Ernst von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld

Ernst von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (born January 28, 1789 in Barchfeld , † April 19, 1850 at Augustenau Castle in Herleshausen ) was a Russian cavalry general .

Life

Ernst was born the son of Adolf von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld and his wife Luise (1752–1805), daughter of Duke Anton Ulrich von Sachsen-Meiningen from his marriage to Charlotte Amalie von Hessen-Philippsthal . His siblings were:

• Friedrich (1782–1783)
• Karl (1784–1854), Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld

⚭ 1. 1816 Princess Auguste zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (1793–1821)

⚭ 2. 1823 Princess Sophie of Bentheim and Steinfurt (1794–1873)

• Wilhelm (1786–1834)

⚭ 1812 Princess Juliane of Denmark (1788–1850)

• Georg (1787–1788)
• Charlotte (* / † 1794)

At the age of six, he came in 1795 after Schnepfenthal to the philanthropist Schnepfenthal , there his older brothers were raised. In 1797 he came to Bückeburg with his brother Wilhelm , where they were both educated by private tutors in the house of Princess Juliane von Hessen-Philippsthal , together with the later ruling prince, Georg Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe . He then attended the Lüneburg Knight Academy and then returned home.

He joined the bodyguard as a staff captain and received theoretical and practical lessons from Captain Christian Friedrich von Cochenhausen , with whom he later enjoyed a lifelong friendship. He followed his teacher to the Regiment von Wurmb in Eschwege and shortly afterwards returned as a company commander to the Guards Grenadier Regiment in Kassel to be with his mother, who had been widowed on July 17, 1803.

In 1806 he and his brother Wilhelm refused to enter French service after the elector Wilhelm I had fled . They were then captured and first brought to Mainz and later to Luxembourg . They managed to escape to Weimar and on to Königsberg , where they entered Russian services, although the French ambassador Armand de Caulaincourt tried to prevent their employment. The eldest brother Karl had meanwhile been captured by the French as a Prussian hussar cavalry captain and, on his word of honor, he had been released not to serve against them. His brother Wilhelm later entered service in Denmark.

Ernst was a lieutenant colonel of the 6th Infantry Regiment and the headquarters of the commanding general, Field Marshal Prince Alexander PROSOROVSKI (1733-1809), who during the seventh Turkish Russian War on Prut stand against the Turks allocated. Because he fell ill with a fever and could not do any service, he asked for leave and traveled via Austria to Hesse to save some of his goods confiscated by the French. Here he took part in the Dörnberg uprising , and when this failed his safety was endangered. His whereabouts in Brachfeld, which had been kept secret, had become known, but the gendarme charged with the arrest warned him and led him to the Hesse-Rotenburg hunting lodge at Blumenstein near Wildeck . From here he fled to Eisenach , where he obtained a passport under a false name and was able to travel on to Prague .

Because he could not stand the Russian climate, he said goodbye and decided to settle in Bohemia with the rest of his fortune, in which case he lost the entire purchase price during the complicated negotiations and was therefore penniless.

Thereupon he joined the Guard in Prussian service in Potsdam . Shortly afterwards France laid claim to him because he was subject to the Kingdom of Westphalia . Prussia could not protect him against the French, so in 1812 he fled again to Russia to Vilna . Emperor Alexander I assigned him as a colonel to the headquarters of Ataman Matwei Ivanovich Platov . He took part in numerous battles against the French and lost his left leg above his knee to a cannonball during the Battle of Borodino near Mosaisk. His brother Karl, who was nearby, rescued him with the help of some lancers and transported him on a carriage to the reserve hospital of the headquarters. After the amputation , his brother accompanied him to Yaroslav to see Prince Georg von Oldenburg and his wife, Grand Duchess Katharina Pawlowna , a daughter of Russian Tsar Paul (1754–1801), who looked after the injured soldiers. Another injury to the stump made another, even more painful, amputation necessary.

After four months he was able to travel to St. Petersburg in June 1813 to cure himself there. After his recovery he went to Silesia to ask for a job as a soldier at the Russian headquarters, which followed the French. The emperor then appointed him major general and awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of St. George.

In Prague he had to spend some time due to a nervous fever and thus could not take part in the end of the wars of freedom.

He travels from Prague to Frankfurt am Main , where the widowed Princess Katharina Pawlowna of Holstein-Oldenburg caused the Elector Wilhelm I of Hesse to grant him a pension. The Emperor of Russia appointed him provisional Russian governor of Kassel. After a short stay in Paris he returned to Barchfeld, but from there he had to travel to the Congress of Vienna .

Ernst received 5,000 ducats from the Russian Emperor Alexander I , from which he should have an artificial leg made in England . His cousin Adelheid von Sachsen-Meiningen , who later became Queen of England, helped him find a craftsman. During his stay in London , he received an offer from King William IV to serve as Lieutenant General in England, but this also obliged him to be in constant proximity to the King. He accepted the offer, but asked for a vacation trip to Barchfeld. During the trip he was called back by the now sick king. During the return journey, Ernst was held in Brussels for a fortnight due to illness , so that he found the king still alive but unconscious. He received only a small pension from the king's widow, his cousin Adelheid, but had in the meantime been appointed Imperial Russian General of the Cavalry without his knowledge .

In the meantime he traveled periodically to St. Petersburg and London. During a visit from his brother Wilhelm, who was now living in Copenhagen , he bought the Skodsborg estate nearby, 20 km north of Copenhagen.

Despite all his travels, he not only tried to maintain his father's castle in Barchfeld, the Wilhelmsburg , but also to promote the prosperity of the place, for example by founding a tobacco factory and a ribbon weaving mill , but these ventures failed.

After visiting Meiningen for the birthday party of Hereditary Prince Georg II , he traveled back to Augustenau on April 7, 1850 to see his brother Karl. There he died and, according to his orders, was transferred to Barchfeld and buried in the princely crypt.

Awards

• He received the Grand Cross of the Russian Order of St. George as well as the Imperial Russian Alexander Nevsky Order and the Hessian Military Order of Merit .

Literature (selection)

• Ernst Friedrich von Hessen-Philippsthal-Brachfeld in New Nekrolog der Deutschen , 29th year, 1851, 1st part. Weimar 1853. pp. 13-17.
• Reinhard Sömmer: Life sketch of Prince Ernst of Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld, kais. Russian generals of the cavalry: together with a spiritual outline of the Hessian princely houses Philippsthal and Barchfeld . Barchfeld: self-published, 1851.