Ernst August, Prince of Hanover

Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (German: Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig Prinz von Hannover, in English also known as Ernest Augustus of Hanover) (born 26 February 1954 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany), is a German aristocrat, the head of a deposed royal dynasty. Ernst August is the third and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco.

Name and ancestry

As the senior male-line descendant of George V of Hanover (and hence also of George III of the United Kingdom) Ernst August is head of the House of Hanover (and the House of Welf). As such he is the pretender to the former thrones of the Kingdom of Hanover and of the Duchy of Brunswick. By tradition he is styled His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg[1]. None of these titles are valid under either German, British or Irish modern law, but the titles are used for courtesy at European courts and formally recognized by the state of Monaco. In Germany, royal and noble titles were abolished in 1918, legally being considered only as surnames.

The title of Prince of Great Britain and Ireland was awarded as an hereditary title to his father, Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover (1914–1987), by King George V of the United Kingdom in 1914, in light of the fact that his lineage represents the senior male line of a former royal house of the United Kingdom. His father was deprived of the title under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. However, since 1931 Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, as head of the House of Hanover, re-claimed formal (though not legal) use of the style as a title of pretence within his family.

As heir of the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Ernst August has the right to petition under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for the restoration of his ancestors' British peerages but has not done so. His father, also called Ernst August, did however successfully claim British nationality after World War II by virtue of long-dormant provisions of the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705.

The prince is also a great-grandson of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II. Until his marriage to Princess Caroline he was 385th in the line of succession to the British throne. Upon his marriage to Caroline, a Roman Catholic, he was excluded from the line of succession under provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701. His three children remain in the line of succession since they are being raised as Protestants.

Family

He first married, civilly on 28 August 1981 and religiously on 30 August 1981, Chantal Hochuli, heiress to a Swiss chocolate fortune. They had two sons:

• Prince Ernst August of Hanover (b. 19 July 1983)
• Prince Christian of Hanover (b. 1 June 1985)

Ernst August and Chantal Hochuli divorced on 23 October 1997.

He married secondly, civilly in Monaco on 23 January 1999 Princess Caroline of Monaco, who was pregnant at the time with their daughter:

• Princess Alexandra of Hanover (b. 20 July 1999)

Since he was born in the line of succession to the British crown he was bound by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Thus before his marriage to Princess Caroline he made a formal request for permission from Queen Elizabeth II, which request was granted by the Queen in Council. Without the Royal Assent, the marriage would have been void in Britain, and may have threatened Ernst August's right to petition for resumption of the dormant Dukedom of Cumberland. Similarly the Monégasque court officially notified France of Caroline's marriage to Prince Ernst August and received assurance that there was no objection, in compliance with the Franco-Monegasque Treaty.

Controversy

Ernst August has had moments of controversy. In 1998 he was fined £30,000 after breaking the nose of a television cameraman, and has had other scuffles with photographers and with a police officer. He was photographed urinating on the Turkish Pavilion at the Expo 2000 event in Hanover, causing a diplomatic incident and a complaint from the Turkish Embassy accusing him of insulting the Turkish people. He sued those who published (Bild-Zeitung) the photo for invasion of privacy. He was awarded 33,900 euros. [2] The paper had previously published a photo of the prince urinating outside a hospital in Austria. [3]

Recent events

On Monday, 3 April 2005, the prince was admitted to hospital with acute pancreatitis. The next day, he fell into a deep coma, one day before the death of his father-in-law, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. On Friday, 8 April 2005, hospital officials reported that the prince was no longer in a coma but remained in intensive care. A report the same day on BBC World described his condition as "serious but not irreversible." On 9 April 2005, according to a report on BBC, a hospital spokesman reported that the prince was receiving "permanent medical care."^{[citation needed]} He has since been released and is often seen in public with his wife.

As of September 2009, it is reported in the French and English press that he is living separately from his wife Caroline, who has returned to Monaco.^[1]

References

Ancestry

External links

• Princely House of Monaco
• Official site of the House of Welf (in German)