Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick

Infobox Hanoverian Royalty|highness
name = Ernest Augustus III
title = Duke of Brunswick


reign = 1 November 1913 – 8 November 1918
predecessor = William VIII
spouse = Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia
issue = Ernest Augustus IV
Prince George William
Frederica, Queen of the Hellenes
Prince Christian Oscar
Prince Welf Henry
full name = Ernest Augustus Christian George
" _de. Ernst August Christian Georg"
titles = "HRH" The Duke of Brunswick
"HRH" Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Cumberland
royal house = House of Hanover
father = Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
mother = Princess Thyra of Denmark
date of birth = birth date|1887|11|17|df=yes
place of birth = Penzing, Vienna
date of death = death date and age|1953|1|30|1887|11|17|df=yes
place of death = Castle Marienburg, Hanover|

Ernest Augustus (Ernest Augustus Christian George; German: "Ernst August Christian Georg"; 17 November 1887–30 January 1953), reigning Duke of Brunswick (2 November 1913-8 November 1918), was a grandson of George V, whom the Prussians deposed in 1866. The last reigning monarch of the House of Hanover, Ernest Augustus was a direct descendant of Henry the Lion.

Early life

Ernest's great-grandfather, Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom, became king of Hanover in 1837 because Salic Law barred Queen Victoria from reigning in Germany.

"His Royal Highness" Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, styled "Prince Ernest of Cumberland," was born at Penzing near Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and his wife, the former Princess Thyra of Denmark. [Under settled practice dating to 1714, as a male-line descendant of George III, Prince Ernst August III of Hanover also held the title of Prince of Great Britain and Ireland with the style of Highness. In the Court Circular printed in "The Times" and in the "London Gazette," he was frequently styled Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland.] His father succeeded as pretender to the Hanoverian throne and as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in the peerage of Great Britain in 1878. The younger Prince Ernst August became heir apparent to the dukedom of Cumberland and to the Hanoverian claim upon the deaths of his two elder brothers, George and Christian.

In 1884, the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a distant cousin, died and the Duke of Cumberland claimed to succeed to that territory. However, the Imperial Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, managed to get the Federal Council (Bundesrat) of the German Empire to exclude the duke from the succession. Bismarck did this because the duke had never formally renounced his claims to the kingdom of Hanover, which had been annexed to Prussia in 1866 following the end of the Austro-Prussian War (Hanover had sided with losing Austria). Instead, Prince Albrecht of Prussia became the regent of Brunswick. After Prince Albrecht's death in 1906, the duke offered that he and his elder son, Prince George, would renounce their claims to the Duchy in order to allow Ernst, his only other surviving son, to take possession of the Duchy, but this option was rejected by the Bundesrat and the regency continued, this time under Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had previously acted as regent for his nephew in Mecklenburg.

Marriage and accession to the duchy of Brunswick

When Ernest's older brother, Prince George, died in an automobile accident on 20 May 1912, the German Emperor sent a message of condolence to the Duke of Cumberland. In response to this friendly gesture, the Duke sent his only surviving son, Ernst, to Berlin to thank the Emperor for his message. Ernst and the German Emperor were third cousins in descent from George III of the United Kingdom. In Berlin, Ernst met and fell in love with the Emperor William II's only daughter, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia.

On 24 May 1913, Ernest and Victoria Louise, third cousins once removed, were married. This marriage ended the decades-long rift between the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover. The wedding of Prince Ernest Augustus and Princess Victoria Louise was also the last great gathering of European sovereigns (many of whom were descended both from Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark) before the outbreak of The Great War. In addition to the German Emperor and Empress and the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, George V and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom and Tsar Nicholas II attended. Upon the announcement of his betrothal to Princess Victoria Louise in February 1913, Prince Ernest Augustus took an oath of loyalty to the German Emperor and accepted a commission as a cavalry captain and company commander in the Zieten–Hussars, a Prussian Army regiment in which his grandfather (George V) and great-grandfather (Ernst August I) had been colonels.

On 27 October 1913, the Duke of Cumberland formally renounced his claims to the duchy of Brunswick in favor of his surviving son. The following day, the Federal Council voted to allow Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland to become the reigning Duke of Brunswick. The new Duke of Brunswick, who received a promotion to colonel in the Zieten–Hussars, formally took possession of his duchy on 1 November.

During World War I, the duke rose to the rank of major-general. On 8 November 1918, he was forced to abdicate his throne along with the other German kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes. The next year, his father's British dukedom was suspended as a result of the Duke's service in the German army during the war, so that when his father died in 1923, Ernest Augustus did not succeed to his father's title of Duke of Cumberland. For the next thirty years Ernest Augustus would remain as head of the House of Hanover, living in retirement on his various estates. He lived to see one of his children come to a European throne - in 1947 his daughter Frederica, became Queen of the Hellenes when her husband Prince Paul of Greece and Denmark succeeded his brother as King.

He died at Marienburg Castle near Hannover in 1953.

Issue

The Duke and Duchess of Brunswick had five children [By Royal Warrant of 17 June 1914, George V granted the eldest son and any children thereafter born to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, the title of Prince (or Princess) of Great Britain and Ireland with the style Highness. The provisions of this Royal Warrant ceased with George V's Letters Patent of 30 November 1917, and Hanoverian princes and princesses born after this date were no longer allowed the title Prince of Great Britain and Ireland with the style Highness. However, in 1931, the former Duke of Brunswick, as head of the House of Hanover and the senior male-line descendant of George III, issued a decree stating that the members of the former Hanoverian royal family would continue to bear the title of Prince (or Princess) of Great Britain and Ireland with the style of Royal Highness. This decree had no legal effect in the United Kingdom, although no British sovereigns since have attempted to stop this practice on the part of the former Hanoverian royal family. The members of the House of Hanover continue to seek the British sovereign's approval when they marry, in accordance with the Royal Marriages Act 1772. In 1999, prior to the wedding of Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover (b. 1954) to Princess Caroline of Monaco, the couple received an official blessing from the reigning British monarch, Elizabeth II.] :

* Prince Ernest Augustus (18 March 1914–9 December 1987); married (1) 1951, Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (19 December 1925-6 February 1980), and had issue; and (2), 1980 Monica, Countess of Solms-Laubach (8 August 1929-).
* Prince George William (25 March 1915-8 January 2006); married 1946, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (26 June 1914-24 November 2001), and had issue.
* Princess Frederica (18 April 1917-6 February 1981); married 1938 Paul I of the Hellenes (14 December 1901-6 March 1964), and had issue.
* Prince Christian Oscar (1 September 1919-10 December 1981); married 1963 (divorced 1976) Mireille Dutry (10 January 1946-), and had issue.
* Prince Welf Henry (11 March 1923- 12 July 1997); married 1960 Princess Alexandra of Ysenburg and Büdingen (23 October 1937-), and had issue.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

*17 November 1887–1 November 1913: "His Royal Highness" Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Cumberland
*1 November 1913–30 January 1953: "His Royal Highness" The Duke of Brunswick

Ancestry

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boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
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1=1. Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick
2=2. Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
3=3. Princess Thyra of Denmark
4=4. George V of Hanover
5=5. Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
6=6. Christian IX of Denmark
7=7. Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
8=8. Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
9=9. Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
10=10. Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
11=11. Amelia of Württemberg
12=12. Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
13=13. Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
14=14. Prince William of Hesse
15=15. Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark
16=16. George III of the United Kingdom
17=17. Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
18=18. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
19=19. Princess Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt
20=20. Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
21=21. Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
22=22. Duke Louis of Württemberg
23=23. Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg
24=24. Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
25=25. Countess Friederike of Schlieben
26=26. Charles of Hesse
27=27. Princess Louise of Denmark and Norway
28=28. Prince Frederick of Hesse
29=29. Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen
30=30. Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway
31=31. Princess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

References

* [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/royalty/HGBraunschweig.htm Succession Laws in the House of Braunschweig] , by François R. Velde