Ernst August of Hanover
|
|
His Royal Highness Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (in English also known as Ernest Augustus of Hanover; born 26 February 1954 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany) is the oldest son of Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover (1914–1987) and his first wife, Ortrud Prinzessin von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1925–1980). He is best known for his much-publicized bouts of temper, his conviction for grievous bodily harm, and for being the third and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco.
| Contents |
Name and ancestry
The Prince's given names are Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Berthold Friedrich Ferdinand Christian Ludwig. The family's historic surname is Welf, which is never used. In Germany, since the Weimar Constitution took effect on 14 August 1919, former titles have legally been regarded as surnames, so Ernst August's legal surname is Prinz von Hannover (German for "Prince of Hanover").
As the senior male descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, Ernst August is head of the House of Hanover, which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1901, and is enumerated as Ernest Augustus V. As such he is the Hanoverian heir to the thrones of Hanover and Brunswick-Lüneburg. Hence, he styles himself His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland. However, in Germany nobility has been abolished, although they are still socially in use. Moreover, his British styles are not recognized by the British Royal Family, although they do not prevent him from using them. As heir of the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Ernst August has the right to petition under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for the restoration of his ancestors' royal British titles but has not done so, even though his father Ernest Augustus successfully claimed British nationality after World War II by virtue of long-dormant provisions of the Sophia Naturalization Act.
The Prince is also a great-grandson of the last German emperor, William II.
Family
He first married, civilly on 28 August 1981 and religiously on 30 August 1981, Chantal Hochuli, heiress to a Swiss chocolate fortune. They had two children, Ernst August (b. 1983) and Christian (b. 1985), and divorced on 23 October 1997. In 2000, Tatler magazine named the prince's former wife one of the "hottest dates" of the year.
He married secondly, on 23 January 1999, HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco, eldest child of TSH Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Grace, Princess of Monaco and the widow of Stefano Casiraghi, a sportsman heir to an Italian oil fortune. In accordance with the Act of Settlement 1701, by marrying a Catholic, he was removed from the line of succession to the British throne, where he occupied approximately the 445th position, but he retains his hereditary claims to the throne of Hanover. His wife is now heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco.
Ernst August and Caroline have one daughter, Alexandra Charlotte Ulrike Maryam Virginia (b. 1999).
Recent events
The Prince of Hanover became notorious when, on January 10–11, 1998, he assaulted a reporter who was filming at the entrance to his residence with an umbrella. He agreed to a fine of 90,000 Deutsche Mark.
On January 14, 2000, while drunk, he injured another German citizen with brass knuckles at a resort in Kenya. In 2004, the Regional Court of Hanover (Landgericht Hannover) convicted him of grievous bodily harm because of this event. The Prince had to pay a fine of €445,000; the court advised him that he would likely be committed to an alcoholism clinic in the case of a repeat offense.
On Monday, April 3, 2005, the prince was admitted to hospital with acute pancreatitis. The next day, he fell into a deep coma, one day before the death of his father-in-law, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. On Friday, April 8, 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 present condition as "serious but not irreversible." On April 9, 2005, according to a report on BBC, a hospital spokesman reported that the prince was receiving "permanent medical care."
External links
- Official site of the House of Welf (in German) (http://www.welfen.de/each.htm)de:Ernst August Prinz von Hannover