by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: In 1675, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died. Initially, his seven sons collectively governed the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, as set out in their father’s will. In 1680, the seven brothers concluded a treaty of separation, with each brother getting a portion of the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha Altenburg and becoming a Duke. One of the seven new duchies was the Duchy of Saxe-Saalfeld and Johann Ernst, one of the seven sons of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg became the first Duke of Saxe-Saalfeld.  When two of his brothers died without male heirs, Johann Ernst took possession of Coburg (in 1699) and Römhild (in 1714). In 1699, Johann Ernst’s title changed to Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

In 1825, 145 years after the initial split, another line became extinct and there was another split between three surviving duchies. Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld became Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. For more information on the switch, see Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Index.

On November 9, 1918, after the German Empire lost World War I, the Workers’ and Soldiers Council of Gotha, deposed the last Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Charles Edward, a grandson of Queen Victoria.  Five days later, he signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne. The territory that encompassed the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is now in the German states of Bavaria and Thuringia.

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Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born on June 21, 1818, at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany. He was the elder of the two sons of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his first wife Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Ernst had one brother:

• Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861), married Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, had five daughters and four sons

Since Ernst and Albert were close in age, they were also close companions during their childhood. However, their childhood was marred by their parents’ disastrous marriage, separation, and divorce. Ernst’s mother and father were very different and drifted apart soon after Albert’s birth. Ernst’s father was a notorious womanizer and as a result, his young wife Louise (who was 17 years younger than her husband) sought consolation with Baron Alexander von Hanstein, who was the Duke’s equerry. Louise was exiled from court in 1824 and divorced in March of 1826. Seven months later, Louise secretly married von Hanstein. She died in 1831 at the age of 30 from cancer. After Louise’s exile from the court in 1824, it is probable that she never saw her sons again. In 1831, the Duke married again to Duchess Marie of Württemberg, his niece who was the daughter of his sister Antoinette. The Duke and Marie had no children, but Marie had a good relationship with her stepsons who were also her first cousins.

Ernst, along with his brother Albert, was first educated at home by a caring tutor, Johann Christoph Florschütz. Florschütz supervised the brothers over the next 15 years and was their primary caregiver. The brothers had lessons in German, Latin, English, French, history, science, philosophy, and geography. Their father often took lunch with his sons and occasionally took them hunting, but played only a minor role in their education. From June 1836 – April 1837, Ernst studied mathematics, philosophy, foreign languages, and public and constitutional doctrine with private tutors in Brussels, Belgium (where his paternal uncle was King Leopold I of the Belgians) and then studied at the University of Bonn, which many German princes attended. While at the University of Bonn, Ernst studied law and philosophy. In Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, Ernst received a military education with the Royal Saxon Guards Cavalry.

At the urging of his brother Albert, who had married Queen Victoria in 1840, Ernst began his search for a bride. Ernst was suffering from a venereal disease as a result of his many affairs and had been warned that continued promiscuity could leave him unable to father children.  However, he did not have an affair with Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland as depicted in the television series Victoria. The real Harriet was twelve years older than Ernst and her husband George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland did not die until 1861. Harriet and her husband had a successful, loving marriage and had eleven children.

On May 13, 1842, in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Ernst married Princess Alexandrine of Baden, the daughter of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess Sophie of Sweden.  Ernst had at least three illegitimate children, but his marriage was childless, perhaps due to Ernst passing the venereal disease to Alexandrine causing her to become infertile. Alexandrine was loyal and devoted to her husband despite his infidelities and believed that their lack of children was her fault.

On January 29, 1844, Ernst’s father died and he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernst had financial difficulties throughout his reign due to his extravagance. In 1852, the constitutions of Coburg and Gotha merged into one constitution, converting the personal union of the two duchies into a real union. Ernst was against his nephew Edward, Prince of Wales (Bertie) marrying Princess Alexandra of Denmark due to the Schleswig-Holstein Question, the relation of two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein to the Danish crown and to the German Confederation. He had a reputation for being a strong friend of the United States. However, Ernst was the only European sovereign to appoint an ambassador to the Confederate States of America. In 1862, after Otto of Bavaria, King of Greece was deposed, Ernst was considered as Otto’s replacement. Eventually, the Princess of Wales’ younger brother Prince William of Denmark would become King George I of Greece. Ernst was in favor of a German unified, federal state and supported Prussia in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars. In 1871, he was on the podium in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles when King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor.

Ernst was an excellent musician, an amateur composer, and a great patron of the arts and sciences in Coburg. He was the friend and patron of the German writer Gustav Freytag and the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss. From February to May 1862, Ernst took a trip to Africa with travel writer Friedrich Gerstäcker and the zoologist Alfred Brehm and described his experiences in a book. Ernst enriched the art collection at the Veste Coburg and at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha and the collection became part of the Ducal Museum in Gotha.

Although Queen Victoria loved Ernst because he was her dear Albert’s brother, he annoyed her. In 1891, when Victoria and Ernst met in France, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting wrote “…the old Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha has been here today with his wife. He is the Prince Consort’s only brother and an awful looking man, the Queen dislikes him particularly. He is always writing anonymous pamphlets against the Queen and Empress Frederick, which naturally creates a great deal of annoyance in the family…” Queen Marie of Romania, born Princess Marie of Edinburgh, said of her great uncle, he is “… an old beau, squeezed into a frock-coat too tight for his bulk and uncomfortably pinched in at the waist’, sporting a top hat, lemon coloured gloves, and a rosebud in his lapel.”

Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died after a short illness at the age of 75 at Schloss Reinhardsbrunn in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, now in Bavaria, Germany, on August 22, 1893. Thousands of people came to view the funeral procession. He was buried in the Ducal Mausoleum in the Glockenberg Cemetery in Coburg. Ernst was succeeded by his nephew Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

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Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Index
• Profiles: Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Rulers and Consorts
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Royal Dates
• Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Royal Burial Sites