When was the last time the leader of a country had an identical twin?

October 12, 2009 12:35 PM

When was the last time a Head of State had an identical twin?
posted by BuddhaInABucket to grab bag (9 comments total)

The last time? You mean the Kaczynskis (Poland) in 2006?
posted by rokusan at 12:40 PM on October 12

The Kacynskis of Poland?
posted by mkb at 12:41 PM on October 12

Well, Lech Kaczynski is still the President of Poland, but for a time in 2006-07 his brother Jaroslaw was the Prime Minister.
posted by Sova at 12:42 PM on October 12

Oh, I think that maybe before that you're looking at, hmmm, Romulus and Remus.
posted by Sova at 12:43 PM on October 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

OK, wow, that was fast. How about the time before that? Haha. Perhaps I should have asked for a list instead of the most recent one.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 1:25 PM on October 12

Here is Wikpedia's list of famous twins, including twins in politics.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:03 PM on October 12

I find it fascinating that all the Twins in Royal Families in that list are late 20th century. What did they do in the 19th and prior? A little man in the iron mask action?
posted by nax at 4:24 PM on October 12

Counterexample (wasn't in the Wikipedia list): King James II of Scotland and his twin brother Alexander Stewart who died as an infant. That's part of the problem -- twins were less likely to both survive or the mother to survive their childbirth until the advent of modern obstetrics.
posted by dhartung at 5:07 PM on October 12

I haven't found any other presidents or prime ministers with twins. It is pretty certain that Lech appointing Jaroslav (he had to, as his brother was leader of the majority party) was the only time something like that has ever happened. But I'm surprised there has never been an elected head of state with a twin, ever. It may have something to do with well-known tendencies of leaders to be tall, disproportionately lefty, first-born, and whatnot.

There's an "almost" example -- Prince Wolfgang of Hesse and his twin Philipp, whose father Frederick Charles of Hesse was the elected King of Finland early last century, and had two sets of twin boys. But Frederick Charles renounced the throne before ever getting to Finland, which then became a republic. But that's about as close as it gets and little more significant than the Bush twins.
posted by dhartung at 6:17 PM on October 12