John Ernest, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg

John Ernest, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Noble family House of Hanau
Father Albert of Hanau-Münzenberg
Mother Ehrengard of Isenburg-Büdingen
Born 13 June 1613(1613-06-13)
Schwarzenfels
Died 12 January 1642(1642-01-12) (aged 28)
Hanau

John Ernest of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels (13 June 1613 in Schwarzenfels – 12 January 1642 in Hanau), was the last Count of the Hanau-Münzenberg line. He succeeded his grand-nephew Philip Louis III in 1641. When John Ernest died in 1642, Hanau-Münzenberg fell to the Hanau-Lichtenberg line.

Contents

Youth

John Ernest was the son of Count Albert of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels and his wife, Countess Ehrengard of Isenburg-Büdingen.

John Ernest was educated at the convent school in Schlüchtern, which is now called the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Gymnasium, and the University of Basel. After completing his studies, he undertook a Grand Tour to France. He returned home in 1633. The Thirty Years' War forced him ans his familty to Worms and later the Strasbourg, where they faced great financial difficulties. After his father died there, he followed his mother to Frankfurt.

Unlike his father, he did not challenge his nephew's right to rule Hanau-Münzenberg alone and did not demand a role as co-regent. He got on well with the ruling count, his nephew Philip Maurice and his wife Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau. When Philip Maurice died in 1638, Sibylle Christine took up the regency for her minor son Philip Louis III.

Reign

Philip Louis III died on 21 November 1641 at the age of 9. With his death, the main Hanau-Münzenberg line died out in the male line, and the county feel to John Ernest, as the only male representative of the collateral line Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels.

Shortly after ascending the throne, he became engaged to Susanna Margarethe of Anhalt-Dessau. However, he died before they could marry. Susanna Margarethe later married John Philip of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Her sister, Sibylla Christina, married John Philip's elder brother, who was John Ernest's successor, Frederick Casimir. Both marriages remained childless.

Death

John Ernest died of smallpox on 12 January 1642, after reigning for only seven weeks. The attending physicians, including Peter de Spina III, had only recognized the disease very late and had treated him with laxatives and bloodletting when he was dying.

He was buried on 26 February 1642 in the family vault in the St. Mary's Church in Hanau, which had to be extended first, as it was full. The metal coffin in which he was buried, was stolen in 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars. His body and corpses from other stolen coffins, were reburied in a common grave.

John Ernest was succeeded by Frederick Casimir, who was also Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg, thereby reuniting Hanau in a single hand, after a 184-year split. As Frederick Casimir was still a minor, he stood under the regency of Baron George II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl.

Ancestors

References

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.
John Ernest, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
House of Hanau
Born: 13 June 1613 Died: 12 January 1642
Preceded by
Philip Louis III		 Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
1641-1642		 Succeeded by
Frederick Casimir