Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (b. Gotha, 12 June 1655 - d. Hildburghausen, 17 October 1715) was a duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

He was the ninth but sixth surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg and Elisabeth Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg.

When his father died in 1675, Ernst and his six brothers jointly assumed the government of the duchy; five years later, in 1680, and under the treaty of division of the family lands, he received the towns of Hildburghausen, Eisfeld, Heldburg, Königsberg. Ernst became thereby founder and first duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. After the death of his brothers Heinrich and Albrecht without male descendants, he took the towns of Sonnefeld and Behringen.

Ernst settled his official residence in Hildburghausen and began the building of his castle. In 1710 he approved the building in his lands of a new city of French Huguenot families, who were driven out after the Edict of Nantes from France.

As Master of Cavalry he fought in 1683 in the Battle of Vienna, and 1685 in the conquest of Gran and Neuhaeusel, after this he entered in Dutch services as a Colonel with the conquest of Kaiserwerth.

In the building of his new residence, Ernst acquired a serious indebtedness of the principality to his brothers, which could not be reduced even by ever larger taxations.

Ancestors

Issue

He was married in Arolsen on the 30 November 1680 to Sophie of Waldeck. They had five children:
# Ernst Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (b. Gotha, 21 August 1681 - d. Hildburghausen, 9 March 1724).
# Sophie Charlotte (b. Arolsen, 23 December 1682 - d. Eisfeld, 20 April 1684).
# Sophie Charlotte (b. Hildburghausen, 23 March 1685 - d. Hildburghausen, 4 June 1710).
# Karl Wilhelm (b. Arolsen, 25 July 1686 - d. Arolsen, 2 April 1687).
# Joseph Maria Frederick Wilhelm (b. Erbach, 5 October 1702 - d. Hildburghausen, 4 January 1787).