45 Österreich: Militär - Maria - Theresien Orden - Ritterkreuz aus dem Besitz Ernst August II. Herzog von Cumberland, Kronprinz von Hannover (1845 - 1923).
The Gold and Enamel Cross of the Order, on a beautiful original triangular ribbon made of fine moiré silk.
A magnificent piece of the finest old Austrian goldsmith work. The maker's mark ‘FR’ of the court jewellers Rothe, Vienna, and the official hallmark (fox's head with the number 4 for 14 carat gold and the letter ‘A’) in the eyelet.
The background of the translucent red enamel of the front medallion and the green enamel wreath of the reverse medallion with the finest guilloché work.
Minimal signs of wear.
Ernst August (II) of Hanover (born 21 September 1845, died 14 November 1923) was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Hanover. He also held the titles of Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Prince of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and others.
Ernst August Wilhelm Adolph Georg Friedrich was the only son of the blind King George V of Hanover (1819-1878) and Princess Marie of Saxony-Altenburg (1818-1907). He was born during the reign of his grandfather King Ernst August I of Hanover at the Fürstenhof in Hanover, the then residence of the Crown Prince, and became Crown Prince after the death of the latter and the accession to the throne of his father in November 1851. After the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussian troops in 1866 and the dethronement of his father, he followed him into Austrian exile.
For his bravery in the Battle of Langensalza in 1866, Emperor Franz Joseph awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.
Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him an Austrian colonel, but the prince did not take up active service. In the spring of 1868, the royal family of Hanover came to the Salzkammergut for a cure, as did the Austrian imperial court from Vienna. They stayed at the Villa Redtenbacher near Gmunden, where Crown Prince Ernst August later settled permanently. He also had extensive property in Grünau im Almtal.
On 15 June 1882, construction began on Schloss Cumberland in Gmunden, which was built as a residence in exile in the neo-Gothic Tudor style. The Hanover-born architect Ferdinand Schorbach was commissioned with the planning. On 15 September 1886, the newly built castle was occupied and was permanently inhabited by him and his family until his death in 1923.
When King George V died in Paris on 12 June 1878, Crown Prince Ernst August succeeded him as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, and Queen Victoria named him a Knight of the Garter (1 August 1878).
Although Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, General in the British Army and Austrian officer, Ernst August always considered himself an exiled German monarch. Even after his father's death, he did not take the opportunity to reconcile with Prussia. On the contrary, in a letter addressed to the powers and courts, dated Gmunden 11 July 1878, he retained all his rights to the Kingdom of Hanover and declared that, until these were realised, he would like to use the title of Duke of Cumberland and Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg with the title ‘Royal Highness’. As a result, he was refused the return of the Guelph Fund from Prussia.
On 22 December 1878, Ernst August married Princess Thyra of Denmark in Copenhagen. She was the youngest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and sister of the future Danish King Frederick VIII, the future British Queen Alexandra, the Russian Tsarina Maria Feodorovna and the King of Greece, George I. The marriage produced six children.
When Ernst August's distant cousin, Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, died without direct heirs on 18 October 1884, Ernst August, as head of the House of Welf, laid claim to the Duchy of Brunswick.
He declared that he wanted to rule the country in accordance with the German Reich Constitution. Since he did not renounce his claims to the Kingdom of Hanover, but had already stated in a letter to Queen Victoria in 1878 that his recognition of the Reich constitution in no way meant the abandonment of his Hanoverian inheritance claims, the German Bundesrat announced on 2 July 1885, at the request and after massive pressure from Prussia, that the government of the Duke of Cumberland in Brunswick was incompatible with the basic principles of the federal treaties and the Reich constitution.
In the Duchy of Brunswick itself, the Ruling Council under the leadership of Minister of State Hermann, Count of Görtz-Wrisberg, decided in favour of a pragmatic policy and the solution of offering the regency to the Prussian Prince Albrecht, which he accepted.
It was only shortly before the outbreak of the First World War that relations between Ernst August and the Hohenzollerns relaxed. On 24 May 1913, his youngest son Ernst August III married Victoria Louise, the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In October 1913, the Duke of Cumberland renounced his claims to the Duchy of Brunswick in favour of his son, who thus became the reigning Duke of Brunswick on 1 November 1913. However, like all German princes, he lost his dukedom again in November 1918 as a result of the First World War. Wilhelm II appointed Ernst August (the Elder) a Knight of the Black Eagle Order.
The First World War led to a rift between the British royal family and their Hanoverian cousins. Since Ernst August was on the German-Austrian side and therefore ‘wore arms against England’, he was expelled from the Order of the Garter and the British Army. In addition, he was stripped of his British titles and rights by order of King George V of Great Britain and Ireland on 28 March 1919, with the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 providing the legal basis for this. In addition to Ernst August as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh and Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, three other persons were affected by this law: Duke Carl Eduard of Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha as Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, Baron Arklow and Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke Ernst August (III. ) of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, and Heinrich, Count of Taaffe as 12th Viscount Taaffe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote. According to the Titles Deprivation Act, the male heirs of these persons have the right to ask the British Crown for their reinstatement in these titles, but so far they have not exercised this right.
The former Crown Prince of Hanover and former Duke of Cumberland spent his retirement in Gmunden in Upper Austria, where he died on 14 November 1923. He was buried in a mausoleum built especially for him and his family in the castle park.
In 1894, the Cumberlandstraße in Vienna's Penzing district (14th district) was named after him.
Ernst August was particularly proud of the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa awarded to him as Crown Prince in 1866 for the Battle of Langensalza, and wore it on almost every occasion. In addition to the original, he owned several other examples that he had made by the famous Rothe company in Vienna.
A particularly beautiful and finely crafted example, and of particular interest due to its royal provenance. Like all hallmarked examples, it is extremely rare.