Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Ernest I
Portrait by George Dawe
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (as Ernest III)
Reign	9 December 1806 – 12 November 1826
Predecessor	Francis
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Ernest I)
Reign	12 November 1826 – 29 January 1844
Successor	Ernest II
Born	(1784-01-02)2 January 1784 Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Holy Roman Empire
Died	29 January 1844(1844-01-29) (aged 60) Gotha, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, German Confederation
Burial	Morizkirche, then Friedhof am Glockenberg
Spouse	Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Duchess Marie of Württemberg
Issue	Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Albert, Prince Consort
Names (German: Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig) (English: Ernest Anthony Charles Louis)
House	Wettin
Father	Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Mother	Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf
Religion	Lutheranism

Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (German: Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha; 2 January 1784 – 29 January 1844) was the last sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (as Ernest III) and, from 1826, the first sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Ernest I). He was the father of Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria and is thus a patrilineal ancestor and great-great-great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. Ernest fought against Napoleon Bonaparte and through construction projects and the establishment of a court theatre left a strong imprint on his residence town, Coburg.

Early life

Ernest was the eldest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. His youngest brother, Leopold Georg Christian Frederick, was later elected the first King of the Belgians.

On 10 May 1803, aged 19, Ernest was proclaimed an adult because his father had become gravely ill, 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 "Ernest III". However, he could not immediately take over the formal government of his lands, because the duchy was occupied by Napoleonic troops and was under French administration. The following year, after the Peace of Tilsit (1807), the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was reunited (having previously been dissolved) and restored to Ernest. This occurred through Russian pressure, since his sister Juliane was married to the brother of the Russian Tsar.

Marriages and children

In Gotha on 3 July 1817, Ernest married Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. They had two children:

1. Ernest II Augustus Charles John Leopold Alexander Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
2. Francis Augustus Charles Albert Emmanuel, better known as "Albert", the husband of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort of the United Kingdom.

The marriage was unhappy because husband and wife were alike promiscuous. As the biographer Lytton Strachey put it: "The ducal court was not noted for the strictness of its morals; the Duke was a man of gallantry, and the Duchess followed her husband's example. There were scandals: one of the Court Chamberlains, a charming and cultivated man of Jewish extraction, was talked of; at last there was a separation, followed by a divorce." Ernest and Louise were separated in 1824 and were officially divorced on 31 March 1826. As heirs to Coburg, the children remained with their father. Seven months after the divorce, in October 1826, Louise secretly married one of her lovers. She died in 1831.

In Coburg on 23 December 1832, Ernest married his niece Duchess Marie of Württemberg, the daughter of his sister Antoinette. They had no children. This marriage made Marie both Prince Albert's first cousin and his stepmother.

Ernest had three illegitimate children:

1. Berta Ernestine von Schauenstein (b. 26 January 1817 – d. Coburg, 15 August 1896), born to Sophie Fermepin de Marteaux. She married her first cousin Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe von Löwenfels, the illegitimate son of her father's sister, Juliane.
2. Ernst Albert Bruno von Bruneck, born to Margaretha Braun. He died young in 1838.
3. Robert Ferdinand von Bruneck, also born to Margaretha Braun. He was created Freiherr von Bruneck in 1856 and died the same year

Death and burial

Ernest died on 29 January 1844 and was initially buried in the Morizkirche but later reinterred in the newly built mausoleum on Friedhof am Glockenberg.

Estates

After 1813, Ernest was a Prussian general and participated in military actions against Napoleon. He fought in the battles of Lützen and Leipzig (1813) and drew in 1814 into the French fortress of Mainz. After the battle of Leipzig, he commanded the 5. Armeekorps.

After the defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna on 9 June 1815 gave him an area of 450 square kilometres with 25,000 inhabitants around the town of St. Wendel. In 1816, this estate received the name of Principality of Lichtenberg. Ernest sold it to Prussia in 1834.

In 1825, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who was the uncle of Ernest's first wife Louise, died without an heir. This resulted in a rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies. It was only as a member of the Ernestine dynasty (and not as Louise's husband) that Ernest had a claim on the late duke's estates. However, he was at that time in the process of divorcing Louise, and the other branches used this as a leverage to drive a better bargain for themselves by insisting that he should not inherit Gotha. They reached a compromise on 12 November 1826: Ernest did receive Gotha, but had to cede Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen. He subsequently became "Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha".

At Coburg, Ernest was responsible for various construction projects including the establishment of the Hoftheater in its new building. The Schlossplatz as it appears today is largely due to work under his rule.

Ancestors

Family of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

16. John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 8. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 17. Charlotte Johanna of Waldeck-Wildungen 4. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 18. Louis Frederick I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 9. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 19. Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 2. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 20. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg 10. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg 21. Christine of Hesse-Eschwege 5. Duchess Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg 11. Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen 1. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 24. Henry X, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf 12. Henry XXIX, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf 25. Countess Erdmuthe Benigna of Solms-Laubach 6. Henry XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf 26. Wolfgang Dietrich, Count of Castell-Castell 13. Countess Sophie Theodora of Castell-Remlingen 27. Countess Dorothea Renata of Zinzendorf 3. Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf 28. George Albert II, Count of Erbach-Fürstenau 14. George August, Count of Erbach-Schönberg 29. Countess Anna Dorothea Christine of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg 7. Countess Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg 30. Louis Christian, Count of Stolberg-Gedern 15. Countess Ferdinande Henriette of Stolberg-Gedern 31. Duchess Christine of Mecklenburg-Güstrow

References

• August Beck: Ernst I.: Herzog Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig von Sachsen-Koburg-Gotha. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 313–317.
• Carl-Christian Dressel: Die Entwicklung von Verfassung und Verwaltung in Sachsen-Coburg 1800–1826 im Vergleich. Duncker & Humblot Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-12003-1.
• Friedrich Knorr: Ernst I., Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0, pp. 620.
• Heide Schulz: Freue Dich, Coburg. Die Ode H. C. A. Eichstädts zum Royal Wedding 1840, in: Coburger Geschichtsblätter 20, 2012, p. 25–54, ISSN 0947-0336.