that I would speak to him in his own language. He said that he needed the practice but finally agreed. For the next 40 minuets he explained to me his habits and requiests and finally showed me my new room. At last he insisted that I would take the rest of the day off, rest after a long trip and start tomorrow. My temporaly presessor would work a few more hours.
I took a walk to the garden. Later dinner was served and I got to know the staff a little bit. I f.e. had a talk with Lauri Juteini. I also saw this lovely waitdress but never had the opportunity to talk to her.
Later that night I went to bed."

And so the story of the butler Lupus Lloyd starts...

Nice to see that people are interested. I will probably post an update later this week. I will have time to finish the next chapter during this weekend.

Interesting. Where did you get the butler's name from?

Click to expand...

I wanted to have a Welsh/British name, so I used Lupus from Harry Potter and I have heard the name Lloyd somewhere. Finally I googled for a Welsh name list and confirmed the spelling.

@ Finnishish, lol, why might that be
@ flame7926, yeah, I got the idea when I took a look at downtown abbey with my parents. Pretty good ebisodes btw.
@ Alfredian, I already awnsered you
@ Captain DDR, thank you. I see you are from northern Karelia...
Thank you all for your comments and sorry for the one day delay. Also sorry for why I took so long time to awnser some of you. You may also see an update later this week, even before the weekend, but don't count on it.


From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 21st of January, 1836

"Mr. Kolehmainen leader of the conservatives and mr. Onkeli, leader of the liberals came to the palace in the noon to speak to my employer. They spoke for about an hour. When I was getting coffee for them I bumbed into the lovely waitdress I saw last week, on my first day. I was ofcourse devastated and helped her up. We talked for a little while later she, Meri Puputti, went back to her work.
During the evening Lauri told me he had heard a rumer that the king of Finland was giving up some power to voted representetives of the Finnish people, or at least of the rich."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 4th of March, 1836

"What Lauri told me was correct after all. The king had promised the people of Finland an election that would take place on the 1st of January, 1837. The ones that owned enough land would be able to cast a vote on one of the three parties that had been formed or on intuvitual representetives. The party with the largest number of votes would then form the government. The election would be in early 1841 and then every 4 years. For the next four years however few well known men, appointed by the king, would serve as a government. Voting for the upper house would be one every year.
I also bought a dress for mrs. Meri, I fear I have ruined her old dress. I hope she will like it. But now I must meet mrs. Meri and show her her new dress."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 5th of March, 1836

"She liked it. I am too exited to wright anything more."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 23rd of July, 1836

"Martti Öquist, came to see the king today. I was nerby and I did not manage to ignore their converstation. He is has been promoted to the general of the temporally army of Finland. He is now in command of 9 000 lightly trained Finns wich will protect Finland if neccesary.
I also had tea with Meri around four o'clock and I interduced her to British tea. I am thinking of proposing to her, and ask for her father blessing of course, but I fear I maybe rushing things."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 16th of August 1836

"The king announced today to the staff that his wife, Veera, was pregnant and should give birth in february. Now Finland will soon have a royal family. The king was in a good mood today and spent most of the day with his wife. He would not see any visitor exept around 5 o'clock. Then the prime minister, Kolehmainen came to see him.”


From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 2nd of September, 1836

"I tried to propose to her today, I invited her to in the finest restaurant in Helsinki, we talked, ate and drank good wine. But then I did not have the nerves to propose to her. Why didn't I. It is quite clear that I am more than a friend, is it not ? Why would she say no, well I almost two times older then she. But I have a good post and we like each other.
Why is this so hard ?”

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 3rd of January, 1836

“The results from the election to the upper house came today. The conservatives got 30 seats, the liberals got 6 seats and the reacionary got 5. My friend Lauri was unhappy with the results. He said that this was riducules. The working class deserves a right to vote when the upper class votes like this. Then he teased me and said, if I don't do something about Meri he might. He was of course joking. I must remember this. After all, he can't tease me forever and not payed back in the same manner.”

I want to apologize for the delay. Even more so since I almost promised an early update.
I bought Crusader kings recently and I have been so busy playing that great game that I have kept you guys waiting. I can hopefully have and update ready and posted on tomorrow.

The two trees​

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 15th of February, 1837

“Veera gave birth to a girl today. King Johann will name her Marja, after his wife's mother. I exspect that a tonn of letters will arrive for the next few days. At least there has been a lot to do today and I am exausted.”

From the diary or mr. Lloyd, the 9th of May, 1837

“Lauri came to me today. I was furius. He said the appointed government had lowered taxes for the rich. So they have the founds to invest in factories and maybe later railroads and with that improve the econamy, as they apperantly said it. My working hours were done for the day so we went hunting in the nearby forest. After he had shot the first duck he was a lot calmer. He said later that night that I should propose to Meri. Me and Meri were very much in love, it was easy to see and I had nothing to worry about.
I might just invite her to an evening walk tomarow and propose to her. If she accepts then I have nothing to fear. She has always said that her father is a romantic.

A part of invatation letter to Meri's and Lupus's wedding, sent the 15th of May, 1837

...."So we hereby invite you to our wedding on the 20th of May. We hope to see you there, may your journy be safe and good."...

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 2nd of June, 1837

“Many factories have been planned and opperunists have gathered founds for Finlands first major factory. It is in the outskirts of Helsinki and will hopefully provite jobs for many workers and bring more prosparity to Finland. The king, the leader of the temporary government and the high Bishop, Paul Jensen, attented, gave speaches and took the first shovels for the factory. The staff of the palice was came along as well.
In the evening a feast was helded and the people celabrated and danced.”

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 10th of June 1837

“When I came home after work today my lovely wife was waiting for me inside our new house. She told me tha I was going to be a father soon enough. She was pregnant. I have not been so happy since she agreed to marry me.
My father, Dilwyn Lloyd, will also be happy. I thing he was always afraid that my family name would die with me. I have to send him a letter, maybe I can persuade him to settle in Finland.
And I wish my mother and brother were alife so they could hear the news.”

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 16th of October, 1837

“The prime minister came to the king today and they spoke for a few hours. I believed it was about the defence of Finland because I happen to be working nearby and I could not stopp me from hearing words like general, guns and soldiers. After the meeting the king came to me and told me that he would put and end to my earsdropping by simply telling me what his meeting were about. I honestly don't understand what he is talking about. Not my fault I often happen to be working around the office when he has visitors.
My father also arrived in Finland today. My wife had greeted him when he left the ship. He liked our house very much and how close it was to the palice. We gave him the so called guest room. It only had the occational visit from Lauri until my father got it.

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 21st of January, 1838

“This has been a hard day. The prime minister, MPs, generals, bankers, accounters, bishops, advisors, factory owners, nobles and all sorts of people came to a meeting in the palice to discuss the bankruptsy of Holstein. A minor sum has been lost but might be enough to use as an excuse for war. The millitary was in favor of getting the proper equipment for the army, complete the training, and invade as soon as possible. Other argued the possible gains from that war would be minor compared to the losses. It was finally decided to leave it for the time being.
But I had a lot of work. I had to organize the waiters, choose the wine and find a solution to any proplem that came up when just over 100 people came on a meeting like this.
My lovely Meri said that she could no longer do the house work her self. We would need to get some help until after she had given birth. She was way to heavy to do this all by her self."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 13th of February, 1838

"It is actually the 1 a.m. on the 14th of February when I write this. I had only been at work for two hours when my waidress, Sini came to me and told me that my wife was giving birth and she had already found the doctor. My lord, king Johann was nearby and heard the news and immitietly gave me the day off. The birth went fine and at mid day my Meri had given birth to two sons. I we named the older one Lauri after my dear friend, as we had planned. We named the other Cadfan because he already had a black hair lock and he cried very loudly.

@Flame7926, Well, he did .
@every one, I have to make the updates last longer than an year. This could either be a very long AAR. And sorry again for the wait.

well... If you have been following this, you may have thought this AAR was dead. No, it was just a sleep. I have been playing other game than victoria 2 but don't worry, I have played ahead for the next two updates (maybe about 7 years, and I may need to play more ahead to fill two updates) and I am working on the next update.

I asked you to forgive the wait so many times last time I don't thing it will matter now

@Thank you. I am glad to see that you like it.It is insane making an AAR in the summer, one has no time for it. But here the next update comes.

The factory​

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 3rd of May, 1838

"Today was a sunny day. The royal family and the staff went out and drank tea out side. There was still snow around, but every one was happy about the hot day. It was around 4 o'clock when some economics went to the king telling him they had mastered a new form of trade, free trade, and hoped that would do Finland good."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd the 6th of June, 1838

"King Johann announced to us today that his wife was pregnend with their second baby. Soon the people of Filand will rejoice and hope for an heir to the crown. A boy would secure the succession and make the Viipuri dynasty the permament rulers of Finland. Veera and Johann seemed very happy.
I also noticed today how the little trees, planted two years ago around the palace have grown. The princes and prinsesses Johann and Veera will surly have will hopefully have a great garden to play in and be able to walk around the beutiful forest that will have rosen in the when they have grown up."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd the 21st of October, 1838

"The cemet factory in Finnish-Karelia, Meri's home province, has been finished. Now young men will get good jobs in the place that will lead Finland to greatness that will lead Finland to greatness. Later one a winery factory and another cement factory will be completed. The king went to attent the usual ceramony and I am sure it went well."

From the book Finland´s modern history by Paul Pietilinen, written in 1933

"By now the Finnish goverment and had a real problem. The Swedes were nerby, willing to go to war with Finland to restore the Swedish empire even if they would risk, however unlikely, an intervention by great powers such as Russia or the United Kingom.
Finland had only a lightly trained and equiped army at their disposal. Finland lacked good and experienced generals and most importantly of all. Finland had not maneged to produce or buy many modern weapons.
It was in theese days that the Finns started desperatly started to invest in a navy. They also tried to increase relation, trade and communication with Russia. Russia seemed a bit interested in Finland and slowly started to bring Finland into their sphere of influence."



The Russian army, the force that would keep the Swedish at their toes for years to come.


From the diary of mr. Lloyd the 3rd of March, 1839

"Queen Veera went into labor this morning and everyone in the palace seemed unable to work, waiting with exitement. I spent half of the day telling people to wake up and work. It was two o'clock in the afternoon when the nurse came out told everyone the news. Veera had given birth to a healthy baby girl witch was named Anna. I know that I should be happy that Veera and we now have two prinsesses,but I can't help but be a little dissapointed. Every one exspected an heir to the throne. But Veera is fertile and will have many more children.
After work me and Lauri went to a friend and played poker. I rather play Whist, I keep loosing in poker. But the others wont take that into consideration."


From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 2nd of June, 1839

"Today my wife, two sons and myself went to the ship dock in Åland where the man o'war under cunstruction was. They will finish the work soon. We were even allowed to walk on the half built ship.
The king however held a puplic speach for the Ålanders in the other end of town and everything went well."

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 26th of August, 1839

"Today we got bad news. Lauri was arrested a week ago and has been there ever since. They forgot to let anyone know and I fear my good friend has got him self into alot of trouble.

From the diary of mr. Lloyd, the 27th of August, 1839

"I visited Lauri in prison today. It turned out Lauri had been in a bar and was entetaining the crowd with funny poems. But when he was saying a poem about the MP Hans Erikson he him self stood up and had Lauri arrested. The MP then informed the police about his poems about many MPs, the prime minister and about the high bishop !
I guess he is lucky he never maneged to make fun of the king because then he would be in even more trouple. These people really need to take a joke. Or even better, my friend needs to learn to shut up !

From a private letter from the king of Finland, Johann the I, to headmaster of the Helsinki prison, Boris Harkov Alexeievich. Sent the 28th of August, 1839

"I hereby ask you to release one of your prisinor, Lauri Juteini, since he has not commited a crime. I will make sure you have nothing to fear from the prime minister, the bishop or Hans Erikson."

From the diary of Mr. Lloyd 3rd of January, 1840

"To day a mavarelus coincident happend. The queen announced to king and the staff that she was pregnent again. We all celabrated, I was even asked to open a bottle of wine from 1799. Hopefully she will give birth to a heir to the throne. The princesses, Marja and Anna are wonderful and I can't wait for the next.
When I got home my loving wife told me she was pregnend as well ! I am so lucky, I have a good house, two wonderful sons and a beutiful, loving and pregnend wife.
I am also exited about the new election. The newspaper is filled with political advirtisement."

From the diary of Mr. Lloyd the 13th of March, 1840

"A millitary disbute was held in Vaasa today. Many argued that Finland should not invest mony into the army but the king held a speach about the importance of the army"

From the finnish newspaper, "The window", the 1st of June, 1840

"The election is finished and the votes have been counted. The election was as exspected a conservative victory but the liberals and reactinary gained more votes than exspected.
Of the 43 seats in the senate the Suomalainen party got 25 seats and the Svenske partiet got 7. That means the conservatives got 32 seats out of 43. The Liberaler took 6 and finally the Vikingar have 5 seats in the senate.
The previus prime minster of the temperal government, Frans Kolehmainen, is now prime minster of the elected government."


Frans Kolehmeinen

hehe, well it did not matter that much, you would have had to wait anyway for the next one anyway.

Again, really nice to hear that you like it ! And yep, many pregnancies here. Women have to have pregnant to have children .

I will try to finish it. The only thing that I can thing of interrupting my AAR it is 1.4. ruining my save (I have victoria 2 on steam). Moving abroad eh, where to ? And I don't thing it will matter that much to you that you are not able to check this AAR as often as you like. You can read more than one chapter at a time.

I suspected that some names might be a little strange and funny. I just googled "Finnish male/female/last names" and found some names that looked good . Every now and then I added Swedish names, not to mention names from Wales.