Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

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Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (b. Gotha, 30 January 1745 - d. Gotha, 20 April 1804), was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

He was the third but second surviving son of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen.

The death of his older brother Frederick in 1756 made him the heir to the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

The Duchess Luise Dorothea was intensively worried about the training of her surviving sons, Ernst and her youngest son August, and had them educated by a selected group of teachers.

During 1768-1769 both princes took an educational journey to the Netherlands, England and France, and Ernst met important people in Politics, Science and Arts.

In 1772 his father died, and Ernst inherited the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

In 1783 Ernst became a member of the Bavarian Illuminati under the name of Quintus Severus and/or Timoleon, and in 1784 he was created Supervisor of Abessinien (a name for Upper Saxony) and Coadjutor of the National Upper. He was interested as liberal and enlightened rulers versatile artistically and scientifically and developed a purposeful regime. He promoted the Educational System, the Economy, Theatre, Art collections and Libraries as well as the Natural Sciences in his duchy, which reached thereby in the top place of the Saxony Duchies in Thuringia. Privately, he was interested particularly in Astronomy and Physics. He appointed competent specialists in all these areas.

For his special interests he had the services of the important astronomer Franz Xaver of Zach for Gotha. With him, he established the Observatory of Gotha (Sternwarte Gotha), which developed into a European centre of Astronomy. His will stated that this Institut should represent the only visible indication of his existence.

It succeeded to it in such a way, Gotha at one despite the small size far considered city to make, which of many important representatives of the time at that time -among others- by Goethe one visited several times.

Since 1774 he was a Freemason in the Zinnendorfi system and member of the Gothaer Loge "To the Lozenge Ring" (Zum Rautenkranz); in 1775 was appointed Great Master of the large Landesloge of Germany (Zinnendorfi system). he promoted the plan since 1787 for the Federation of the German Freemasonry and granted Adam Weishaupt the Head of this after his escape from Ingolstadt asylum in Gotha. As a freemason he left wrapped into a white cloth on the park island without tomb itself.

In Meiningen on 21 March 1769, Ernst married Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen (cousin of his mother Luise Dorothea, but much younger). They had four sons: