Ernst August I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Also known as: Ernst August (1688–1748), not the later grand-ducal Ernst Augusts
Biography
Between Bach's employer and Anna Amalia's regency stands a duke who wanted to be Louis XIV and could not afford it. Ernst August spent nineteen years quarrelling with the uncle he was co-regent with, ruled alone from 1728, hunted more than he governed, and built the summer palace at Belvedere, which is still there to visit.
Nineteen years of co-regency, 1709–1728
Born in Weimar on 19 April 1688, he became co-regent in 1709 alongside his uncle Wilhelm Ernst — an arrangement neither wanted. The conflict escalated until 1723, when imperial intervention was required to restore peace between them; the biographical article on his uncle calls the co-regency a lasting unhealthy condition. Only when Wilhelm Ernst died in 1728 did Ernst August rule alone.
A copy of Louis XIV
The nineteenth-century biography is blunt about the type: he was one of those German princes who enjoyed being a copy of Louis XIV, and yet had original qualities of his own. He took an interest in administration and justice, and indulged, increasingly, his inclination for splendour and magnificence. The duchy's passion for hunting cost time and money it did not have.
What he built, 1741–1748
The pleasure palace at Belvedere is his; it appears on a work he published anonymously in 1742 under his cipher, with a view of it. In 1741 he acquired Saxe-Eisenach and spent much of his time there afterwards. He died at Eisenach on 19 January 1748, and the court he left behind was the one Anna Amalia would take over as regent ten years later.
Questions visitors ask
- What did Ernst August build in Weimar?
- Schloss Belvedere, his pleasure palace, which is still there to visit. He put it on the title page of his own anonymous publication of 1742, under his cipher.
- What was Ernst August's relationship with his uncle Wilhelm Ernst?
- An unwanted co-regency from 1709. The conflict escalated until 1723, when imperial intervention was needed to restore peace, and Ernst August ruled alone only after his uncle's death in 1728.
- Can I visit places connected to Ernst August?
- Yes: Schloss Belvedere, the summer palace he built above Weimar.
- When did Ernst August acquire Saxe-Eisenach?
- In 1741. He spent much of his later life there and died at Eisenach on 19 January 1748.
Notable Works & Achievements
Schloss Belvedere as his pleasure palace
The acquisition of Saxe-Eisenach in 1741
Connected Places in Weimar
Schloss Belvedere Allee 1, 99425 Weimar
The summer palace above Weimar is his — the pleasure house he had built and put on the title page of his own anonymous publication of 1742.
Historical Context
The second half of the Baroque court: hunting, building, and a duchy living beyond its means.
The century and a half between two castle fires is the Weimar nobody puts on a poster, and it is the one that made the town musical. It opens with a burnt-out castle in 1618 and closes with another one in 1774 — and in between, in a chapel that no longer exists, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most of his organ music.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1688
1748
German