ERNST, elector of Saxony, the founder of the Erncstinian line, or the elder branch of the princely house of Saxony, was the elder son of the elector Friedrich the mild, and of Margaret, archduchess of Austria. When only 14 years of age, he was seized and carried off from the castle of Altenburg, along with his brother Albrecht, but was speedily recaptured. This incident, known in German history as the stealing of the princes (Prinzenraub), has been described with extraordinary vividness by Carlyle in the Westminster Review, Jan., 1855. He succeeded to the electoral dignity on the death of his father in 1464, but governed in common with his brother for 21 years. Iu 1485, however, E. and Albrecht divided the paternal possessions, when the former obtained as his share Thuringia, the half of the district then called Osterland, with Voigtland, the Franconian estates of the house, the electoral dignity, and the dukedom of Saxony. E. was a man who took a great interest in the welfare of his people. Against injustice,
tyranny, and lawlessness, he was implacable. He.died at Kolditz in 1486. It is next to impossible to trace the course of the Ernestinian line through the labyrinthine mazes of the endless German genealogies; it is sufficient to say that after 1638, the Ernestinian line was represented by the dukes of Weimar, who gradually obtained the whole pos sessions of the house. Johann, duke of Weimar, who died in 1605, left several sons, the eldest of whom, Wilhelm, became the founder of four different branches, all of which, however, were reunited under Ernst August, duke of Weimar, who died in 1748. After 1815, the duchy of Weimar became the grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, and its present ruler is of course the direct representative of the Ernestinian line. The other three families by which it is now also represented are those of Mei ningcn, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Altenburg.