Ernest Augustus I of Hanover

Ernest Augustus I, King of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick -Lüneburg, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale 1 and Earl of Armagh, KG, KP, GCB, GCH ( born June 5, 1771 in London, † November 18, 1851 in Hannover ) was from the House of Guelph since 1837 the reigning King of Hanover.

Life

Military career

Prince Ernst August was born in 1771 at Buckingham Palace. He was the fifth son and eighth child of King George III. of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen Sophie Charlotte. Ernst August was educated by private tutors and went in the summer of 1786 together with his brothers Prince Augustus Frederick and Prince Adolph Friedrich to study in Göttingen - under the supervision of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. In 1791 he entered and Prince Adolphus Frederick, in the Hanoverian army in order to get through the Field Marshal Wilhelm von Freytag military training. Ernst August was a cavalry tactics and training by the Captain of Linsingen of the Light Dragoons. He proved to be an excellent horseman and archer, although he was very short-sighted. After only two months of training, the Field Marshal von Freytag was impressed by the progress of his pupil so that he appointed him captain ( captain of cavalry).

In March 1792 Ernst August was granted the patent of a colonel of the 9th Hanoverian Light Dragoons and was appointed in December 1793 as chief of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and heavy appointed commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. During the first coalition war ( 1793-97 ), he was stationed in Flanders, and served under his elder brother Frederick, Duke of York, the commander of the combined British, Hanoverian and Austrian troops. In the Battle of Tourcoing (1794 ), he lost his left eye and returned to recovery back to England -. For the first time since 1786 The following year he came back and commanded during the retreat of the British army through Holland the rear. 1798 Ernst August was promoted to Lieutenant General and General 1803. On 29 March 1801, he was appointed Field Marshal. He served from 1801 to 1827 as Honorary Colonel of the 15th ( The King 's) ( slight ) Dragoons ( Hussars ) Regiment and was from 1827 to 1830, Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards.

Marriage

On August 29, 1799 appointed King George III. Prince Ernst August 1st Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh. On 29 May 1815, the Duke of Cumberland nunmehrige married his cousin Princess Neustrelitz Friederike, the daughter of Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg -Strelitz. She had become pregnant as a widow of Prince Ludwig of Prussia and was saved from a scandal only by marriage with the Prince Frederick William of Solms- Braunfels. This second marriage became unhappy and planning for a divorce were already underway when the Prince of Solms- Braunfels died suddenly of a stroke. Therefore, Queen Charlotte was against this compound, although their scandalous future daughter was her niece. The new Duchess of Cumberland had given birth to eight children in their previous marriages, one of which she brought in her third marriage six. From the marriage with Duke Ernst August a further three children were born, only one of which survived - a son, the future King George V of Hanover.

Ernst August in 1776 Knight of the Garter. The Prince Regent and later King George IV appointed him in 1815 to the Knights ( Grand Cross ) of the Bath, 1831, he was Knight of St. Patrick Order and in 1837, after his accession in Hanover, he was Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Guelphic Order. In 1839 he founded the Order of St. George as Hanover House Order.

Ernst August was the most controversial of the sons of George III. He was considered an arch-reactionary and opposed the Catholic Emancipation ( Catholic Emancipation Bill), which was in 1828 by the Prime Minister, the 1st Duke of Wellington, promoted.

King of Hanover

On June 20, died in 1837 William IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland. Because he - as previously his brother George IV - left no descendants entitled to inherit, followed him his niece Victoria, the only child of Prince Edward, the late Duke of Kent and the fourth son of George III, to the throne.. As the deviate from the British law of succession laws in Hanover ( there was that the Salic law, the following Welf inheritance practiced ) a male heir, the king of the Welf line of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel line preferring a female heiress, Victoria could not be Queen of Hanover. In their place therefore was her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, at the age of 66 years as Ernst August I. King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg. Thus, the 123 -year-old personal union between Great Britain and Hanover had ended.

King Ernst August proved unpopular ruler who in 1837 lifted the relatively liberal state constitution, which his predecessors had adopted in 1833 when he took office again. Against the abrogation of the Constitution in 1837 directed the acclaimed protest of the Göttingen Seven, which were then all dismissed as professors at the University of Göttingen.

Ernst August died on 18 November 1851 in Hannover. He was buried with great interest of the population in 1847 completed by the court architect Laves Welfenmausoleum in the mountain garden, as well as his Queen Friederike.

Freemasonry

He was taken in 1796 in England in Freemasonry. From 1828, he was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Hanover founded by him.

Monument

In 1861 the son of George V revealed the Ernst -August- monument as equestrian statue in the forecourt of the main railway station in Hanover, which is a popular meeting place - confirming appointments to " under the tail" ( the horse ).

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