Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Duchy of Brunswick: The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Congress of Vienna turned Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel into an independent country called the Duchy of Brunswick in 1815. Ernst August III, the last Duke of Brunswick was forced to abdicate on November 8, 1918, as the German Empire came to an end. Today the land that encompassed the Duchy of Brunswick is in the German state of  Lower Saxony. Since 1866, the senior heir of the House of Hanover has been the pretender to the throne of the Kingdom of Hanover.

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photo: By Dora Tarnke, Braunschweig – Original publication: Published as a print in Europe.Immediate source: Private Collection – Wartenberg Trust, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36382755

Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick

Ernst August of Hanover was the last reigning Duke of Brunswick and the pretender to the throne of Hanover. He was born Prince Ernst August Christian Georg on November 17, 1887, in Penzig, Austria, the youngest child of Ernst August II, Crown Prince of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark. He had five siblings:

Ernst August’s father was heir to the Duchy of Brunswick and should have succeeded as Duke following the death of the reigning Duke of Brunswick in 1884. However, in 1866, Hanover had been annexed by Prussia, and the Crown Prince refused to renounce his claim to the throne. The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismark, persuaded the Federal Council to decree that it would not be in the interests of Germany for the Crown Prince to gain the throne of Brunswick, and instead installed a Regent, Prince Albrecht of Prussia. The regency continued after Albrecht’s death in 1906, with Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin named as his successor.

The situation severely strained the relationship between the Hanovers and the German Emperor. However, this would change in 1912, when Ernst August’s eldest brother, Georg, was killed in a car crash. Wilhelm II, German Emperor, King of Prussia sent condolences to the Crown Prince, who in turn sent his youngest and only surviving son Ernst August, to Berlin to personally thank the Emperor. While there, Ernst August met, and quickly fell in love with, the Emperor’s only daughter, Princess Viktoria Luise.

Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia

Ernst August and Viktoria Luise became engaged on February 11, 1913. At that time, Ernst August took an oath of loyalty to the Emperor and was commissioned as a cavalry officer and company commander in the Zieten-Hussars, a Prussian Army regiment that had previously included his grandfather and great-grandfather as Colonels. With the Emperor’s blessing and the required consent from the British King George V, the couple was married in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, now in the German state of Hanover, on May 24, 1913. The wedding was one of the last large gatherings of European royalty before World War I began the following year, attended by 1,200 guests including numerous reigning monarchs. Ernst August and Viktoria Luise had five children:

Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick, c1916.  photo: By Gustav Rienäcker  Own work, Medvedev, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33646335

Just over five months after the wedding, Ernst August’s father renounced his claim to the Duchy of Brunswick, in favor of his son. The Federal Council voted to allow the younger Ernst August to become reigning Duke, which he did on November 1, 1913. His reign, however, would be rather short-lived. He was forced to abdicate on November 8, 1918, as the German Empire came to an end.

Following his father’s death in 1923, Ernst August became head of the House of Hanover. However, he was unable to inherit his father’s Dukedom of Cumberland, as that title had been suspended by the British government under the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917. Ernst August and his family were able to remain in Hanover, and lived his remaining years at his various properties, including Cumberland Castle (link in German) in Gmunden, Austria, Marienburg Castle in Hanover, and Blankenburg Castle in Harz.

Graves of Ernst August and Viktoria Luise, in front of the Mausoleum. photo: By Vivimeri – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16765011

Ernst August III of Hanover, the last Duke of Brunswick, died at Marienburg Castle in Hanover, Germany on January 30, 1953. He and his wife are buried in front of the Mausoleum (link in German) in Herrenhausen Gardens.

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