Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Prince Carl Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (30 May 1792 – 31 July 1862) was a distinguished soldier, who, in 1815, after the congress of Vienna, became colonel of a regiment in the service of the king of the Netherlands. He fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo where he commanded the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Dutch Division, and later became a Chief Commander of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.

Early life Prince Bernhard was born on 30 May 1792 in Weimar. He was the seventh, and youngest, child of Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Princess Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (1757–1830). They were strategically important, not just because if the forces holding these positions gave way then the French could out flank Wellington, but because it was from that direction that Wellington expected and received Prussian support. Though in the course of the battle Durutte's 4th French Division obtained a temporary foothold in Papelotte, it was never captured

Commander of the Dutch East Indies Army Bernhard was appointed commander of the Dutch East Indies Army on December 6, 1848, and arrived on April 14, 1849, in Java. Barely a few weeks after his arrival, the commander of the third Balinese expedition, General Andreas Victor Michiels was killed at Kasumba; and Saxe-Weimar offered to the Governor-General to take over the leadership of the expedition, acting according to the rules that had been given to General Michiels. In the winter of 1849 he was promoted to general of the infantry and three years later (1852) he returned to the Netherlands, for his health, after many improvements and having accomplished to restore the East Indies army. He received on October 5, 1853, an honorable retirement.

Later life

Prince Bernhard traveled extensively in the United States between 1825 and 1826. A heavily edited account of his travels, Reise seiner Hoheit des Herzogs Bernhard zu Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach durch Nord-Amerika (Journey of His Highness Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach through North America), was published by the historian Heinrich Luden in 1828. The work was translated into English and published in Philadelphia, also in 1828, as Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826. A critical edition of the original manuscript became available in 2017.

In the years after Waterloo, Bernhard distinguished himself as commander of a Dutch Division in the Belgian campaign of 1831 (the Ten Days Campaign), and from 1847 to 1850 held the command of the forces in the Dutch East Indies. and Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (who married Princess Marie Frederica of Hesse-Kassel). Together, they were the parents of:

Princess Luise Wilhelmine Adelaide (1817–1832), who died unmarried. Prince Wilhelm Carl (1819–1839), who died unmarried. Princess Amalie Auguste Cecilia (1822–1822), who died in infancy. Prince William Augustus Edward of Saxe-Weimar (1823–1902), who entered the British Army and served in the Crimean War; he married Lady Augusta Gordon-Lennox, a daughter of Charles Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond and Lady Caroline Paget (a daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey); she was created Countess of Dornburg in 1851.

Descendants Through his son Hermann, he was a grandfather of Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who married Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and Prince Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1853-1924), who married Princess Gerta of Isenburg-Büdingen-Wächtersbach.

Honours He received the following orders and decorations:

Ancestry