ERNEST AUGUSTUS (1771-1851), king of Hanover and duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III., King of England, was born at Kew on June 5, 1771. He studied at Gottingen, entered the Hanoverian army, and served as a leader of cavalry when war broke out between Great Britain and France in When Hanover withdrew from the war in 1795 he returned to England, being made lieutenant-general in the British army in 1799. In the same year he was created duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and granted an allowance of a year. A stanch Tory, the duke objected to all proposals of reform, especially to the granting of any relief to the Roman Catholics, and had great influence with his brother the prince regent, afterwards King George IV., in addition to being often consulted by the Tory leaders. In 1810 he was severely injured by an assailant, probably his valet Sellis, who was found dead ; and subsequently two men were imprisoned for asserting that the duke had murdered his valet. Recovering from his wounds, Cumberland again proceeded to the seat of war; as a British field-marshal, he was in command of the Hanoverian army during the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, being present, although not in action, at the battle of Leipzig. In May 1815 Ernest married his cousin, Frederica (1778-1841), daughter of Charles II. duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and widow of Frederick, prince of Solms-Braunfels, a union which was very repugnant to his mother Queen Charlotte, and was disliked in England, where the duke's strong Toryism had made him unpop ular. The duke resented the refusal of parliament to increase his allowance from f 18,00o to £ 24,000 a year, and retired for some years to Berlin. On the accession of George IV., with whom he had considerable influence, he returned to England. When William IV. died in June 1837, the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover were separated; and Ernest, as the nearest male heir of the late king, became king of Hanover. He cancelled the constitution which William had given in 1833, and the constitution which he sanctioned in 1840 was characteristic of his own illiberal ideas. His reign was a stormy one, and serious trouble between king and people had arisen when he died at Herrenhausen on Nov. 18, 1851 (see HANOVER : History) . Ernest, who is generally regarded as the ablest of the sons of George III., left an only child, George, who succeeded him as king of Hanover.
See C. A. Wilkinson, Reminiscences of the Court and Times of King Ernest of Hanover (1886) ; von Malortie, Konig Ernst August (Han over, 1861) ; and the various histories of Great Britain and Hanover for the period.