Ulsterman

Following Prussia's annexation of Hanover as a consequence of the war of 1866, E.A.W.G.F. took his family into mostly Austrian exile, where he refused to the end of his life to give up his legal claim to the throne of Hanover. He was active in the Guelphic Legion, a regiment of Hanovarian loyalists who were stationed in France and disbanded only months before the Franco-German war of 1870. Had the legion not been bankrupted by Bismarcks' arrest of the Hanovarians' bankers, EAWGF might have found himself fighting against the Prussian army at such places as Sedan or Mars le Tour! Complicating matters, in him was untied the legal dynastic inheritance of the Duchy of Brunswick, which was also barred to him since he would not abandon his claim to Hanover. Brunswick remained under Prussian 'regency" (occupation) from 1866-1913 . E.A.W.G.F.'s 3rd son (who as such might never have had a chance of succeeding to any crown anyway) Ernst August Junior (father and son referred to this way for brevity) married Kaiser Wilhelm II's daughter Victoria on the 24th of May, 1913. (One wonders how the seating arrangements were handled at THAT wedding-let alone how the courtship happened!!!). Ernst August Junior was presented with the Duchy of Brunswick ONLY by his fathers' abdication of that claim on October 24th, 1913. Having obviously cleared things up in advance, the legal impediments to succession vanished and on November 1, 1913 Junior was confirmed as ( the last) reigning Duke of Brunswick. Just under a year's delay on that and he might have ended up in EITHER the Austrian or British armies...... Ernst August Seniors' medal bar reflects the odd, but by no means unique practice of some of the German Ruling (in this case in-exile) Houses of presenting their youngsters with peculiarly basic grades of their home awards so that (apparently) they would always have something domestic to wear first on medal bars. Thus: Hanoverian Guelphic Order-Knight (military division) Hanoverian Ernst August Order-Knight Hanoverian Silver 1898 81st Birthday Medal of the Queen Dowager -in exile Marie (Seniors' Mum) Bavarian Luitpold Military Jubilee Medal (1911 issue-1905 reverse on military ribbon) Mecklenburg- Schwerin Griffin Order-Knight Danish Dannebrog Order-Silver Merit Cross (Christian IX type) British George V Coronation Medal 1911 Danish Christian IX/Louise Golden Wedding Decoration 1892 (39 enameled silver gilt awards to Royals) Ernst August Senior was a Knight of the Garter but that and his other British titles were stripped from him (and his son) during the Great War. Other German titles were outlawed by the Wiemar constitution of 1919 and the subsequent enabling acts of 1920. Today, German aristocrats "titles" are names only. Note also that the exiled "king" (then Crown prince) was at Lagansalza, the Hanoverian Pyrrhic victory of June of 1866, but for some reason he did not include the battle medal -nor any of his Austrian awards, upon this bar. His descendant, who still claims the pretender's title to the throne of Hanover, is today married to Princess Caroline of Monaco.

From Rick Research........ "Thanks to the traveling museum for allowing this to be shared........ Ernest Augustus William George Frederick/ Ernst August Wilhelm Georg Friedrich, would-have-been King of Hanover (from 1878) de jure Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg (from 1884), 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Tevoitdale was born on the 21st of September, 1845 and died on November 14th, 1923. He was the son of Ernst Augustus, King of Hanover, 1st Duke of Cumberland , Earl of Armagh (1771-1851) and grandson of King George IIIrd of England and Hanover. E.A.W.G.F. married Princess Thira of Denmark, daughter of Christian IX of Denmark-which explains part of the combination. His father Georg, the famous "Blind King of Hanover" almost married his cousin, Queen Victoria, but having lost his sight due to illness and accident, Albert beat him to the prize of Windsor.

Try Project Hougomont on Facebook. There's some cracking English researchers there.

very cool. Any useful medal tidbits perchance?

Great photo.

Bravo WC, Bravo!

tres cool. In the UK Cambridge and Oxford Universities also have their own college wines and ports from their vineyards in Portugal and Spain.

The Austrians also marked silver medals as "bronze' sometimes to avoid (purportedly) German import duties on silver.

Yeah- but people have begun to look. The Potsdam archives got bombed, but a lot of papers were crated up beforehand and put elsewhere. Rumor has it that there's a tonne of stuff sitting in warehouses that none of the Museums/archives want because theres' no space. ...etc..

according to Osprey- 28,028 dead and 88,488 wounded.

why oh why the new ribbon? To distinguish 36 months from 24?

very,very cool. Bela Kuns' republic huh? A bloody time in history. If that cap badge could talk!

Yeah- a great bar. The Bulgarian medal tended to be a W/O and officer class award.

....um...what is this? Is it a desk ornament?

Really? What Kleitman book?

I would think it is good. I saw the rest of the collection and the Ethiopian stuff is superb! Whoever that was/is-they had a world class-if not THE world class colonial collection.

No kidding- the Brazilian medals especially are beautiful. there were a series of "veterans" medals as well that are very collectible- a fertile, still largely un-researched area of history.

Handing out EKs just before the end....

Ah! I see you there! Welcome! The Center for Battlefield Archaeology is well worth a look too.

I think you are right-but I sent it off via snailmail to RR. He has the list of the Heers Beamten..so maybe you will even get a name! I bet Glenn J. will LOVE to see this photograph!

No -actually I think this is the second or third time I have ever seen one and certainly not in that great condition.

Well, there is actually quite a bit on the medal itself. Napoleon 3rd decided to issue a medal so as to glorify his Uncle and thereby solidify his political claims to power and the revolutionary underpinnings thereto. Also, i think they might have been a bit fed up with seeing that almost everyone else had issued some sort of Napoleonic war medal. There is a letter recounting the fact that the men of every allied army arching into Paris in 1815 seemed to have medals-except the "manly British". I reckon we do the same thing today- monkey see...that is why the UK government is considering a Murmansk medal of some sort i hear- a scant 65 years late.

Yeah- now that the Kindle has allowed everyone to offer such crap as their "Christian vampire" novel on-line, it is almost impossible to find anything on Amazon. It was French. Let me go have a look around. Also- are you a member of "project Hougomont" on Facebook? The chaps there put up one or two new items daily....and there is a ferocious debate going on at the moment as to greatcoat straps- "leather or woven flax?" that is really detailed. One picks up details like the number of different styles of cartridge box plates and cross belt plates used (in 1815 the 42nd apparently had three different types- all confirmed by archaeology).

Ummm...I do not, but I know there was an OMSA list somewhere of US officers that were awarded foreign medals. Grab a name off that, go though google images and something might pop up.

There's a book in French called "Souvineres' D' Grand Armee" -I think it came out @ 5 years ago.