John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg

Who was John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg?

John Ernest was a Duke of Saxe-Coburg.

John Ernest was born in Coburg as the third son of John, Elector of Saxony, and his second wife Margaret of Anhalt-Köthen. After the death of his father, his half-brother, John Frederick I, assumed the title of Elector of Saxony; John Ernest took part with him in the rule over the Electorate of Saxony.

In 1542 John Frederick I decided to rule alone, and ceded to John Ernest the Franconian areas of the Wettin family lands; but it was not until 1547 when John Ernest could govern undisturbed in Coburg. After he died unmarried and childless in Coburg, the city fell for a few months to John Frederick — dismissed from the imperial detention — before his death, and then, to his three sons, which governed the Ernestine lands together from 1554 for some years.