However, his elder brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819 shortly before the birth of Ernest's only child, George.

"[6] Commissioned into the Hanoverian Army at the rank of lieutenant,[1] Ernest learned cavalry drill and tactics under Captain Karl von Linsingen of the 9th (Queen's) Light Dragoons and proved to be an excellent horseman, as well as a good shot.

In a skirmish with the French army near the Wallonian town of Tournai in August 1793, he sustained a sabre wound to the head, which resulted in a disfiguring scar.

[12] He hoped his new rank would bring him a corps or brigade command, but none was forthcoming as Coalition troops retreated slowly through Holland towards Germany.

[19] Though he was made a lieutenant general in both the British and Hanoverian armies,[20] he remained in England and with a seat in the House of Lords entered into a political career.

When Britain declared war on France a year after the Treaty of Amiens was signed, Frederick appointed Ernest to the more important South-West District, comprising Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.

[25] Protestant Irish organisations supported the Duke; he was elected Chancellor of the University of Dublin in 1805[26] and Grand Master of the Orange Lodges two years later.

[35] Both Roger Fulford and John Van der Kiste, who wrote books about George III's children, ascribe part of the animus and fear towards the Duke to the fact that he did not conduct love affairs in public, as did his elder brothers.

It being considered improper for a peer to interfere in an election to the House of Commons, there was considerable controversy and the government sent Ernest to Europe as an observer to accompany Hanoverian troops, which were again engaged in war against France.

[40] Queen Charlotte opposed the marriage: before Frederica had married Frederick William, she had jilted Ernest's younger brother, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, after the engagement was announced.

[49] Most of the unmarried royal dukes hurriedly sought out suitable brides and hastened to the altar, hoping to secure the succession for another generation.

The Duke occasionally visited England, where he stayed with his eldest brother, who in 1820 succeeded to the British and Hanoverian thrones as George IV.

The Liverpool government argued that the Duke needed an increased allowance to pay for Prince George's education; even so, it was opposed by many Whigs.

Disregarding a request from Wellington that he remain abroad, Ernest returned to London and was one of the leading opponents to the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, influencing George IV against the bill.

[61] In early 1830, a number of newspapers printed articles hinting that Ernest was having an affair with Lady Graves, a mother of fifteen, now past fifty.

[63] Ernest's biographer Anthony Bird states that while there is no proof, he has no doubt that the rumours against the Duke were spread by the Whigs for political ends.

[64] Another biographer, Geoffrey Willis, pointed out that no scandal had attached itself to the Duke during the period of over a decade when he resided in Germany; it was only when he announced his intention to return to Britain that "a campaign of unparalleled viciousness" began against him.

The same year, the Duke sued for libel after a book appeared accusing him of having his valet Neale kill Sellis and the jury found against the author.

"[73] Grant, in his observations of the leading members of the House of Lords, indicated that the Duke was not noted for his oratory (he delivered no speech longer than five minutes) and had a voice that was difficult to understand, though "his manner is most mild and conciliatory".

[77] On 20 June 1837, William IV died; Victoria succeeded him as Queen of the United Kingdom, while Ernest Augustus became King of Hanover.

[80] One provision of the constitution transferred the Hanoverian Domains (the equivalent of the British Crown Estate) from the sovereign to the state, eroding the monarch's power.

[84] Ernest wrote of the incident to his brother-in-law, Frederick William III of Prussia, "If each of these seven gentlemen had addressed a letter to me expressing his opinion, I would have had no cause to take exception to their conduct.

[88] At the time the King took the throne, the city of Hanover was a densely packed residential town and did not rise to the grand style of many German capitals.

[89] Ernest's support led to gas lighting in the city streets of Hanover, up-to-date sanitation and the development of a new residential quarter.

The Prime Minister warned that, if the demonstrators made any inappropriate demands on the King, Ernest would pack up his things and leave for Britain, taking the Crown Prince with him.

The prince, 48 years Ernest's junior, settled things with what Albert described as a "strong push" and carefully wrote his name on the certificate under the Queen's, so close to his wife's as to leave no space for the King's signature.

"[108] Shortly after the wedding, the King injured himself in a fall, with Albert writing to his brother, "Happily he fell over some stones in Kew and damaged some ribs."

He was mourned greatly in Hanover; less so in the United Kingdom, where The Times omitted the customary black border to its front page and claimed "the good that can be said of the Royal dead is little or none.

Bewildered by the revolutionary din, and oscillating ignominiously between fear and rage, resistance and concession, the clique of crowned heads suffered greatly by contrast with a Sovereign who at least knew his own mind and was prepared to abide by his opinions.

As Kings, indeed, are computed on the continent, he was an able and even a popular Monarch, and his memory may find, perhaps, in his ancestral dominions a sympathy which it would be vain to bespeak for it in the scenes of his manhood or the land of his birth.