Duke Ernest Gottlob of Mecklenburg

Who was Duke Ernest Gottlob of Mecklenburg?

Duke Ernest Gottlob Albert of Mecklenburg was a member of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. As a younger son of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Ernest was an elder brother of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom, who married King George III in 1761. Ernest followed his sister to England, where he unsuccessfully pursued marriage with the country's largest heiress, Mary Eleanor Bowes.

Enormous debt would later lead Ernest to attempt another marriage with a princess from the House of Holstein-Gottorp, but Charlotte managed to dissuade him. Ernest eventually became the military governor of Celle in the Electorate of Hanover, of which his brother-in-law George III was the head. Ernest died in 1814 at the age of 71 during the reign of George III but under the regency of his nephew George IV.