Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine

Ernst Ludwig Karl Albrecht Wilhelm, Großherzog von Hessen und bei Rhine or Ernest Louis Charles Albert William, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and By Rhine (25 November 1868-9 October 1937) was reigned Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1892 until his abdication in 1918.

Related Topics:
25 November - 1868 - 9 October - 1937 - Hesse-Darmstadt - 1892 - 1918

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Ernie was the fourth child and eldest son of Grand Duke Ludwig IV and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was an older brother to Alexandra of Hesse, Empress-consort of Nicholas II of Russia.

Related Topics:
Ludwig IV - Princess Alice of the United Kingdom - Victoria of the United Kingdom - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - Alexandra of Hesse - Empress-consort - Nicholas II of Russia

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Ernie's early life was shrouded with death. When he was five, his younger brother Friedrich died. The two boys had been playing a game in their mother's bedroom when the younger boy fell through an unlatched window onto the balcony twenty feet below. It was no great distance, and at first, Friedrich seemed only shaken. However, he suffered from hemophilia, and had begun bleeding on the brain. He lapsed into unconsciousness that afternoon and died. Ernie was inconsolable. "When I die, you must die too, and all the others. Why can't we all die together? I don't want to die alone, like Frittie." He told his nurse. To his mother he said, "I dreamt that I was dead and was gone up to Heaven, and there I asked God to let me have Frittie again and he came to me and took my hand." The younger child's grave became a place of regular pilgrimage for the family, causing Ernie become obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.

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In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria swept through Darmstadt. All of the children (except Princess Elisabeth, who was sent to stay with relatives) and their father fell ill. Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on November 15, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernie, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. Ernie was overcome with grief when his mother revealed May's death. In an effort to comfort her grieving son, Alice kissed him, and within a week, fell ill and soon died, on December 14. Her death was a burden that Ernie bore for the rest of his life.

Related Topics:
1878 - Princess Elisabeth

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Ernst Ludwig succeeded his father as Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine in 1892 and married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ("Ducky") on 19 April 1894, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, but the marriage was not a happy one. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth, born in 1895, who died of typhoid fever at age eight, and a stillborn son, in 1900.

Related Topics:
1892 - Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - 19 April - 1894 - Elisabeth - Typhoid fever

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Victoria Melita alleged that her husband was a homosexual; "No boy was safe," Ducky said, "from the stable hands to the kitchen help. He slept quite openly with them all." The two were divorced December 21, 1901, on the grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy") by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse.

Related Topics:
Homosexual - December 21 - 1901

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Ernst Ludwig remarried in 1905 to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Braunfels, with whom he had two sons:

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• Georg Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine (1906-1937), who married Princess Cecilie of Greece (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), and had issue.
• Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine (1908-1968). Married Margaret Campbell Geddes, no issue. He adopted HRH Prince Moritz of Hesse-Cassel as heir.

Throughout his life, Ernst Ludwig was as a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions. Ernst Ludwig served in the German military during World War I, and was forced to abdicate along with the other German ruling princes at the end of the war in 1918.

Related Topics:
World War I - Abdicate - 1918

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In October 1937, Ernst Ludwig died at Schloß Wolfsgarten, near Darmstadt in Hesse. Although he had not reigned in Hesse for nearly twenty years he received what amounted to a State funeral on November 16 1937. He was buried in the Rosenhohe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family. Even after his death, however, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Ludwig was to marry Margaret Campbell Geddes in England. His older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus, and the rest of the family planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. Georg Donatus, along with his wife, Cecilie, their two young sons, Ludwig and Alexander, his mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, the children's nurse and a family friend died in an accident when their plane crashed near Ostend on their way to his brother's marriage. An autopsy reveled Cecilie was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash. Their youngest child, Johanna, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Ludwig, who was to remain childless. The little girl survived her parents and brothers by eighteen months, dying in 1939 of meningitis.

Related Topics:
Schloß Wolfsgarten - Darmstadt - Hesse - Ostend - Meningitis

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