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Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (b. 1954)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick (German: Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig Prinz von Hannover, in English also known as Ernest Augustus of Hanover) (born 26 February 1954 in Hanover), is the head of the deposed royal House of Hanover and the pretender to the throne of the former Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick. He is usually styled His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg and enumerated as Ernest Augustus V. He is the eldest son of Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover (1914–1987) and his first wife, Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1925–1980). Ernst Augustus is the third and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco.
Name and ancestryAs the senior male-line descendant of George V of Hanover (and hence also of George III of the United Kingdom) Ernst August is head of the House of Hanover (and the House of Welf). As such he is the pretender to the former thrones of the Kingdom of Hanover and of the Duchy of Brunswick. By tradition, he is styled His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick.[1] None of these titles is valid under either German, British, or Irish modern law, but the titles are used for courtesy at European courts and formally recognized by the state of Monaco. In Germany, royal and noble titles were abolished in 1918, legally being considered only as surnames.[citation needed] His father was deprived of all British titles under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. However, since 1931, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, as head of the House of Hanover, re-claimed formal (although not legal) use of the style as a title of pretense within his family.[citation needed] As heir of the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh, Ernst August has the right to petition under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for the restoration of his ancestors' British peerages, but to date he has not done so. His father, also called Ernst August, did, however, successfully claim British nationality after World War II by virtue of long-dormant provisions of the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705.(Attorney-General -v- HRH Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover [1957] 1 All ER 49) The prince is also a great-grandson of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II. Until his marriage to Princess Caroline, he was 385th in the line of succession to the British throne. Upon his marriage to Caroline, a Roman Catholic, he was excluded from the line of succession under provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701. His three children remain in the line of succession since they are being raised as Protestants.[citation needed] FamilyHe first married, civilly on 28 August 1981 and religiously on 30 August 1981, Chantal Hochuli, heiress to a Swiss chocolate fortune. They had two sons:
Ernst August and Chantal Hochuli divorced on 23 October 1997. He married secondly, civilly in Monaco on 23 January 1999 Princess Caroline of Monaco, who was pregnant at the time with their daughter:
Since he was born in the line of succession to the British crown he was bound by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Thus before his marriage to Princess Caroline he made a formal request for permission from Queen Elizabeth II, which request was granted by the Queen in Council. Without the Royal Assent, the marriage would have been void in Britain and may have threatened Ernst August's right to petition for resumption of the dormant Dukedom of Cumberland. Similarly the Monégasque court officially notified France of Caroline's marriage to Prince Ernst August and received assurance that there was no objection, in compliance with the Franco-Monegasque Treaty. ControversyHe was photographed urinating on the Turkish Pavilion at the Expo 2000 event in Hanover, causing a diplomatic incident and a complaint from the Turkish Embassy accusing him of insulting the Turkish people. He sued those who published (Bild-Zeitung) the photo for invasion of privacy. He was awarded 33,900 euros. [2] The paper had previously published a photo of the prince urinating outside a hospital in Austria. [2] Recent eventsOn Monday, 3 April 2005, the prince was admitted to hospital with acute pancreatitis. The next day, he fell into a deep coma, two days before the death of his father-in-law, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. On Friday, 8 April 2005, hospital officials reported that the prince was no longer in a coma but remained in intensive care. A report the same day on BBC World described his condition as "serious but not irreversible." On 9 April 2005, according to a report on BBC, a hospital spokesman reported that the prince was receiving "permanent medical care."[citation needed] He has since been released and is often seen in public with his wife.[citation needed] As of September 2009, it is reported in the French and English press that he is living separately from his wife Caroline, who has returned to Monaco.[3] References
Ancestry
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