Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover

Born 21 September 1845, Ernest Augustus was the only son of George V of Hanover and Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, raised to rule a kingdom that vanished when he was twenty-one. Prussia annexed Hanover in 1866, turning the crown prince into a claimant without a country. Eighteen years later, the Duchy of Brunswick — another potential inheritance — was denied him in 1884. He lived in exile, still holding his British titles as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, until World War I made those untenable: siding with Germany cost him his peerages and honours, stripped by the country that had once recognise…