(Redirected from Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)
'Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha'. Painting by John Lucas, 1838.
'Ernest Anton Charles Louis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld', later 'Ernest I, Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha' (German: ''Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha'') (b.
Coburg,
January 2,
1784 - d.
Gotha,
January 29,
1844) was a duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and from
1826, the first sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
He was the eldest son of
Francis Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and
Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf and Lobenstein.
On
10 May 1803 he was hurriedly proclaimed an adult, because his father became gravely ill in the spring of that year and he was required to take part in the government of the duchy. When his father died in
1806, he succeeded in the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld as 'Ernst III ', but could not take the formal government of his lands because the duchy was occupied by the Napoleonic troops and was under French administration. Only after the
Peace of Tilsit (
1807) was the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld reunited (first having been dissolved) and returned to Ernst. This occurred through Russian pressure, since his sister
Juliane was married to the brother of the Russian Tsar.
Ernst was a Prussian general and participated in fights against
Napoleon. He fought in the battles of
Auerstedt (
1806),
Lützen and
Leipzig (
1813) and drew in
1814 into the French fortress of Mainz. After the defeat of Napoleon in the
Battle of Waterloo, the
Congress of Vienna on
9 June 1815 gave him an area of 8.25 square miles with 25,000 inhabitants around the capital
St. Wendel. In
1819 this land received the name of Principality of
Lichtenberg. He sold it to
Prussia in
1834.
In Gotha on
July 3,
1817, Ernst married
Princess Luise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. They had two children:
#
Ernest II Augustus Charles John Leopold Alexander Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. Coburg,
21 June 1818 - d. Reinhardsbrunn,
22 August 1893).
#
Francis Augustus Charles Albert Emmanuel (b. Schloss Rosenau, Coburg,
26 August 1819 - d.
Windsor Castle,
14 December 1861),
Prince Consort of the United Kingdom.
His marriage was unhappy due to his own acts of infidelity. Ernst and Luise were separated in
1824 and were officially divorced on
31 March 1826.
The death in
1825 of the last duke of
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Luise's uncle, resulted in a rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies. Ernst at the time was in the process of divorcing Luise, and because of this the other branches objected to him receiving Gotha. They reached a compromise on
12 November 1826: Ernst received Gotha and ceded
Saalfeld to
Saxe-Meiningen. He subsequently became 'Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'.
Ernst married a second time with his niece
Marie of Württemberg (b. 17 September 1799, d. 24 September 1860), the daughter of his sister
Antoinette, in
Coburg on
December 23,
1832. They had no children. This marriage made Marie (Antoinette Friederike Auguste Marie Anna Herzogin von Württemberg) both Prince Albert's cousin and his stepmother.
He had three illegitimate children:
—With
Sophie Fermepin de Marteaux:
# ''Berta Ernestine von Schauenstein'' (b.
26 January 1817 - d. Coburg,
15 August 1896), married her cousin
Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe, the illegitimate son of his father's sister, Juliane.
—With
Margaretha Braun:
# ''Ernst Albert Bruno von Bruneck'' (d.
1838).
# ''Robert Ferdinand von Bruneck'' (d.
1856), created in
1856 ''Freiherr von Bruneck''.
Ancestors
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