Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Who was Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha?

Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was the last sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and, from 1826, the first sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

He was the eldest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. His younger brother, Leopold Georg Christian Frederick, was later elected the first King of the Belgians.

On 10 May 1803, he was hurriedly proclaimed an adult because his father had become gravely ill in the spring of that year, and he was required to take part in the government of the duchy. When his father died in 1806, he succeeded in the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld as "Ernest III". However, he could not take over the formal government of his lands, because the duchy was occupied by Napoleonic troops and was under French administration. Only after the Peace of Tilsit was the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld reunited and returned to Ernest. This occurred through Russian pressure, since his sister Juliane was married to the brother of the Russian Tsar.

Ernest was a Prussian general and participated in military actions against Napoleon. He fought in the battles of Auerstedt, Lützen and Leipzig and drew in 1814 into the French fortress of Mainz. After the defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna on 9 June 1815 gave him an area of 8.25 square miles with 25,000 inhabitants around the capital St. Wendel. In 1819 this land received the name of Principality of Lichtenberg. He sold it to Prussia in 1834.