Ernst August of Hanover

Ernst August, Hereditary Prince of Hanover (German: Ernst August Prinz von Hannover Herzog zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg, Königlicher Prinz von Großbritannien und Irland; born 19 July 1983) is the eldest child of Ernst August, Prince of Hanover (head of the ancient House of Welf which once ruled the Kingdom of Hanover), and his former wife Chantal Hochuli.

Background

Ernst August and his younger brother Christian, were born in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, while their half-sister, Alexandra was born in Austria and lives with her mother in Monaco. Ernst August was baptized on 15 October 1983 at Marienburg Castle, his godparents including Felipe VI of Spain and Constantine II of Greece.

Ernst August is distantly in the line of succession to the British throne as a descendant of Queen Victoria. Despite the family's residing in Germany through both World Wars, his paternal grandfather obtained British citizenship for himself and his children in November 1956 under the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705, and their family owned property and conducted business in the post-war United Kingdom. Until his mid-teens, Ernst August and his brother lived at Hurlingham Lodge in London.

He also descends from Germany's last emperor, Wilhelm II, following whose abdication at the end of World War I the Hanovers also lost sovereignty over the Duchy of Brunswick, while retaining much of their continental personal property.

Career and asset management

Ernst August attended Malvern College and then studied history and national economy in New York City. After moving back to London he worked in the banking business for some years. Among other jobs, he worked with an open-end fund of the Islamic Investment Bank in Bahrain and with a London investment bank specialized on financing smaller mining and technology companies in newly industrialized countries.

After his marriage in 2017 he and his wife moved to Hanover.

Already in 2004, his father had signed over to him the German property of the House of Hanover, including gothic-revival Marienburg Castle, the agricultural estates of Calenberg Castle and the Fürstenhaus ("Princely House") at Herrenhausen Gardens in Hanover; the elaborate museum in this small palace, built by King George I of Great Britain in 1720, has been closed to the public since 2011. Since 2004, the prince has taken over many representative tasks on behalf of his father.

The father remained in charge of the Austrian family assets until 2013 when he was removed from the chairmanship of a family foundation based in Liechtenstein, the Duke of Cumberland Foundation, which holds the properties near Gmunden in Austria, the Hanovers' main residence in exile after 1866 when their Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia. Instead, the younger Ernst August was put in charge, reportedly for negligence on part of his father, at the initiative of the foundation's trustee Prince Michael of Liechtenstein. The foundation manages vast forests, "Cumberland Wildlife Park", the Queen's Villa, a hunting lodge and the mausoleum at Cumberland Castle. In 2017 Ernst August the Elder filed legal action to recover chairmanship.

In 2014, Ernst August lent a number of paintings and objects for a Lower Saxony state exhibition, When the Royals came from Hanover - The rulers of Hanover on England's throne, which included exhibits in five museums and castles under the auspices of Charles, Prince of Wales. Thirty of more than 1000 items were contributed by Elizabeth II, including the State Crown of George I, while Ernst August provided the king's famous Augsburg silver throne and other furniture dating to 1720. He hosted a parallel exhibition, The Way to the Crown, at Marienburg Castle until through 2016, displaying - among other items - the crown jewels of the Kingdom of Hanover.

In 2005 he sold large parts of the family's art and furniture collections in an auction at Sotheby’s, with a result of 44 million Euros. He had initially planned to allocate the funds in a foundation for the renovation and maintenance of Marienburg Castle, however was forced to use most of it to settle his father's debt, which, at the time, had been unknown to him, as he told a newspaper in 2019. In 2011 he sold the manor house and stables at Calenberg, retaining the land. Stating that its proceeds wouldn't suffice to maintain Marienburg Castle, infested with dry rot and threatened by static problems, he entered into negotiations with the State of Lower Saxony regarding the future of the castle, and its renovation, estimated at 27 million Euros. In November 2018 he announced that he planned to transfer the castle to a state-controlled foundation (the Hanoverian Monasteries' Chamber, founded by his family in 1569, which still owns most of the secularized monasteries and ecclesiastical estates of the former kingdom), at a symbolic sales price of 1 Euro, with the foundation undertaking renovation. The remaining art collection was planned to be kept in the castle, with parts purchased by the state, parts kept by the family and lent to the state, and parts transferred to a foundation controlled by both the family and the state. The transaction however was stopped by his father's legal action, seeking to regain ownership.

Marriage and issue

In the summer of 2016 Ernst August became engaged to Ekaterina Malysheva (b. 30 July 1986, Apatity, Russia), a Russian designer. Days before the wedding, the elder Ernst August publicly stated concerns about potential adverse impacts on family assets if the younger Ernst August were to marry his chosen fiancée. Although his father and grandfather had obtained orders-in-council as recently as 1999 from George VI and Elizabeth II, respectively, authorizing their marriages as male-line descendants of George III as required by the British Royal Marriages Act, that law was effectively repealed in 2015. Despite the dynastic tradition of obtaining the head of House Hanover's express, prior authorization for an heir's marriage in accordance with an 1836 Hanoverian house law (as Ernst August's father had done when marrying his sons' future mother in 1981), the bridegroom's father declared his intention to withhold consent for his son's marriage to Ekaterina Malysheva, reportedly in a dispute over family assets.

Nonetheless the civil marriage took place on 6 July 2017 in Hanover's New Town Hall and was conducted by the mayor of Hanover, Stefan Schostok. The church marriage took place on 8 July 2017 in the Hanover Market Church at which the former Landesbischof of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover, Horst Hirschler, presided. The bride was escorted by her father, Igor Malyshev. Her wedding dress was the work of Lebanese designer Sandra Mansour, and she wore a tiara that belonged to the former Kaiser Wilhelm II's only daughter, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia. Among the wedding guests were: Prince Christian of Hanover, Princess Alexandra of Hanover, Andrea Casiraghi, Tatiana Santo Domingo, Pierre Casiraghi, Beatrice Borromeo, Charlotte Casiraghi, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia and his wife Princess Sophie, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, Hereditary Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Alexander, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis. The father of the groom, Prince Ernst August, did not attend the wedding. From the church, the royal couple rode in a horse carriage to Herrenhausen Gardens for the wedding reception in the Gallery Building. In the evening, a ball took place at Marienburg Castle.

The couple have one daughter, Elisabeth, born on 22 February 2018, At Diakovere Henriettenstift in Hanover, and one son, Welf August, born on 14 March 2019 at Diakovere Henriettenstift in Hanover.

Titles, styles, and honours

Titles and styles

• 19 July 1983 – 9 December 1987: His Royal Highness Prince Ernst August of Hanover
• 9 December 1987 – present: His Royal Highness The Hereditary Prince of Hanover

In Germany, the legal privileges of royalty and nobility were abolished in 1919; thereafter for legal purposes, hereditary titles form part of the surname only. Nonetheless, while descendants of non-dynastic marriages may have a legal right to the use of "Prinz/Prinzessin von Hannover Herzog/Herzogin zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg Königlicher Prinz/Prinzessin von Großbritannien und Irland" as surnames, they are not recognized as bearing rank, styles titles or membership appertaining to the House of Hanover, according to its house rules. Nor is the title "Prince/ss of Great Britain and Ireland", re-claimed by the deposed House of Hanover in 1931, accorded by British sovereigns to members thereof born after 30 November 1917. In his British passport however, the prince bears the family name Guelph and is styled His Royal Highness.

Honours

• House of Hanover: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Ernst August

Ancestry