Ernst August I - A Tory on Hanover's throne

Ernst August I was born in London on June 5, 1771. With Victoria's accession to the throne, Hanover falls to the scandal-ridden British king's son. His reign began with a scandal in 1837.

A popular meeting place in Hanover is "under the tail" - meaning the horse's tail of the mighty Ernst August monument in front of the main station. "The father of the country - his faithful people" is emblazoned on the equestrian statue. In just 14 years of reign, Ernst August I left formative traces in his residential city. But although the king caused a stir throughout Germany with his dispute with the "Göttinger Sieben" immediately after ascending the throne, the memory of him in this country is rather pale. He is better known - albeit less popular - on the British Isles.

Born in London to King George III

When he was born, nobody suspected that the Guelph prince would one day play a role in the succession to the throne:Ernst August was born on June 5, 1771 as the eighth child of the British royal couple in Buckingham Palace. He has four big brothers alone. All in all, his mother - Sophie Charlotte from the Mecklenburg-Strelitz family - gives birth to 15 children. Ernst August's father George III. reigns as King of Great Britain and Ireland and as Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in personal union. In northern Germany, however, he never lets himself be seen, but is represented by the governor.

As a British prince at the University of Göttingen

Ernst August was taught by private tutors before his parents sent him and two younger brothers to study in Göttingen at the age of 15. The boys live in the house at Prinzenstraße 2. Ernst August is known as an eager, inquisitive student, but at the age of 20 he was drawn to the military. As a farewell he writes to the university that he would be one of the "most ungrateful people" if he ever should forget everything that he "owes to Göttingen &its professors" - not realizing that he will later mess with professors from Göttingen.

Military Career, Combat and War Injuries

But first Ernst August impressed as a good rider and - despite his short-sightedness - an accurate marksman. The Guelph Prince made a steep career with the Hanoverian light dragoons and soon became the commander of a cavalry brigade.

At 22 he goes into battle. The First Coalition War is raging in Western Europe, the French revolutionary army has invaded the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium). Ernst August served in Flanders under his elder brother Friedrich, Duke of York and Albany, the supreme commander of the British Electoral Hanoverian troops. He fights at the front. In August 1793 he suffered a saber wound - the scar will mark the left side of his face forever. At the famous Battle of Tourcoing in northern France on May 18, 1794, he was struck by a cannonball. The king's son is almost blind in one eye and is subsequently sent to Great Britain to recover.

Ernst August as honorary colonel of the hussars

When he returns to the continent, the British Electoral Hanoverian forces are in retreat. Ernst August would like to fight for the British troops, but at the behest of King George III he has to. stay in Hanover. After all, he was promoted to lieutenant general, later even to field marshal and honorary colonel of the 15th Hussar Regiment of the Royal German Legion (King's German Legion, KGL).

But despite his constant pleas for the king to take the field against Napoleon's armies, he will return to the continent as a military observer, but he will never fight again.

Elevation to Duke of Cumberland

Instead, Ernst August goes into politics. 1799 appoints George III. his offspring the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and the Earl of Armagh. These titles of nobility come with a handsome upkeep - and a seat in the House of Lords, the British upper house.

Ernst August leads the Tories in the upper house - and is ridiculed

The Guelph soon emerged as the spokesman for the right wing, the Tories. The king, who finds his older sons much too progressive, likes his ultra-conservative attitude. In public opinion, however, Ernst August made many enemies. He becomes the butt of caricatures and ridicule. The private life of the unmarried prince is also a source of malice and speculation. His opponents spread rumors that the unmarried prince was incestuous with his sister Sophie and had murdered his servant Sellis. The domestic worker died in 1810 under circumstances that are not entirely clear.

At the beginning of 1813, there were irregularities in the preparations for the general election - Ernst August was accused of exerting influence, and a political scandal shook the island. The government sends the duke to the continent as a war observer. Ernst August will meet his future wife there.

Late marriage to Friederike von Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The Duke of Cumberland was already over 40 when, in May 1813, he met his cousin and fell in love with his uncle Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, when he was visiting him. Shortly after the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, he traveled north a second time to see her again. Queen Charlotte of England does not like the choice of her son at all:37-year-old Friederike - younger sister of Prussian Queen Luise (1776-1810) - is already widowed and married to Friedrich Wilhelm von Solms-Braunfels for the second time. However, this marriage is not a happy one and Friederike's husband is apparently ready to separate.

Planning for a divorce is no longer necessary when the Prince of Solms-Braunfels suddenly dies the following spring. After the British Parliament gave its consent, Ernst August married his Mecklenburg cousin on May 29, 1815 in Neustrelitz. Friederike brought six children to her third marriage and soon gave Ernst August a son:Georg Friedrich Alexander Karl Ernst August (1819-1878), who later became Hanover's last king as Georg V.

Ernst August initially lives in England with his family, although Queen Charlotte is unforgiving and steadfastly refuses to receive her daughter-in-law. His big brother Georg even offers to give Ernst August the office of governor in Hanover if he only goes to Germany for the sake of family peace. Ernst August finally moves - to Berlin.

Uproar over the British throne

Meanwhile, events are happening on the island:Princess Charlotte died unexpectedly in 1817, until then the only legitimate granddaughter of the aged king and bearer of hope for the British throne. Ernst August's brothers are now hastily looking for brides. George III has dementia and is already represented in his offices by his eldest son.

Queen Charlotte died at the end of 1818, followed by King George III two years later. He was succeeded by his firstborn, George IV (1762-1830), on the British as well as on the Hanoverian throne, because Hanover has been a kingdom again since the Congress of Vienna in 1814. After George IV's death, Wilhelm IV (1765-1837), his very popular and popular brother, ruled.

Ernst August, who has moved up the line of succession, has meanwhile returned to England to finally get involved in politics again - much to the annoyance of all liberals. Rumours, suspicions and scandals about his person blossomed again. Among other things, it was circulated that he had an affair with Lady Graves, her husband killed himself in 1830. Ernst August later jokes that he was accused of all the evil deeds from the Ten Commandments. But it doesn't seem to bother him, he shows a thick skin.

1837 ends the personal union Great Britain - Hanover

Wilhelm IV dies on June 20, 1837. Since he also has no descendants, his niece Victoria follows him - the only child of the late Eduard August, fourth son of George III. - to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. However, Victoria (1819-1901) cannot become Queen of Hanover. Because the Salic law of succession applies there:It only allows a female heir to the throne if there are no longer any male heirs. Thus, at the age of 66, Victoria's uncle Ernst August I becomes King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The 123-year personal union between Great Britain and Hanover has come to an end.

Ernst August's accession to the throne causes an uproar

Ernst August I quickly moved to his seat of government, the Leineschloss. In Hanover, people are happy to finally be a residence city again. But hardly in office and dignity, the new monarch snubs his people:he repeals the relatively liberal constitution of 1833 and dissolves the state assembly. In November, he officially declares the constitutional law invalid and the civil servants' oath to the constitution has expired - a kind of royal coup d'etat. Instead, he reinstates the 1819 Constitution, requiring all officers to renew their oath of allegiance to the King.

Constitutions of the Kingdom of Hanover

1819 Hanover receives its first constitution as a constitutional monarchy from Prince Regent George IV.
1833 Wilhelm IV grants a new, more liberal basic law - drawn up by Professor Dahlmann from Göttingen, among others. With this constitution, among other things, the Hanoverian domains (quasi the crown property) were nationalized, which weakened the power of the monarch.
1840 Ernst August announces a new constitution that essentially corresponds to that of 1819.
1848 Ernst August has the constitution revised - after the change it corresponds again to the Basic Law of 1833. Parts of it are, however, withdrawn again in 1855.
1866 Hanover becomes a Prussian province and thus the Hanoverian constitution is effectively abolished.

Protest by the "Göttinger Sieben"

Seven professors from Göttingen - including the Brothers Grimm - refuse and make their protest public on November 18. The king fears student riots, he is deeply angry. He wrote to his brother-in-law that the professors would have liked to have been able to contact him personally:"But calling a meeting and publishing their opinion before the government received their protest - they did that and I can't allow that." He dismisses the professors known as the "Göttinger Sieben" without notice, expelling three of them from the country.

Political tactics in Vormärz

Ernst August's very reactionary style of government aroused outrage far beyond the Kingdom of Hanover and even sparked discussions in the British House of Commons.

At that time, the ideas of the French Revolution were fermenting across the continent, and more and more people from all walks of life were questioning the "divine right" of the monarchs. The call for unity and civil rights is growing among the German population. Ernst August strives to secure his power as king and strategically strengthen Hanover's position between Habsburg and Prussia. He supports a postal union and a common currency among the German states, but for a long time refused to join the German customs union because of concerns about the strong Prussian dominance.

Despite all his consciousness of power, he begins to show closeness to the people:he often travels with his secretary to different parts of the country and accepts petitions. He opens high ministerial offices to people of all classes and religions. Eventually he even invites the expelled professors to return.

In the later years of his reign, Ernst August I became quite popular. In particular, his concession in the course of the unrest of 1848 reconciled many.

Concessions during the March Revolution of 1848

Ernst August initially waited until citizen representatives asked him "12 demands of the people" during the March Revolution. On the streets of Hanover, the protest remains comparatively tame. But in Berlin, barricade fighting claims hundreds of victims. Before similar scenes take place in his kingdom, Hanover's king embarks on reforms. He appoints Johann C. B. Stüve, a liberal, as Minister of the Interior and gives the order to draft a new constitution. It comes into effect on September 5, 1848. Among other things, it grants freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the separation of administration and judiciary, and equal rights for all denominations.

Hannover's expansion into a worthy residential city

Over the years, the king pushed ahead with the expansion of Hanover, which did not have the lavish style of other German capitals when he ascended the throne. Gas lamps for the streets, the construction of a railway station and the representative redesign of an entire district between the station and the Leineschloss give the city a new face. At the urging of court architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves, Ernst August even had an opera house built in the late 1840s. In 1847 the Guelph mausoleum in the Berggarten in Herrenhausen, commissioned by the king after Friederike's death in 1841, was completed.

Last honor and a memorial for the father of the country

In the fall after his 80th birthday, when he was entertaining the King of Prussia, Ernst August fell seriously ill. His death on November 18, 1851 is much mourned in Hanover - less so in England, where the "Times" omits the black border on the front page that is otherwise usual with royal deaths and claims "the good that can be said about the deceased is little or nothing".

Within two days, 30,000 people paid their last respects to the king in the throne room of the Leineschloss. Ernst August I finds his resting place in the Guelph mausoleum.

Ten years later, his son Georg V. unveiled the monument to Ernst August in his hussar uniform on the forecourt of the main train station - a landmark of Hanover to this day.

Editor's note:An earlier version of the article stated that Ernst August's big brother Wilhelm had offered him the office of governor in Hanover. At that time, however, it was not Wilhelm who reigned, but Georg, the firstborn. We apologize for the error.