Ernst, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld (''Ernst Kasimir Friedrich Karl Eberhard''; 9 June 1842 – 26 September 1904) was the head of the

Lippe-Biesterfeld The House of Lippe-Biesterfeld was a comital and later princely cadet line of the House of Lippe (a German dynasty reigning from 1413 until 1918, of comital and, from 1789, of princely rank). The comital branch of Lippe-Biesterfeld ascended t ...

line of the

House of Lippe The House of Lippe () is the former reigning house of a number of small Germany, German states, two of which existed until the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Principality of Lippe and the Schaumburg-Lippe, Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe. ...

. From 1897 until his death he was the

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of the

Principality of Lippe Lippe (later Lippe-Detmold and then again Lippe) was a state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest. It originated as a state during the Holy Roman Empire, an ...

Early life and dispute

He was born in Oberkassel the third child of

Julius, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld Julius, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld (; 2 April 1812 – 17 May 1884) was Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld from 1840 to 1884 and father of Ernest II, regent of the Principality of Lippe. Early life Julius was born at Oberkassel, Kingdom of Prussia (no ...

(1812–1884) and Countess Adelheid of

Castell-Castell Castell-Castell was a county in the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a branch of the Counts of Castell. It was established as a partition of Castell-Remlingen in 1668, and it was partitioned between itself and Castell in 1709. It annexed the County ...

(1818–1900). On 17 May 1884 Count Ernst succeeded his father as the head of

line of the

. After the reigning Princes of Lippe, Biesterfeld was the most senior line of the princely house followed by the Counts of

Lippe-Weissenfeld The House of Lippe-Weissenfeld (German spelling: Lippe-Weißenfeld) was a comital and later princely cadet branch of the House of Lippe, a dynasty ruling the Principality of Lippe until the German Revolution of 1918–19. Branches of the House ...

and the Princes of

Schaumburg-Lippe Schaumburg-Lippe, also called Lippe-Schaumburg, was created as a county in 1647, became a principality in 1807 and a free state in 1918, and was until 1946 a small state in Germany, located in the present-day state of Lower Saxony, with its capi ...

. On 20 March 1895 the reigning prince of Lippe, Prince Woldemar died childless. His heir was his brother

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

who was incapable of ruling on account of a mental illness so a regency had to be established. A decree had been issued in 1890 by the late Prince Woldemar and though kept secret until his death it resulted in

Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe (; 20 July 1859 – 9 July 1916) was a German prince of the House of Schaumburg-Lippe and a Prussian General of the Cavalry. He was regent of the Principality of Lippe from 1895 to 1897 due to the incapacit ...

, the brother in law of the German Emperor William II and not Count Ernst being appointed regent. This act was disputed by Count Ernst who put forward a claim to the regency. Lippe's

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

confirmed Prince Adolf as regent on 24 April pending a settlement over the right to the Lippe regency. In the first scene (1895–97) of the Lippe succession dispute, it was claimed on part of the Schaumburg-Lippe that count Ernest's paternal grandmother, noblewoman Modeste Dorothea Christiane von Unruh (1781-1854) (who belonged to a family of lower nobility) was not of high enough birth to be legitimately a dynastic wife - that would have made progeny born of her ineligible to succeed.

Regent of Lippe

A settlement was reached in 1897 when a commission under the presidency of King

Albert of Saxony Albert of Saxony may refer to: * Albert, King of Saxony (1828–1902) * Albert I, Duke of Saxony (ca. 1175–1260) * Albert II, Duke of Saxony (ca. 1250–1298) * Albert III, Duke of Saxony (1443–1500) * Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen ...

ruled in favour of the claims of Count Ernst. Prince Adolf then resigned the regency and was replaced by Count Ernst. The panel assessed that the Lippe dynasts do not need to marry princely ladies in order to preserve dynasticity; the outcome was a verdict that a lady from an old lower-noble family is sufficient. Modeste von Unruh was adjudicated to have fulfilled this criterion. While regent Count Ernst was snubbed by the German Emperor after writing to William II complaining that the officers of the local garrison did not salute his children, did not address them by the correct style for a ruling family, and that the commanding general at

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

had personally ordered this. The Emperor's telegraph in response to Count Ernst's request was: Ernst remained as regent until his death in Schloss Lopshorn at which point his son Leopold succeeded him as head of the Lippe-Biesterfeld line and regent, before becoming the reigning Prince of Lippe four months later on the death of Prince Alexander.

Marriage and children

Ernest was married to Countess Karoline Friederike Cecilia of Wartensleben (1844–1905) on the 16 September 1869 in Neuhof. From the marriage he had six children (prince/princess of Lippe since 1905). * Countess Adelheid (22 June 1870 – 3 September 1948), married Prince Frederick Johann of Saxe-Meiningen; they were the grandparents of Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of Crown Prince Otto of Austria. *

Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe (''Leopold Julius Bernhard Adalbert Otto Karl Gustav''; 30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) was the final sovereign of the Principality of Lippe in northwestern Germany from 1905 until his abdication in 1918. Prior t ...

(30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) * Prince Bernhard of Lippe (26 August 1872 – 19 June 1934), father of

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands; 29 June 1911 – 1 December 2004) was Prince consort of the Netherlands, Prince of the Netherlands from 6 September 1948 to 30 April 1980 as the husband of Queen J ...

, husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. * Prince Julius (2 September 1873 – 15 September 1952), married Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ** Prince Ernst August of Lippe. *Princess Karola (2 September 1873 – 23 April 1958) *Princess Mathilde (27 March 1875 – 12 February 1907) In the Lippe succession dispute (1904–05), it was claimed on part of the Schaumburg-Lippe that Countess Karoline of Wartensleben (who belonged to a family of counts whose rank of count was from the 18th century, and who were originally of lower nobility) was not noble enough to be legitimately a dynastic wife of count Ernest - that would have made her sons ineligible to succeed. However, it was ruled by the 1905 panel that her birth was high enough and her children with Ernest were dynasts.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ernest, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld 1842 births 1904 deaths Nobility from Düsseldorf 19th-century regents House of Lippe Counts of Lippe-Biesterfeld Heirs presumptive 20th-century regents