Ernest Augustus (; 5 June 177118 November 1851) was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, he initially seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his older brothers had a legitimate son. When his brother William IV, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession. This ended the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714. He remained heir presumptive to the British throne until the birth of his great-niece Victoria, Princess Royal, in 1840.
Ernest was born in London but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces near Tournai against Revolutionary France, he received a disfiguring facial wound. He was created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale in 1799. Although his mother, Queen Charlotte, disapproved of his marriage in 1815 to her twice-widowed niece, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, it proved happy. The eldest son of George III, the Prince of Wales (later George IV), had one child, Charlotte, who was expected to become the British queen, but she died in 1817, giving Ernest some prospect of succeeding to the British and Hanoverian thrones. However, his elder brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819 shortly before the birth of Ernest's only child, George.
Ernest was an active member of the House of Lords, where he maintained an extremely conservative record. There were persistent allegations (reportedly spread by his political foes) that he had murdered his valet, had fathered a son by his sister Sophia, and intended to take the British throne by murdering Victoria. Following the death of William IV, Ernest became Hanover's first resident ruler since George I. He had a generally successful fourteen-year reign but excited controversy near its start when he voided the liberal constitution granted before his reign and dismissed the Göttingen Seven, including the Brothers Grimm, from their professorial positions for protesting. In 1848, the King put down an attempted revolution. Hanover joined the German customs union in 1850 despite Ernest's reluctance. Ernest died the next year and was succeeded by his son, George V.
Early life (1771–1799)
thumb|left|upright|Portrait of a young Ernest by [[Thomas Gainsborough, 1782]]
Ernest was born on 5 June 1771 at Buckingham House, London, the fifth son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was baptised on 1 July at St James's Palace. His sponsors were Duke Ernest of Mecklenburg (his maternal uncle), Moritz of Saxe-Gotha (his paternal great-uncle, for whom the Earl of Hertford stood proxy), and the Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Kassel (his father's cousin, for whom the Countess of Egremont stood proxy). After leaving the nursery, he lived with his two younger brothers, Prince Adolphus (later Duke of Cambridge) and Prince Augustus (later Duke of Sussex), and a tutor in a house on Kew Green, near his parents' residence at Kew Palace.
Though the King never left England in his life, he sent his younger sons to Germany in their adolescence. According to the historian John Van der Kiste, this was done to limit the influence Ernest's eldest brother George, Prince of Wales, who was leading an extravagant lifestyle, would have over his younger brothers. At the age of fifteen, Ernest and his two younger brothers were sent to the University of Göttingen, located in his father's Electorate of Hanover. Ernest proved a keen student and after being tutored privately for a year, while learning German, he attended lectures at the university. Though King George ordered that the princes' household be run along military lines and that they follow the university's rules, the merchants of the electorate proved willing to extend credit to the princes and all three fell into debt.
In 1790, Ernest asked his father for permission to train with the Prussian Army. Instead, in January 1791, he and Prince Adolphus were sent to Hanover to receive military training under the supervision of Field Marshal Wilhelm von Freytag. Before leaving Göttingen, Ernest penned a formal letter of thanks to the university and wrote to his father, "I should be one of the most ungrateful of men if ever I was forgetful of all I owe to Göttingen & its professors." Commissioned into the Hanoverian Army at the rank of lieutenant, equivalent to £ in . Though he was made a lieutenant general in both the British and Hanoverian armies, he remained in England and with a seat in the House of Lords entered into a political career. A High Tory, he soon became a leader of the Tories' right wing. King George had feared that Ernest, like some of his elder brothers, would display Whig tendencies. Reassured on that point, in 1801, the King had Ernest conduct the negotiations which led to the formation of the Addington government. In February 1802, King George granted his son the colonelcy of the 27th Light Dragoons, a post which offered the option of transfer to the colonelcy of the 15th Light Dragoons when a vacancy arose. A vacancy promptly occurred and the Duke became the colonel of the 15th Light Dragoons in March 1802. Although the post could have been a sinecure, Ernest involved himself in the affairs of the regiment and led it on manoeuvres.
In early 1803, the Duke of York appointed Ernest as commander of the Severn District, in charge of the forces in and around the Severn Estuary. When Britain declared war on France a year after the Treaty of Amiens was signed, Frederick appointed Ernest to the more important South-West District, comprising Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire. Though Ernest would have preferred command of the King's German Legion, composed mostly of expatriates from French-occupied Hanover, he accepted the post. The Duke of Cumberland increased the defences on the South Coast, especially around the town of Weymouth, where his father often spent time in the summer.
thumb|An 1823 miniature of Ernest based on an 1802 portrait by [[William Beechey]]
The Acts of Union 1800 had given Ireland representation in Parliament, but existing law prevented Irish Catholics from serving there because of their religion. Catholic emancipation was a major political issue of the first years of the 19th century. The Duke of Cumberland was a strong opponent of giving political rights to Catholics, believing that emancipation would be a violation of the King's Coronation Oath to uphold Anglicanism and spoke out in the House of Lords against emancipation. Protestant Irish organisations supported the Duke; he was elected Chancellor of the University of Dublin in 1805 and Grand Master of the Orange Lodges two years later.
The Duke repeatedly sought a post with Coalition forces fighting against France, but was sent to the Continent only as an observer. In 1807, he advocated sending British troops to prevent the French and their allies from capturing the Swedish-held city of Stralsund. The Grenville ministry refused to send any troops; shortly afterwards, the ministry fell and the new prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland agreed to send Ernest with 20,000 troops. However, they were sent too late, as a French-led army captured Stralsund from the Swedish before Ernest and his troops could reach the city. Ernest was promoted to general in the British Army in 1808, backdated to 1805. According to Bird, Ernest was the most unpopular man in England.
thumb|left|Political cartoon supporting the [[Reform Act 1832|Reform Act: William IV sits above the clouds, surrounded by Whig politicians; below, Britannia and the British Lion cause the Tories (Ernest second from left) to flee.]]
The Duke's influence at court was ended by the death of George IV in June 1830 and the succession of the Duke of Clarence as William IV. Wellington wrote that "the effect of the King's death will ... be to put an end to the Duke of Cumberland's political character and power in this country entirely". King William had no legitimate children (two daughters having died in infancy) and Ernest was now heir presumptive in Hanover, since the British heir presumptive, Princess Victoria, as a female could not inherit there. William realised that, so long as the Duke maintained a power base at Windsor, he could wield unwanted influence. The Duke was Gold Stick as head of the Household Cavalry; William made the Duke's post responsible to the Commander in Chief rather than to the King, and an insulted Ernest, outraged at the thought of having to report to an officer junior to himself, resigned.
King William again emerged triumphant when the new queen, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wished to quarter her horses in the stables customarily used by the consort, but which were then occupied by Ernest's horses. Ernest initially refused the King's order to remove the horses, but gave in when told that William's grooms would remove them if Ernest did not move them voluntarily. However, Ernest and William remained friendly throughout the latter's seven-year reign. Ernest's house at Kew was too small for his family; the King gave the Duke and Duchess lifetime residence in a nearby, larger house by the entrance to Kew Gardens. Ernest, who was against the extension of civil and religious liberties,
- 23 April 1799 – 20 June 1837: His Royal Highness The Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale
- 20 June 1837 – 18 November 1851: His Majesty The King of Hanover
Honours
- United Kingdom and Kingdom of Hanover:
- Knight of the Garter (KG) – nominated 2 June 1786
- Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) – 24 April 1828
- : Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen – 1839
- : Grand Cross of the House Order of Fidelity – 1829
- : Knight of the Elephant – 7 July 1838
- Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order – August 1839
- :
- Knight of the Black Eagle – 21 May 1815
- Grand Cross of the Red Eagle
- Electorate of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Golden Lion – 20 September 1818
- : Knight of St. Hubert – 1826
- : Grand Cross of the Military William Order – 3 July 1849
- : Knight of St. Andrew – September 1819
Issue
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Birth
!Death
!Notes
|-
|Princess Frederica of Cumberland
|27 January 1817
|27 January 1817
|stillborn
|-
|Stillborn daughter
|April 1818
|April 1818
| stillborn
|-
|George V of Hanover
|27 May 1819
|12 June 1878
|Married in 1843, Marie of Saxe-Altenburg and had issue.
|}