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| Ernest Augustus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crown Prince of Hanover | |||||
 Ernest Augustus in 1900 | |||||
| Head of theHouse of Hanover | |||||
| Pretence | 12 June 1878 – 14 November 1923 | ||||
| Predecessor | George V | ||||
| Successor | Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick | ||||
| Born | (1845-09-21)21 September 1845 Hanover,Kingdom of Hanover | ||||
| Died | 14 November 1923(1923-11-14) (aged 78) Gmunden,First Austrian Republic | ||||
| Burial | Gmunden | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
| |||||
| House | Hanover | ||||
| Father | George V of Hanover | ||||
| Mother | Marie of Saxe-Altenburg | ||||
Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover (German:Ernst August; 21 September 1845 – 14 November 1923), was the eldest child and only son ofGeorge V of Hanover and his wife,Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. Ernest Augustus was deprived of the throne ofHanover upon its annexation byPrussia in 1866 and later theDuchy of Brunswick in 1884. He was alsodeprived of his British peerages (includingDuke of Cumberland and Teviotdale) and honours for having sided withGermany inWorld War I.
Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, was born atHanover during the reign of his paternal grandfather,Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover. He became thecrown prince of Hanover upon his father's accession as George V in November 1851.
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In 1866,William I of Prussia and his minister-presidentOtto von Bismarck deposed George V and annexed Hanover after George V sided with the defeatedAustria in the 1866Austro-Prussian War. During that war, the Crown Prince saw action at theBattle of Langensalza.
After the war, the exiled Hanoverian royal family took up residence inHietzing, nearVienna, but spent a good deal of time inParis. George V never abandoned his claim to the Hanoverian throne and maintained theGuelphic Legion at his own expense. The former Crown Prince travelled during this early period of exile, and ultimately accepted a commission in the Imperial and Royal Army of Austria-Hungary. TheGuelph Party, or the German-Hanoverian Party, as a minor party in the legislature of the North German Federation and then the German Empire continued to protest the annexation of Hanover and advocated for the restoration of the state of Hanover with a Guelph at its head.[1]
When King George V died in Paris on 12 June 1878, Prince Ernest Augustus succeeded him as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in thePeerage of Great Britain and Earl of Armagh in thePeerage of Ireland.Queen Victoria created him aKnight of the Garter on 20 July 1878. EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria appointed him to succeed his father as colonel and proprietor of the Austrian 42nd Regiment of Infantry. The regiment's name was changed to honour him, and he served as its honorary colonel from 1879 to the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1918.
While visiting his second cousinAlbert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) atSandringham in 1875, he metPrincess Thyra of Denmark (29 September 1853 – 26 February 1933), the youngest daughter ofKing Christian IX and a sister of thePrincess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra).
On 21/22 December 1878, he and Princess Thyra married atChristiansborg Palace inCopenhagen.
Queen Victoria appointed the Duke of Cumberland a colonel in theBritish Army in 1876[2] and promoted him to major general in 1886, lieutenant general in 1892 and general in 1898. Although he was a British peer and a prince of Great Britain and Ireland, he continued to consider himself an exiled monarch of a German realm and refused to disclaim his succession rights to Hanover, making his home inGmunden,Upper Austria.
The Duke of Cumberland was also first in the line of succession to the Duchy of Brunswick after his distant cousin,Duke William. In 1879, when it became apparent that the senior line of the House of Welf would die with William, the Brunswick parliament created a council of regency to take over administration of the duchy upon William's death. This council would appoint a regent if the Duke of Cumberland could not ascend the throne. When William died in 1884, the Duke of Cumberland proclaimed himself Duke of Brunswick. However, since he still claimed to be the legitimate King of Hanover as well, the GermanBundesrat declared that he would disturb the peace of the empire if he ascended the ducal throne. Under Prussian pressure, the council of regency ignored his claim and appointedPrince Albert of Prussia as regent.
Negotiations between Ernest Augustus and the German government continued for almost three decades, to no avail. During this time, Regent Albert died andDuke John Albert of Mecklenburg was appointed as regent.
The Duke of Cumberland was partially reconciled with theHohenzollern dynasty in 1913, when his surviving son, Prince Ernest Augustus, married the only daughter of KaiserWilhelm II, the grandson of the Prussian king who had deposed his father. On 24 October 1913, he renounced his succession rights to the Brunswick duchy (which had belonged to theGuelph dynasty since 1235) in favour of his son. The younger Ernest Augustus thus became the reigning Duke of Brunswick on 1 November 1913 and married the Kaiser's daughter. As a mark of regard for his daughter's father-in-law, Kaiser Wilhelm II created the elder Ernest Augustus aKnight of the Order of the Black Eagle.
In 1918, the younger Duke Ernest Augustus abdicated his throne along with the other German princes when all the German dynasties were disestablished by the successor German provisional Government which was established when the Emperor himself abdicated and fled Germany in exile to the Netherlands.
The outbreak ofWorld War I created a breach between theBritish royal family and its Hanoverian cousins. On 13 May 1915, KingGeorge V ordered the removal of the Duke of Cumberland from the Roll of the Order of the Garter. According to theletters patent on 30 November 1917, he lost the status of aBritish prince and the style ofHighness. Under the terms of theTitles Deprivation Act 1917, on 28 March 1919 his name was removed from the roll of Peers of Great Britain and of Ireland by Order of the King in Council for "bearing arms against Great Britain."
Prince Ernest Augustus, the former Crown Prince of Hanover and former Duke of Cumberland, died of astroke on his estate atGmunden in November 1923. He is interred, next to his wife and his mother, in a mausoleum which he had built adjacent toCumberland Castle.
Hanover:
United Kingdom:Knight of the Garter,20 July 1878[4]
Brunswick:
Oldenburg:Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown,14 April 1862[6]
Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of theSaxe-Ernestine House Order,October 1862[7]
Nassau:Knight of the Gold Lion of Nassau,September 1863[8]
Russia:Knight of St. Andrew,1864[9]
Mecklenburg:Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown, with Crown in Ore,29 October 1865[10]
Saxony:Knight of the Rue Crown,1866[11]
Austria:
Hesse-Kassel:Knight of the Golden Lion,1 November 1869[13]
Denmark:[14]
Hesse-Darmstadt: Grand Cross of theMerit Order of Philip the Magnanimous[9]
Bavaria:Knight of St. Hubert,1899[15]
Baden: Knight of theHouse Order of Fidelity,1900[16]
Spain:Knight of the Golden Fleece,9 July 1902[9]
Prussia:Knight of the Black Eagle,November 1913[9]In Germany:
1863 (ca.):Leutnant, Royal Hanoverian Garde-Husaren-Regiment9 December 1912 (ca.):Generalmajorà la Suite, Royal Bavarian Schweren Reiter-Regiment "Prinz Karl von Bayern" Nr. 1[17]In Austria:
1879:Oberstinhaber (Colonel and Proprietor), K.u.K. Infanterieregiment "Ernst August, Herzog von Cumberland und Herzog zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg" Nr. 421914 (ca.):Generalmajor, K.u.K. Armee[18]1914-1918 (ca.):General der Kavallerie, K.u.K. Armee[19]In the United Kingdom:
27 May 1876: Colonel, British Army[20]19 March 1886: Major General, British Army[21]1 April 1892: Lieutenant General, British Army[22]14 December 1898: General, British Army[22].svg)
Until his father's death in 1878, Ernest Augustus's arms in right of the United Kingdom were those of his father (being the arms of the Kingdom of Hanover differenced by a label gules bearing a horse courant argent). Upon his father's death, he inherited his arms.[23]
The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale had six children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland (Marie Louise Victoria Caroline Amalie Alexandra Augusta Friederike) | 11 October 1879 | 31 January 1948 | married in 1900Maximilian, Margrave of Baden (10 July 1867 – 6 November 1929); had issue |
| George William, Hereditary Prince of Hanover (Georg Wilhelm Christian Albert Edward Alexander Friedrich Waldemar Ernst Adolf) | 28 October 1880 | 20 May 1912 | died in an automobile accident, never married or had issue. |
| Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland (Alexandra Louise Marie Olga Elisabeth Therese Vera) | 29 September 1882 | 30 August 1963 | married in 1904Friedrich Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (9 April 1882 – 17 November 1945); had issue |
| Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland (Olga Adelaide Louise Mary Alexandrina Agnes) | 11 July 1884 | 21 September 1958 | never married or had issue |
| Prince Christian of Hanover and Cumberland (Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Peter Valdemar) | 4 July 1885 | 3 September 1901 | never married or had issue |
| Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick | 17 November 1887 | 30 January 1953 | married in 1913Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia (13 September 1892 – 11 December 1980); had issue |
| Ancestors of Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover |
|---|
Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover Cadet branch of theHouse of Welf Born: 21 September 1845 Died: 14 November 1923 | ||
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale 12 June 1878 – 28 March 1919 | Suspended |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Armagh 12 June 1878 – 28 March 1919 | Suspended |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Loss of title | — TITULAR — Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale 28 March 1919 – 14 November 1923 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — King of Hanover 12 June 1878 – 14 November 1923 Reason for succession failure: Hanover annexed by Prussia in 1866 | |
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 18 October 1884 – 1 November 1913 Reason for succession failure: Refused to give up claim to Hanover | |
Heads of theHanoverian royal family since1866 | ||
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See alsoHouse of Hanover Potential claimants of the Dukedom of Cumberland and Teviotdale since 1917 and the Duchy of Brunswick since 1918 1also aBritish prince;2alsoDuke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh;3alsoDuke of Brunswick until 1913;4alsoDuke of Brunswick until 1918 | ||
Generations are numbered by descent fromGeorge III, firstking of Hanover | ||
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