Ernest Louis Charles Albert William (de: Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm), (25 November, 1868 - 9 October, 1937) was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918. His nickname was Ernie.

Early life

Ernest Louis was the fourth child and eldest son of Grand Duke Louis 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.

Ernest Louis'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 not a 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. Ernest Louis 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 Ernest Louis to become obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.

In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria swept through Darmstadt. All of the children (except Princess Elisabeth, who was sent to stay with their paternal grandmother) and their father fell ill. Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on November 16, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernest Louis, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. Ernest Louis 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 Ernest Louis bore for the rest of his life.

Even after his death, however, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Louis was to marry the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes in England. His older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke George Donatus, and the rest of the family planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. George Donatus, along with his wife, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, their two young sons, Louis 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. Cecilie was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash and the stillborn infant was found among the remains. Their youngest child, Johanna, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Louis, who was to remain childless. The little girl survived her parents and brothers by eighteen months, dying in 1939 of meningitis.

Marriage

On April 19 1894 Ernest Louis married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ("Ducky") in Coburg, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria. 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, on 25 May 1900. The couple became estranged and the two were divorced December 21, 1901, on the grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy" by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse. Victoria Melita later told others that she was tired of Ernest Louis's constant homosexual affairs.

Ernest Louis remarried, in Darmstadt on 2 February 1905, to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (September 17 1871 - November 16 1937), with whom he had two sons:

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

Grand Duke of Hesse

In 1892 Ernest Louis succeeded his father as Grand Duke.

Throughout his life, Ernest Louis was a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions. Ernest Louis served in the German military during World War I, and was asked to abdicate during the revolution of 1918 but never did. He lost his throne as it was simply abolished.

In October 1937, Ernest Louis 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.

Ancestry

ca:Ernest Lluís IV de Hessen-Darmstadt de:Ernst Ludwig (Hessen-Darmstadt, Großherzog) et:Ernst Ludwig fr:Louis V de Hesse it:Ernesto Luigi d'Assia nl:Ernst Lodewijk van Hessen-Darmstadt ja:???????????? (??????) sv:Ernst Ludvig av Hessen zh:???·???? (????)