Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Encyclopedia
Ernest Louis Charles Albert William (de
: Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm), (25 November 1868 – 9 October 1937) was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918. His nickname was "Ernie".
and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom
and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was an older brother to Alexandra of Hesse, Empress Consort
of Nicholas II of Russia
.
Ernest Louis's early life was shrouded with death. When he was five, his younger brother Friedrich
, died. The two boys had been playing a game in their mother's bedroom when the younger boy fell through an unlatched window onto the balcony twenty feet below. It was not a great distance, and at first, Friedrich seemed only shaken. However, Friedrich was suffering from hemophilia, and had begun bleeding in the brain. He lapsed into unconsciousness that afternoon and died.
Ernest Louis was inconsolable. "When I die, you must die too, and all the others. Why can't we all die together? I don't want to die alone, like Frittie," he was telling his nurse. To his mother he said, "I dreamt that I was dead and was gone up to Heaven, and there I asked God to let me have Frittie again and he came to me and took my hand." The younger child's grave became a place of regular pilgrimage for the family, with Ernest Louis becoming obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.
In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria
swept through Darmstadt
. All the children (except Princess Elisabeth
who was sent to stay with their paternal grandmother Princess Elizabeth of Prussia
) and their father fell ill.
Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on 16 November, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernest Louis, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. When his mother revealed May's death, Ernest Louis was overcome with grief. In comforting her grieving son, Alice kissed him, and within a week, she fell ill and soon died, on December 14. Her death affected Ernest Louis for the rest of his life.
, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria. The marriage was not a happy one, due to his alleged homosexuality
. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth, born in 1895, who died of typhoid fever
at age eight, and a stillborn son, on 25 May 1900.
Queen Victoria was saddened when she heard of the trouble in the marriage from Sir George Buchanan, her chargé d'affairs, but refused to consider permitting her grandchildren to divorce because of their daughter, Elisabeth. Efforts to rekindle the marriage failed and, when Queen Victoria died in January 1901, significant opposition to the end of the marriage was removed. The couple became estranged and were divorced 21 December 1901 on grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy" by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse.
Ernest Louis remarried, in Darmstadt
, on 2 February 1905, to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (17 September 1871 – 16 November 1937), with whom he had two sons:
Throughout his life, Ernest Louis was a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony
, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions.
Ernest Louis commissioned the New Mausoleum in 1903. It was consecrated on 3 November 1910, in the presence of the Grand Duke and his immediate family, that is to say, his wife Eleonore, Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna (Ella), Victoria Princess Louis of Battenberg and her daughter, Louise, and Prince and Princess Heinrich of Prussia. The remains of Grand Duke Ludwig IV, Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine and their children 'Frittie' and 'May' were re-interred in the New Mausoleum.
Ernest Louis served in the German military during World War I
. At the end of the war, he lost his throne during the revolution of 1918
, despite his refusal to abdicate.
, near Darmstadt
in Hesse
. He received what amounted to a state funeral on 16 November 1937 and was buried next to his daughter, Elisabeth, in a new open air burial ground next to the New Mausoleum he had built in the Rosenhöhe park in Darmstadt
.
Even after the Grand Duke died, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Louis was to marry the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes, daughter of Lord Geddes, in England. Prince Louis' older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus, and the rest of the family, planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. Georg Donatus, his mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, his wife, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, their two young sons Louis
and Alexander
, the children's nurse and one family friend, as well as the plane's pilot and two crew members, all died when their plane crashed
near Ostend
. Georg Donatus' wife Cecilie was pregnant with their fourth child at the time of the crash; the stillborn infant was found among the remains, indicating that the mother had gone into labor.
Georg Donatus and Cecilie's youngest child, Johanna
, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Louis (who was to remain childless). The little girl died in 1939 of meningitis
, surviving her parents and brothers by eighteen months.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm), (25 November 1868 – 9 October 1937) was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918. His nickname was "Ernie".
Early life
Ernest Louis was the fourth child and eldest son of Grand Duke Louis IVLouis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
Louis IV , was the fourth Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, reigning from 13 June 1877 until his death...
and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
The Princess Alice was a member of the British royal family, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.Alice's education was devised by Albert's close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar...
, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was an older brother to Alexandra of Hesse, Empress Consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
.
Ernest Louis's early life was shrouded with death. When he was five, his younger brother Friedrich
Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine , , was the haemophiliac second son of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, thus he is a grandson of Queen Victoria...
, died. The two boys had been playing a game in their mother's bedroom when the younger boy fell through an unlatched window onto the balcony twenty feet below. It was not a great distance, and at first, Friedrich seemed only shaken. However, Friedrich was suffering from hemophilia, and had begun bleeding in the brain. He lapsed into unconsciousness that afternoon and died.
Ernest Louis was inconsolable. "When I die, you must die too, and all the others. Why can't we all die together? I don't want to die alone, like Frittie," he was telling his nurse. To his mother he said, "I dreamt that I was dead and was gone up to Heaven, and there I asked God to let me have Frittie again and he came to me and took my hand." The younger child's grave became a place of regular pilgrimage for the family, with Ernest Louis becoming obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.
In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
swept through Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
. All the children (except Princess Elisabeth
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia canonized as St. Elizabeth Romanova was a German princess of the House of Hesse, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine...
who was sent to stay with their paternal grandmother Princess Elizabeth of Prussia
Princess Elizabeth of Prussia
Princess Elizabeth of Prussia was the second daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg, granddaughter of Frederick William II of Prussia...
) and their father fell ill.
Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on 16 November, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernest Louis, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. When his mother revealed May's death, Ernest Louis was overcome with grief. In comforting her grieving son, Alice kissed him, and within a week, she fell ill and soon died, on December 14. Her death affected Ernest Louis for the rest of his life.
Marriage
On 19 April 1894, Ernest Louis married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ("Ducky"), in CoburgCoburg
Coburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...
, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria. The marriage was not a happy one, due to his alleged homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth, born in 1895, who died of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
at age eight, and a stillborn son, on 25 May 1900.
Queen Victoria was saddened when she heard of the trouble in the marriage from Sir George Buchanan, her chargé d'affairs, but refused to consider permitting her grandchildren to divorce because of their daughter, Elisabeth. Efforts to rekindle the marriage failed and, when Queen Victoria died in January 1901, significant opposition to the end of the marriage was removed. The couple became estranged and were divorced 21 December 1901 on grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy" by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse.
Ernest Louis remarried, in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, on 2 February 1905, to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (17 September 1871 – 16 November 1937), with whom he had two sons:
- Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by RhineGeorg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of HesseGeorg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse was the first child of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich....
(1906–1937), who married Princess Cecilie of GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, sister of Prince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
, and had issue. - Prince Louis of Hesse and by RhinePrince Louis of Hesse and by RhineLouis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine was the youngest son of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse by his second wife Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich....
(1908–1968), who married the Hon. Margaret Geddes daughter of Lord Geddes (Baron GeddesBaron GeddesBaron Geddes, of Rolvenden in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1942 for the prominent Conservative politician and former Ambassador to the United States, Sir Auckland Geddes. the title is held by his grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his...
); no issue. Louis adopted Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse as heir.
Grand Duke of Hesse
In 1892, Ernest Louis succeeded his father as Grand Duke.Throughout his life, Ernest Louis was a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony
Darmstadt Artists' Colony
The Darmstadt Artists’ Colony refers both to a group of artists as well as to the buildings in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt in which these artists lived and worked...
, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions.
Ernest Louis commissioned the New Mausoleum in 1903. It was consecrated on 3 November 1910, in the presence of the Grand Duke and his immediate family, that is to say, his wife Eleonore, Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna (Ella), Victoria Princess Louis of Battenberg and her daughter, Louise, and Prince and Princess Heinrich of Prussia. The remains of Grand Duke Ludwig IV, Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine and their children 'Frittie' and 'May' were re-interred in the New Mausoleum.
Ernest Louis served in the German military during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. At the end of the war, he lost his throne during the revolution of 1918
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
, despite his refusal to abdicate.
Death
In October 1937, Ernest Louis died at Schloß WolfsgartenSchloß Wolfsgarten
Schloß Wolfsgarten is a former hunting seat of the ruling family of Hesse-Darmstadt, located in the German state of Hessen, approximately 15 kilometers south of Frankfurt am Main. The hunting lodge was established between 1722 and 1724 by Landgrave Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt...
, near Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
. He received what amounted to a state funeral on 16 November 1937 and was buried next to his daughter, Elisabeth, in a new open air burial ground next to the New Mausoleum he had built in the Rosenhöhe park in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
.
Even after the Grand Duke died, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Louis was to marry the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes, daughter of Lord Geddes, in England. Prince Louis' older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus, and the rest of the family, planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. Georg Donatus, his mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, his wife, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, their two young sons Louis
Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine , , was the eldest son of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, an older sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.He was killed at age six in an airplane crash in 1937...
and Alexander
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1933-1937)
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine , , was the second son of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, an elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.He was killed at age four in an airplane crash in 1937...
, the children's nurse and one family friend, as well as the plane's pilot and two crew members, all died when their plane crashed
Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash
Sabena OO-AUB was a Junkers Ju 52 airliner owned by Belgian airline Sabena, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Cologne, Germany, to London, United Kingdom, which crashed near Ostend, Belgium on . The flight was scheduled to stop at Brussels, but bad weather forced the pilot...
near Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
. Georg Donatus' wife Cecilie was pregnant with their fourth child at the time of the crash; the stillborn infant was found among the remains, indicating that the mother had gone into labor.
Georg Donatus and Cecilie's youngest child, Johanna
Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine
Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine , , was the third child and only daughter of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark...
, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Louis (who was to remain childless). The little girl died in 1939 of meningitis
Meningitis
Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...
, surviving her parents and brothers by eighteen months.