Ernest 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:

1. Ernest II Augustus Charles John Leopold Alexander Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. Coburg, 21 June 1818 - d. Reinhardsbrunn, 22 August 1893).
2. 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:

1. 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:

1. Ernst Albert Bruno von Bruneck (d. 1838).
2. Robert Ferdinand von Bruneck (d. 1856), created in 1856 Freiherr von Bruneck.

Ancestors

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