by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025
Ernst August, Elector of Hanover; Credit – Wikipedia
Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Prince of Calenberg, was born on November 20, 1629, at Herzberg Castle near Göttingen, Principality of Calenberg, now in the German state of Lower Saxony. He was the fifth of the five children and the fourth of the four sons of Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg and Prince of Calenberg, and Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt. Ernst August’s paternal grandparents were Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Dorothea of Denmark, daughter of King Christian III of Denmark. His maternal grandparents were Ludwig V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Magdalena of Brandenburg.
Ernst August had four elder siblings:
- Christian Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1622 – 1665), Prince of Calenberg from 1641 to 1648, and Prince of Lüneburg from 1648 to 1665, married Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, no children
- George Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1624 – 1705), Prince of Calenberg from 1648 to 1665, and Prince of Lüneburg from 1665 to 1705, married Éléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse, had one child, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of the future King George I of Great Britain
- Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1625 – 1679), Prince of Calenberg from 1665 to 1679, married Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate, had four daughters
- Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1628 – 1685), married Frederik III, King of Denmark and Norway, had eight children including Christian V, King of Denmark and Norway, Prince George of Denmark (husband of Queen Anne of Great Britain), and Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Queen of Sweden (wife of Karl XI, King of Sweden)
Sophia of the Palatinate in 1650; Credit – Wikipedia
Ernst August married Sophia of the Palatinate on September 30, 1658, in Heidelberg in the Electorate of the Palatinate, now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Sophia was the daughter of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, but Sophia’s more important dynastic line was through her mother. Her mother was Elizabeth Stuart, the second child and eldest daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his wife Anne of Denmark. The failure of the British House of Stuart to produce a Protestant heir to the throne caused the British throne to pass to the House of Hanover, with Ernst August’s eldest son, born George Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, becoming the first king of the English House of Hanover as King George I of Great Britain.
King James I (also James VI, King of Scots) → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of the Palatinate married Ernst August, Elector of Hanover → George Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, later King George I of Great Britain, founder of the House of Hanover
Ernst August and Sophie had seven children:
- King George I of Great Britain, born Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1660 – 1727), married and divorced Sophia Dorothea of Celle, had two children: King George II of Great Britain and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen of Prussia, who married Friedrich Wilhelm I, King in Prussia
- Friedrich August of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1661 – 1691), Imperial General, killed in battle, unmarried
- Maximilian Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1666 – 1726), Field Marshal in the Imperial Army, unmarried
- Sophia Charlotte, Queen in Prussia (1668 – 1705), married (second wife) King Friedrich I in Prussia, had two children
- Karl Philipp of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1669 – 1690), Colonel in the Imperial Army, unmarried
- Christian Heinrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1671 – 1703), unmarried
- Ernst August of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1674 – 1728), Duke of York and Albany, Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, unmarried
As the fourth son, Ernst August had little chance of succeeding his father as ruler. Therefore, the couple had to live in the Leineschloss at the Hanover court of Ernst August’s eldest brother, Christian Ludwig. As it turned out, Ernst August’s three elder brothers all predeceased him, and none of them had a son. In 1679, Ernst August inherited the Principality of Calenberg from his third brother, Johann Friedrich, and the family moved back to Hanover the following year. In 1692, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor appointed Ernst August the first Prince-Elector of Hanover. Prince-Electors were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor.
Ernst Ludwig’s son Georg Ludwig and his wife Sophia Dorothea; Credit – Wikipedia
Two years after Ernst August became Prince-Elector of Hanover, the reputation of the House of Hanover was marred by a scandal involving his eldest son, Georg Ludwig, the future King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. George fell in love with one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, Melusine von der Schulenburg. Sophia Dorothea fell in love with a Swedish Count, Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, an officer in the Hanoverian army. Despite warnings from her mother and friends, Sophia Dorothea and her lover wrote letters to each other, met secretly, and planned to escape Hanover together. On the morning of July 2, 1694, after a meeting with Sophia Dorothea, von Königsmarck disappeared from Leineschloss Castle and was never seen again. It was widely believed that George ordered von Königsmarck’s death. There is speculation that the letters were forgeries, and Sophia Dorothea’s guilt is still debated. The marriage of George and Sophia Dorothea was dissolved. George had his 27-year-old former wife imprisoned in the Castle of Ahlden until she died 32 years later. Sophia Dorothea was never allowed to see her children again.
Towards the end of his life, Ernst August had several strokes, causing speech and movement issues. On January 23, 1698, 68-year-old Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, suffered a final stroke and died at Herrenhausen Castle in Hanover in the Electorate of Hanover, now in the German state of Lower Saxony. Ernst August was buried in the Castle Church of Leine Castle (link in German). After World War II, his remains were transferred to the Guelph Mausoleum (link in German) in the Berggarten on the grounds of Herrenhausen Castle.
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Works Cited
- Autoren der Wikimedia-Projekte. (2004). Kurfürst von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Fürstbischof von Osnabrück. Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_August_(Hannover)
- Autoren der Wikimedia-Projekte. (2006). Kurfürstentum des Heiligen Römischen Reiches. Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurf%C3%BCrstentum_Braunschweig-L%C3%BCneburg
- Flantzer, Susan. (2015). Sophia Dorothea of Celle, Electoral Princess of Hanover | Unofficial Royalty. Unofficialroyalty.com. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/sophia-dorothea-of-celle-electoral-princess-of-hanover/
- Ernest Augustus. (2018). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus
