Ernest II (; 21 June 181822 August 1893) was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 29 January 1844 to his death in 1893. He was born in Coburg to Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. His father became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Ernest I) in 1826 through an exchange of territories.
In 1842, Ernest married Princess Alexandrine of Baden in what was to be a childless marriage. Two years later, he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha when his father died. Ernest supported the German Confederation in the Schleswig-Holstein Wars against Denmark, sending thousands of troops and becoming the commander of a German corps; he was instrumental in the 1849 victory at the battle of Eckernförde against Danish forces. After King Otto of Greece was deposed in 1862, the British government put Ernest's name forward as a possible successor. Negotiations concerning this failed for various reasons—not least of which was that he would not give up his beloved duchies in favor of the Greek throne.
A supporter of a unified Germany, Ernest watched the various political movements with great interest. While he initially was a great and outspoken proponent of German liberalism, he surprised many by switching sides and supporting the more conservative (and eventually victorious) Prussians during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars and subsequent unification of Germany. His support of the conservatives came at a price however, and he was no longer viewed as the possible leader of a political movement. According to historian Charlotte Zeepvat, Ernest became "increasingly lost in a whirl of private amusements which earned only contempt from outside".
Ernest and his only full sibling, his younger brother Prince Albert (consort to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom), were born 14 months apart and raised as though twins. They became closer upon the separation and divorce of their parents as well as the eventual death of their mother. Their relationship experienced phases of closeness as well as minor arguments as they grew older. After Albert's death in 1861, Ernest published anonymous pamphlets against various members of the British royal family. However, he accepted Albert's second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, as his heir-presumptive. Upon Ernest's death at Reinhardsbrunn, Alfred succeeded to the ducal throne.
Early life
Ernest was born at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg on 21 June 1818.Grey, p. 29 and Weintraub, p. 21. He was the elder son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and his first wife Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was soon joined by a brother, Prince Albert, who would later become the husband of Queen Victoria. Though Duke Ernest fathered numerous children in various affairs, the two boys would have no other legitimate siblings. In 1826, their father succeeded as Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through an exchange of territories after the death of the duke's uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
There are various accounts of Ernest's childhood. When he was fourteen months old, a servant commented that Ernest "runs around like a weasel. He is teething and as cross as a little badger from impatience and liveliness. He is not pretty now, except his beautiful black eyes."Grey, pp. 32-33. In May 1820, his mother described Ernest as "very big for his age, as well as intelligent. His big black eyes are full of spirit and vivacity."Grey, p. 35. Biographer Richard Hough writes that "even from their infancy, it was plainly evident that the elder son took after his father, in character and appearance, while Albert strongly resembled his mother in most respects."Hough, p. 9. Ernest and his brother often lived with their grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld until her death in 1831.
He and Albert were brought up and educated together as if they were twins.Weintraub, p. 30. Though Albert was fourteen months younger, he surpassed Ernest intellectually. According to their tutor, "they went hand-in-hand in all things, whether at work or at play. Engaging in the same pursuits, sharing the same joys and the same sorrows, they were bound to each other by no common feelings of mutual love".Grey, p. 44. Perhaps the aforementioned "sorrows" related to their parents' marriage; it was not happy, and Duke Ernest I was continually unfaithful.Weintraub, pp. 23-25. In 1824, Ernest I and Louise divorced; she subsequently left Coburg and was disallowed from seeing her sons again.Weintraub, p. 25-28. She soon remarried to Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Pölzig and Beiersdorf, dying in 1831 at the age of thirty.Feuchtwanger, pp. 29-31. The year after her death, their father married his niece Duchess Marie of Württemberg, who was his sister Antoinette's daughter. Their stepmother was thus also their first cousin. The duke and his new duchess were not close, and would produce no children; while the boys formed a happy relationship with their stepmother, Marie had little to no input in her stepsons' lives.Packard, p. 16 and Weintraub, pp. 40–41. The separation and divorce of their parents, as well as the later death of their mother, left the boys scarred and in close companionship with each other.Weintraub, pp. 25–28.
In 1836, Ernest and Albert visited their matrimonially eligible cousin Princess Victoria of Kent, spending a few weeks at Windsor Castle.Feuchtwanger, p. 37. Both boys, especially Albert, were considered by their family to be a potential husband for the young princess, and they were both taught to speak competent English.Weintraub, p. 49. Their father at first thought that Ernest would make a better husband to Victoria than Albert, possibly because his sporting interests would be better received by the British public.D'Auvergne, p. 164. However, most others favored Albert over Ernest as a possible husband. Temperamentally, Victoria was much more like Ernest, for both were lively and sociable with a love for dancing, gossip, and late nights; conversely, this fast pace made Albert physically ill. Victoria believed Ernest had a "most kind, honest, and intelligent expression in his countenance", while Albert "seemed full of goodness and sweetness, and very clever and intelligent." No offer of marriage was forthcoming for either brother however, and they returned home.
Ernest entered military training later that year. In April 1837, Ernest and Albert and their household moved to the University of Bonn.Feuchtwanger, pp. 35-36. Six weeks into their academic term, Victoria succeeded as Queen of the United Kingdom. As rumors of an impending marriage between her and Albert interfered with their studies, the two brothers left on 28 August 1837 at the close of the term to travel around Europe.Weintraub, p. 58-59. They returned to Bonn in early November to continue their studies. The brothers travelled to England again in 1839, at which time Victoria found her cousin Albert agreeable, and soon proposed.Feuchtwanger, pp. 38-39. This connection would have many implications for Ernest in the future; for example, he was selected as godfather for Albert's second daughter Princess Alice, and would eventually come to give her away at her wedding, only months after Albert's death.Packard, p. 104.
Thanks to his widespread royal connections, he travelled widely at this stage of his life. In 1840 and 1841 he went to Spain and Portugal; in Portugal another cousin, Ferdinand, was King Consort.
Marriage
Various candidates were put forward as a possible wife for Ernest. His father wanted him to look to a woman of high rank, such as a Russian grand duchess, for a wife.Feuchtwanger, p. 62; Gill, pp. 142-43. One possibility was Princess Clémentine of Orléans, a daughter of Louis Philippe I, whom he met while visiting the court at the Tuileries.Weintraub, p. 52. However, such a marriage would have required his conversion from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism, and consequently nothing came of it. She later married his cousin Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernest was also considered by Dowager Queen Maria Christina as a possible husband for her young daughter Isabella II of Spain,D'Auvergne, pp. 188-89. and by Queen Victoria for her cousin Princess Augusta of Cambridge.Gill, p. 143.
In Karlsruhe on 3 May 1842, Ernest married 21-year-old Princess Alexandrine of Baden.Zeepvat, p. 2 and Lundy. She was the eldest daughter of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, and Princess Sophie of Sweden, daughter of the deposed King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. Though he gave his consent, his father was disappointed that his first son did not do more to advance the concerns of Coburg. The marriage did not produce any issue, though Ernest apparently fathered at least three illegitimate children in later years.
One illegitimate daughter was Marie Helene von Sternheim (23 November 183931 December 1900), fathered when he was twenty-one years old, who firstly married Johann Wolfgang Eduard von Reuter (19 February 18266 August 1870). After his death in the Franco-German War, she married Augustus Erhard Kurt von der Trenck (29 April 183210 December 1882), aide-de-camp of Ernest's nephew and successor, Alfred. Through Helene, Ernest had two grandsons: Alexander von Reuter (22 June 186621 February 1935) and Ludwig von Reuter (9 February 186918 December 1943). Helene was described by Ernest's great-niece, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, in her memoirs:One illegitimate daughter of Uncle Ernest he more or less recognized. She was about Aunt Vicky's age and a friend of Aunt Vicky and Mama's, a handsome, dark-eyed woman like her father and very amusing. Her first husband, von Reuter, was killed in the Franco-German war and I remember a long visit she paid to my parents in her widowhood when she and her three little boys lived with us at Seeheim.The youngest of these boys was to be the German admiral von Rentes during the Great War.Ernest had suffered from a venereal disease in his late teens and early twenties, most likely as the consequence of living a wild, promiscuous lifestyle.Zeepvat, p. 1. He had come to behave in such a fashion by the tutelage of his father, who took his sons to "sample the pleasures" of Paris and Berlin, to Albert's "horror and shame". Ernest had been so visibly deteriorating in appearance as a result that Sarah Lyttelton, a lady-in-waiting of Queen Victoria, observed at Windsor Castle in 1839 that he was "very thin and hollow-cheeked and pale, and no likeness to his brother, nor much beauty. But he has fine dark eyes and black hair, and light figure, and a great look of spirit and eagerness". Later that year, Albert counselled his brother against finding a wife until his 'condition' was fully recovered. He further warned that continued promiscuity could leave Ernest incapable of fathering children. Some historians believe that while he himself was able to father other children, the disease rendered his young wife infertile. Ernest was married for 51 years and with his wife visited Queen Victoria in Paris in 1890.
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha On 29 January 1844, Ernest's father died in Gotha, one of the territories their family had recently acquired. Ernest consequently succeeded to the duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as Ernest II.
Development of a constitution Extravagant to a great degree, Ernest had many money troubles throughout his reign. In January 1848, Ernest visited his brother in the midst of political unrest in Germany. Upon his return, he also discovered unrest in Coburg. One of the many concerns related to finances. Although Ernest had a large inheritance, he also had frequent debts.Zeepvat, p. 2. There were increasing calls to nationalize most of his property. Indeed, Albert had to intervene at one point and spare his brother the embarrassment of losing one of his Coburg properties.