ERNEST I. (ERNST ANTON KARL LUDWIG), duke of Saxe Coburg-Gotha (1784-1844), son of Francis, duke of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, was born on Jan. 2, 1784. At the time of his father's death (Dec. 9, 1806) the duchy of Coburg was occupied by Na poleon, and Ernest did not come into his inheritance till after the Peace of Tilsit (July 1807). He threw himself with vigour into the war of liberation against the French. Af ter the battle of Leipzig he was given the command of the V. army corps and reduced Mainz by blockade ; he also commanded the Saxon troops during the campaign of 1815. At the congress of Vienna he re ceived the principality of Lichtenberg which was slightly enlarged after the second peace of Paris. These territories he sold to Prus sia in 1834. In 1826, in the division of the territories of the duchy of Saxe-Gotha which followed the death of its last duke (Feb. 1825), he had received the duchy of Gotha, ceding that of Saal feld to the duke of Meiningen; and he now exchanged his style of Ernest III. of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld for that of Ernest I. of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. In 1821 he had given a constitution to Coburg, but he did not interfere with the traditional system of estates at Gotha. He died on January 29, 1844. Under Duke Ernest the house of Coburg gained its great international position. His younger brother Leopold (q.v.) became king of the Belgians; his brother Ferdinand (b. 1785) married the wealthy princess An toinette von Kohary (1816) and was the father of the duchess of Nemours and of the future King Ferdinand of Portugal. Of his sisters, Antoinette (1779-1824) married Duke Alexander of Wurttemberg; Juliane [Alexandra Feodorovna] (1781-186o) married the Russian tsarevitch Constantine, from whom she was, however, divorced in 1820; and Victoria wife of Edward Augustus, duke of Kent, became the mother of Queen Victoria of England. Duke Ernest was twice married: (1) in 1817 to Louise, daughter of Duke Augustus of Saxe-Gotha, whom he finally divorced in 1826; (2) in 1 831 to Maria, daughter of Duke Alexander of Wurttemberg. Of his sons, by his first wife, Ernest succeeded him in the duchy, and Albert married Queen Victoria (see ALBERT, FRANCIS CHARLES, etc) .