Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover

Ernst August, the Prince of Hanover (German: Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig Prinz von Hannover, in English also known as Ernest Augustus of Hanover) (born 26 February 1954 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany) is the eldest son of Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover (1914–1987) and his first wife, Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1925–1980).

He is usually styled His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover and sometimes as Ernest Augustus V.

He is the third and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco. He is the pretender to the throne of Hanover.

Name and ancestry

As the senior male-line descendant of George V of Hanover and hence also of George III of the United Kingdom, Ernst August is head of the House of Welf and is enumerated as Ernest Augustus V. As such he is the Hanoverian pretender to the royal throne of Hanover and the ducal throne of Brunswick. Hence, he, according to German tradition, styles himself His Royal Highness The Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland None of these titles are valid under either German, British or Irish modern law, but the titles are used for courtesy at European courts and formally recognized by the state of Monaco. In Germany royal and noble titles were abolished in 1918, legally being considered only as surnames.

As heir of the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Ernst August has the right to petition under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 for the restoration of his ancestors' British peerages but has not done so, even though his father, also called Ernst August, successfully claimed British nationality after World War II by virtue of long-dormant provisions of the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705.

The Prince is also a great-grandson of the last German emperor, William II. Until his marriage to Princess Caroline he was 385th in the line of succession to the British throne. Upon his marriage to Caroline, a Roman Catholic, he was excluded from the line of succession under provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701. His three children remain in the line of succession since they are being raised as Protestants.

Family

He first married, civilly on 28 August 1981 and religiously on 30 August 1981, Chantal Hochuli, heiress to a Swiss chocolate fortune. They had two children:

• Ernst August, Hereditary Prince of Hanover (b. 19 July, 1983)
• Prince Christian of Hanover (b. 1 June, 1985)

Ernst August and Chantal Hochuli divorced on 23 October 1997.

He married secondly, on 23 January 1999, Princess Caroline of Monaco, who was pregnant at the time with their daughter:

• Princess Alexandra of Hanover (b. 20 July, 1999)

Since he was born in the line of succession to the British crown he was bound by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Thus before his marriage to Princess Caroline he made a formal request to obtain permission from Queen Elizabeth II, which request was granted by the Queen in Council. Without the Royal Assent, the marriage would have been void in Britain, and may have threatened Ernst August's right to petition for resumption of the dormant Duchy of Cumberland. Similarly the Monégasque court officially notified France of Caroline's marriage to Prince Ernst August and received assurance that there was no objection, in compliance with the 1918 Franco-Monégasque Treaty.

Controversy

Ernst August has had moments of controversy. In 1998 he was fined £30,000 after breaking the nose of a television cameraman, and has had other scuffles with photographers and with a police officer. He was photographed urinating on the Turkish Pavilion at the Expo 2000 event in Hanover, causing a diplomatic incident and a complaint from the Turkish Embassy accusing him of insulting the Turkish people. He sued those who published (Bild-Zeitung) the photo for invasion of privacy. He was awarded 33,900 euros. The paper had previously published a photo of the prince urinating outside a hospital in Austria.

Recent events

On Monday, 3 April 2005, the prince was admitted to hospital with acute pancreatitis. The next day, he fell into a deep coma, one day before the death of his father-in-law, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. On Friday, 8 April 2005, hospital officials reported that the prince was no longer in a coma but remained in intensive care. A report the same day on BBC World described his present condition as "serious but not irreversible." On 9 April 2005, according to a report on BBC, a hospital spokesman reported that the prince was receiving "permanent medical care." He has since been released and is often seen in public with his wife.

Ancestry

External links

• Official site of the House of Welf (in German)