with some Scandinavian families. He sent me the following and, after asking
him, I sent it on to gen-med as this is a bit different from the usual
information we receive on gen-med.
Best wishes
Leo van de Pas,
Canberra, Australia
Manwhile, welcome to read the text of an article I
wrote to English Wikipedia about one of such medieval
Finnish families.
Kurki of Laukko
The Kurki family, also known as the family of Laukko,
(some versions of name: Kurck, Korke, Kurk, Kurke) is
a medievally-originated Finnish noble family that
produced several historically prominent persons and
was documentarily known from the late 14th century. It
usually is divided to several lineages, because it on
some generations continued through female succession.
Observe: no one surnamed Kurki who lived in Finland
after the 17th century, is descended from this family
at least through documentarily proven lineage. The
same nickname or surname is general in Finland, and
has been used by several other former or current
families.
This family of Kurki held the manor of Laukko at least
since 14th century, until the beginning of the 19th
century.
A seal of a member of this family is know already from
early 15th century. It depicts a common crane, which
is "kurki" in Finnish. However, the coat of arms of
the family since 15th century depicts a sword with
three stars (lady Elina's coat of arms, and later
confirmed in the 1st baron's coat of arms at the
Swedish House of Knights when the baronial rank was
obtained in 1652).
In 1797 Arvid Fredrik Kurck (1735-1810) was created a
Swedish count, but his branch went extinct.
Contents
* 1 Original Kurki family of Tavastia
* 2 Medieval Kurki family
* 3 Noble, ultimately baronial family Kurki, in
Sweden known as Kurck
* 4 Royal descendants
* 5 Sources
Original Kurki family of Tavastia
According to folklore, an ancestor of the family Kurki
was Matthew Kurki, a legendary chieftain of Pirkka men
of 13th century. Legendary material assign him as the
first owner of Laukko. However, before the
confiscation of ecclesiastical properties in 16th
century, kings and government did not have lands to
grant to speak of, and therefore this idea, having
received it from king as reward, in the folklore
derives from more modern era. In Middle Ages, people
owned usually just inherited lands and lands conquered
or assarted by the clan. Landed properties were highly
family-committed.
Laukko seems not to have been an immense landholding
until made gradually such by the second Kurki family
in the 15th century.
The location of the Matthew (Matti) Kurki folklore as
itself matches, because Laukko is located in
Vesilahti, the historical Pirkkala area, where those
folk legends are strongest.
There is a gap of a century between Matti Kurki and
the first documented Kurki, deputy justiciar Jaakko
Kurki (Jeppe, Jesper, Jaakko, Jacob) of the late 14th
century, whose seat was the manor of Niemenpää in
southern Tavastia.
Medieval Kurki family
The heiress of the old Kurki family of Niemenpää
married sometime in late 14th century a nobleman named
Hermanni, of either Swedish or German extraction and
using the nickname Svärd, "sword", in accordance with
his coat of arms. Of their sons, Nicholas used the
nickname Kurki, whereas another son, Peter, seems to
have been known as "sword" ("..old lord Peder
Swärdh.."). From Peter, owner of Niemenpää, the
continuous line holding the lordship of Harviala
descends. Nicholas is surmised to have been childless,
but from a younger kinsman of his (researchers have
estimated that as nephew, be it nephew through a
brother or, more probably, a sister) Jeppe, a further
family using the name Kurki descends. This Jeppe Kurki
(Jacob, Jaakko, Jesper) married Kaarina Klauntytär,
daughter of Klaus Lyderinpoika, an important heiress.
The last male of their line was a grandson, Arvi Kurki
(1463-1522), who was the last catholic bishop of
Turku. Bishop Arvi Klaunpoika Kurki had a sister,
Elina Kurki, who was married with Nuutti Eerikinpoika
(Canute Ericsson), justiciar (lagman) of Northern
Finland. Elina's son Jöns Nuutinpoika (1503-c 1577)
inherited his uncle the bishop Arvi and was the next
owner of Laukko and the Kurki patrimony.
This epoch also includes (at least in folklore): Klaus
Kurki (fictional), of 15th century. He was a nobleman
who in the folk ballad Death of Elina (Elinan surma)
burned his (first) wife Elina, whom he believed to
have been unfaithful and given birth to a son of
another man. The poem however is either fictive or
possibly persons are mixed.
Noble, ultimately baronial family Kurki, in Sweden
known as Kurck
Elina Klauntytär, sister of bishop Arvi Kurki, and
heiress of the medieval Kurki family, is the
ancestress of the next male-line family that used the
surname Kurki. Soon, of the surname a Swedish
formulation Kurck was established, and the family was
registered under that name in 1625 at the Swedish
House of Knights when that institution was
established.
Lady Elina's father was lord Klaus Jepenpoika Kurki.
Her husband was justiciar Nuutti Eerikinpoika (died in
1539 at great age), a member of the Privy Council of
Sweden and since 1511 lagman of Northern Finland
(Elgenstierna gives him as a scion of the Smålandic
family of petty gentry holding the manor of Näs; but
Gillingstam opines him being of Finnic extraction).
Elina's son Jöns Nuutinpoika Kurki (1503-c 1577) was
also member of the royal council (PC) and his father's
successor as justiciar. The family continues through a
son of Jöns' second marriage with Ingeborg Tott:
* Canute Jönsson (died 1598). His wife was Bridget
Benedictsdotter of the Gylta family, who inherited the
Hedensö manor in Näshulta, Sudermannia. That manor
became the Kurki family's seat in Sweden.
Colonel Axel Kurki 1555-1630 was a soldier whom
revolting Cudgel men (nuijamiehet, see Cudgel War)
wanted to make their chief, but he did not consent.
Axel became later military governor of the entire
Finland.
Jöns Kurck (1590-1652), member of the Royal Council
and president of Court of Appeals of Turku, was
created friherre (baron) in 1652, and he started the
baronial family that survived to 20th century. The
baronial Kurck family held the Laukko manor yet over a
century, but settled chiefly in Sweden in the area of
Stockholm, because they were of high nobility and
often among the important officials of the kingdom.
Arvid Fredrik Kurck (1735-1810) was in 1797 created
count but did not bother to register it at the Swedish
House of Knights.
The family had to sell its manor of Laukko when
Finland had become a separate grand duchy attached to
Russian Empire, because the Kurck family wanted to
stay in Sweden, and the Finnish government did not
allow foreigners to possess landed properties.
Descendants of the baronial lineage live, mostly in
Sweden.
Royal descendants
The current heir-apparent of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, Willem-Alexander (born 1967), Prince of
Orange, descends paternally, through a female line,
after 500 years, from each of the three
above-mentioned Finnish families of Kurki. This is
because one ancestress of Willem-Alexander has been
countess Eeva Horn (1653-1740), wife of Reichsgraf
Nicholas Bielke, lord of the Finnish barony of
Korppoo, and daughter of the Finnish field marshal
Gustav Horn (1592-1657), Count of Pori, the Lord High
Constable of Sweden. The Horn counts of Pori, Finland;
descend, through the Porvoo-originated owners of the
manor of Sydänmaa, from a daughter of the
abovementioned lady Elina Klauntytär, heiress of the
Kurki of Laukko, and her husband justiciar Nuutti
Eerikinpoika. Lady Elina, as explained above,
descended from the medieval Kurki of Laukko family and
from the Kurki of Niemenpää family (and was their
heiress), and of course all her descendants so descend
too.
Sources
* Äldre svenska frälsesläkter by Folke Wernstedt,
1965 (deals with the family of Arvi Kurki and the
Svärd family)
* Svenska adelns ättartavlor by Gustaf
Elgenstierna, 1925 (1998 edition) - deals with the
baronial Kurck family
* W. W. van Valkenburg, De voorouders van Z.K.H.
Prins Claus, Prins der Nederlanden, Ned. Leeuw
Feb/March 1966.
Category: Medieval Finland