[1][2] The body that would become the Senate was established on August 18, 1809, when Tsar Alexander I of Russia summoned the Diet of Porvoo and directed the Diet to draw up regulations for a Government Council.
[3][4] In 1816, Alexander renamed this body the Senate to demonstrate that it was equal to rather than inferior to its Russian equivalent.
[5] The Senate was headed by the Governor-General of Finland.
Due to the Civil War in 1918 the Senate was relocated to the town of Vaasa from January 29 to May 3.
In 1918 the economic division became the Cabinet and the judicial division became the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court of the independent Finland.