Ernst I died in 1844 and his elder son and successor, Ernst II, ruled until he died in 1893. As he had no children childless, the throne of the Duchy passed to the male descendant's of Ernst's late brother Albert the Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria. But, the Duchies did not want to be joined to Great Britain, so their constitutions stopped the King and heir apparent of Great Britain from becoming Duke if other eligible male heirs exist. Therefore after Edward, Prince of Wales, came his next brother, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred's only son, also named Alfred, committed suicide in 1899, so when Duke Alfred died in 1900, he was succeeded by his nephew, Charles Edward the Duke of Albany, the sixteen-year-old son of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Leopold. (Duke Arthur of Connaught and his son did not want to become Duke, so renounced (gave up) their right to succession.) The new Duke started using the German version of his name, and ruled as Duke Carl Eduard. Until he came of age in 1905, the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg acted as Regent, Carl Eduard retained his British title Duke of Albany, but because he fought for Germany in the First World War, he was stripped of his British titles in 1919.