John Ernest (german: Johann Ernst) (10 May 1521 – 8 February 1553) was a
Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
of
Saxe-Coburg.
John Ernest was born in
Coburg as the third (but second surviving and the youngest) son of
John, Elector of Saxony, and his second wife
Margaret of Anhalt-Köthen
Margaret of Anhalt (12 November 1494, Köthen – 7 October 1521, Weimar) was a member of the House of Ascania and was a princess of Anhalt by birth and by marriage Duchess of Saxony.
Life
Margaret was a daughter of Prince Waldemar VI from ...
.
After the death of his father (1532), his half-brother,
John Frederick I
John Frederick I (30 June 1503 in Torgau – 3 March 1554 in Weimar), called the Magnanimous, was the Elector of Saxony (1532–1547) and head of the Schmalkaldic League.
Early years
John Frederick was the eldest son of Elector John by his firs ...
, became Elector of Saxony. For the first ten years, John Frederick shared the rule (but not the Electoral dignity) with John Ernest. In 1542 John Frederick I decided to rule alone, and ceded the
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...
n areas of the Wettin family lands (
Coburg and
Eisfeld) to John Ernest. However, it was not until
Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, in which the elder brother was captured by
Emperor Charles V
Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) ...
, that John Ernest could govern undisturbed in Coburg.
John Ernest married Catherine, daughter of
Philip I, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen
Philip I, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (german: Philipp I., Herzog von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen; 1476 – 4 September 1551, Herzberg) was a member of the House of Guelph. He was ruler of the Principality of Grubenhagen. He was the second ...
, but the marriage was childless. After his death in Coburg, the city fell for a few months to John Frederick — released from the imperial detention — before his death, and then, to his three sons, which governed the Ernestine lands together from 1554 for some years.
1521 births
1553 deaths
John Ernest
John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and w ...
People from Coburg
Saxon princes
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