Ernst, Elector of Saxony (b. Meissen, 24 March 1441 - d. Colditz, 26 August 1486) was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.
Ernst was founder of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes, ancestor of George I of Great Britain, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as well as his wife and cousin Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and their cousins Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico.
He was the second son (but fourth in order of birt...
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Ernst, Elector of Saxony (b. Meissen, 24 March 1441 - d. Colditz, 26 August 1486) was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.
Ernst was founder of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes, ancestor of George I of Great Britain, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as well as his wife and cousin Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and their cousins Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico.
He was the second son (but fourth in order of birth) of the eight children of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Margarete of Austria, sister of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.
The death of his older brother Frederick (1451) made him the new heir apparent to the position of Elector of Saxony.
In 1455 Ernst was kidnapped, along with his brother Albert, by the knight Kunz von Kaufungen an episode famous in German history as the "Prinzenraub" (i. e. The Stealing of the Princes).
In 1464, he succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony, and annexed Thuringia in 1482, and three years later ...
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