| Ernest Augustus III | |
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| Duke of Brunswick | |
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| Reign | 1 November 1913 – 8 November 1918 |
| Predecessor | William VIII |
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| Pretence | 30 January 1923 – 30 January 1953 |
| Predecessor | Ernest Augustus II |
| Successor | Ernest Augustus IV |
| Spouse | Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia |
| Issue | |
| Ernest Augustus IV Prince George William Frederica, Queen of the Hellenes Prince Christian Oscar Prince Welf Henry |
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| Full name | |
| Ernest Augustus Christian George German: Ernst August Christian Georg |
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| House | House of Hanover |
| Father | Ernest Augustus II |
| Mother | Princess Thyra of Denmark |
Ernest Augustus III (Ernest Augustus Christian George; German: Ernst August Christian Georg; 17 November 1887 – 30 January 1953), reigning Duke of Brunswick (2 November 1913 – 8 November 1918), was a grandson of George V of Hanover, whom the Prussians deposed in 1866. The last reigning monarch of the House of Hanover, Ernest Augustus was a direct descendant of Henry the Lion.
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Ernest's great-grandfather, Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom, became king of Hanover in 1837 because Salic Law barred Queen Victoria from reigning in Germany.
His Royal Highness Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, styled "Prince Ernest of Cumberland," was born at Penzing near Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and his wife, the former Princess Thyra of Denmark.[1] His father succeeded as pretender to the Hanoverian throne and as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in the peerage of Great Britain in 1878. The younger Prince Ernst August became heir apparent to the dukedom of Cumberland and to the Hanoverian claim upon the deaths of his two elder brothers, George and Christian.
In 1884, the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a distant cousin, died and the Duke of Cumberland claimed to succeed to that territory. However, the Imperial Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, managed to get the Federal Council (Bundesrat) of the German Empire to exclude the duke from the succession. Bismarck did this because the duke had never formally renounced his claims to the kingdom of Hanover, which had been annexed to Prussia in 1866 following the end of the Austro-Prussian War (Hanover had sided with losing Austria). Instead, Prince Albrecht of Prussia became the regent of Brunswick. After Prince Albrecht's death in 1906, the duke offered that he and his elder son, Prince George, would renounce their claims to the Duchy in order to allow Ernst, his only other surviving son, to take possession of the Duchy, but this option was rejected by the Bundesrat and the regency continued, this time under Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had previously acted as regent for his nephew in Mecklenburg.
When Ernest's older brother, Prince George, died in an automobile accident on 20 May 1912, the German Emperor sent a message of condolence to the Duke of Cumberland. In response to this friendly gesture, the Duke sent his only surviving son, Ernst, to Berlin to thank the Emperor for his message. Ernst and the German Emperor were third cousins in descent from George III of the United Kingdom. In Berlin, Ernst met and fell in love with the Emperor William II's only daughter, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia.
On 24 May 1913, Ernest and Victoria Louise, third cousins once removed, were married to each other. This marriage ended the decades-long rift between the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover. The wedding of Prince Ernest Augustus and Princess Victoria Louise was also the last great gathering of European sovereigns (many of whom were descended both from Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark) before the outbreak of The Great War. In addition to the German Emperor and Empress and the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, George V and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom and Tsar Nicholas II attended. Upon the announcement of his betrothal to Princess Victoria Louise in February 1913, Prince Ernest Augustus took an oath of loyalty to the German Emperor and accepted a commission as a cavalry captain and company commander in the Zieten–Hussars, a Prussian Army regiment in which his grandfather (George V) and great-grandfather (Ernst August I) had been colonels. George V of the United Kingdom gave his consent to the marriage on 17 March 1913 as required under the Royal Marriages Act.[2]
On 27 October 1913, the Duke of Cumberland formally renounced his claims to the duchy of Brunswick in favor of his surviving son. The following day, the Federal Council voted to allow Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland to become the reigning Duke of Brunswick. The new Duke of Brunswick, who received a promotion to colonel in the Zieten–Hussars, formally took possession of his duchy on 1 November.
During World War I, the duke rose to the rank of major-general. On 8 November 1918, he was forced to abdicate his throne along with the other German kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes. The next year, his father's British dukedom was suspended under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 as a result of the Duke's service in the German army during the war, and Ernest Augustus' title as Prince of the United Kingdom was suspended under the same Act. Thus when his father died, in 1923, Ernest Augustus did not succeed to his father's title of Duke of Cumberland. For the next thirty years Ernest Augustus would remain as head of the House of Hanover, living in retirement on his various estates. He lived to see one of his children come to a European throne – in 1947 his daughter Frederica, became Queen of the Hellenes when her husband Prince Paul of Greece and Denmark succeeded his brother as King. The Duke of Brunswick is the maternal grandparent of Queen Sophie of Spain and the former King Constantine II of the Hellenes.
He died at Marienburg Castle near Hanover in 1953.
The Duke and Duchess of Brunswick had five children[3]:
| Patrilineal descent |
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Patrilineal descent, descent from father to son, is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that the historically accurate royal house of monarchs of the House of Hanover was the House of Lucca (or Este, or Welf). Descent before Oberto I is from [1] and may be inaccurate. This is the descent of the primary male heir. For the complete expanded family tree, see List of members of the House of Hanover.
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Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick
Cadet branch of the House of Welf
Born: 17 November 1887 Died: 30 January 1953 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg as Imperial regent |
Duke of Brunswick 2 November 1913 – 8 November 1918 |
Vacant |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Loss of title |
— TITULAR — Duke of Brunswick 8 November 1918 – 30 January 1953 Reason for succession failure: Duchy abolished in 1918 |
Succeeded by Ernest Augustus IV |
| Preceded by Ernest Augustus II |
— TITULAR — King of Hanover 30 January 1923 – 30 January 1953 Reason for succession failure: Hanover annexed by Prussia in 1866 |
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| — TITULAR — Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale 14 November 1923 – 30 January 1953 Reason for succession failure: Titles Deprivation Act 1917 |
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