Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse

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Ernst Louis I
Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
Reign 13 March 1892-1918
Born 25 November 1868
Darmstadt
Died 9 October 1937
Predecessor Louis IV
Successor Grand Duchy abolished
Consort Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princess Eleonore of Solms-Braunfels
Issue Princess Elisabeth
Stillborn son
Prince Georg Donatus
Prince Louis
Royal House House of Hesse-Darmstadt
Father Louis IV
Mother Princess Alice of the United Kingdom

Ernest Louis Charles Albert William (de: Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm), (25 November 1868-9 October 1937) was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until his abdication in 1918. His nickname was Ernie.

Ernest Louis was the fourth child and eldest son of Grand Duke Louis IV and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was an older brother to Alexandra of Hesse, consort of Nicholas II of Russia.

Ernest Louis's early life was shrouded with death. When he was five, his younger brother Friedrich died. The two boys had been playing a game in their mother's bedroom when the younger boy fell through an unlatched window onto the balcony twenty feet below. It was no great distance, and at first, Friedrich seemed only shaken. However, he suffered from hemophilia, and had begun bleeding on the brain. He lapsed into unconsciousness that afternoon and died. Ernest Louis was inconsolable. "When I die, you must die too, and all the others. Why can't we all die together? I don't want to die alone, like Frittie." He told his nurse. To his mother he said, "I dreamt that I was dead and was gone up to Heaven, and there I asked God to let me have Frittie again and he came to me and took my hand." The younger child's grave became a place of regular pilgrimage for the family, causing Ernest Louis to become obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.

In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria swept through Darmstadt. All of the children (except Princess Elisabeth, who was sent to stay with relatives) and their father fell ill. Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on November 15, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernest Louis, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. Ernest Louis was overcome with grief when his mother revealed May's death. In an effort to comfort her grieving son, Alice kissed him, and within a week, fell ill and soon died, on December 14. Her death was a burden that Ernest Louis bore for the rest of his life.

In 1892 Ernest Louis succeeded his father as Grand Duke.

In 1894, Ernest Louis married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ("Ducky") on 19 April 1894, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, but the marriage was not a happy one. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth, born in 1895, who died of typhoid fever at age eight, and a stillborn son, in 1900. The couple became estranged and Victoria Melita alleged that her husband was a homosexual: "No boy was safe, from the stable hands to the kitchen help. He slept quite openly with them all." The two were divorced December 21, 1901, on the grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy" by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse.

Ernest Louis remarried in 1905 to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Braunfels, with whom he had two sons:

Throughout his life, Ernest Louis was a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions. Ernest Louis served in the German military during World War I, and was forced to abdicate along with the other German ruling princes at the end of the war in 1918.

In October 1937, Ernest Louis died at Schloß Wolfsgarten, near Darmstadt in Hesse. Although he had not reigned in Hesse for nearly twenty years he received what amounted to a State funeral on November 16 1937. He was buried in the Rosenhohe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family.

Even after his death, however, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Louis was to marry Margaret Campbell Geddes in England. His older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke George Donatus, and the rest of the family planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. George Donatus, along with his wife, Cecilie, their two young sons, Louis and Alexander, his mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, the children's nurse and a family friend died in an accident when their plane crashed near Ostend on their way to his brother's marriage. Cecilie was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the stillborn infant was found among the remains. Their youngest child, Johanna, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Louis, who was to remain childless. The little girl survived her parents and brothers by eighteen months, dying in 1939 of meningitis.

[edit] Children


House of Hesse-Darmstadt
Born: 25 November 1868; Died: 9 October 1937
Preceded by:
Louis IV		 Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
1892-1918		 Succeeded by:
Grand Dukedom abolished
Titles in pretence
Preceded by:
None		 * NOT REIGNING *
Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
(1918-1937)		 Succeeded by:
Georg Donatus
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