Grand Duke of Finland

[1] In those years, Johan was and had been in a quarrel with his eastern neighbour, Tsar Ivan IV of Russia ("the Terrible"), who had a long list of subsidiary titles as the grand duke of several ancient Russian principalities and provinces.

The use of the title of grand duke on Johan's behalf was a countermeasure to signify his mighty position as sovereign of Sweden, also a multinational or multi-country realm, and equal to a tsardom.

In 1802, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.

Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became in some aspects an autonomous grand duchy, as in an informal real union with the Russian Empire.

Although no grand duke ever explicitly recognised Finland as a separate state in its own right, the country nevertheless enjoyed a high degree of autonomy even before its independence in 1917.