| Ernest | |
| Succession: | Elector of Saxony |
| Reign: | 7 September 1464 |
| Predecessor: | Frederick II |
| Successor: | Frederick III |
| Birth Date: | 24 March 1441 |
| Birth Place: | Meissen, Margravate of Meissen, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire |
| Death Place: | Colditz Castle, Margravate of Meissen, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire |
| Burial Place: | Meissen Cathedral |
| Issue: | Christina, Queen of Denmark Frederick III, Elector of Saxony Johann, Elector of Saxony Margarete, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
| Issue-Link: |
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| Issue-Pipe: | among others... |
| House: | House of Wettin |
| Father: | Frederick II, Elector of Saxony |
| Mother: | Margaret of Austria-Styria |
| Succession1: | Landgrave of Thuringia |
| Reign1: | 17 September 1482 |
| Predecessor1: | William II |
| Successor1: | Frederick VI |
Ernest (24 March 144126 August 1486), known as Ernst in German, was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.
Ernst was the founder and progenitor of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes.
Ernst was born in Meissen, the second son (but fourth in order of birth) of the eight children of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Margaret of Austria, sister of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.The death of his older brother Frederick (1451) made him the new heir apparent to the position of Elector of Saxony.
In 1455 Ernst was briefly kidnapped, along with his brother Albert, by the knight Kunz von Kaufungen an episode famous in German history as the German: Prinzenraub[1] (i.e. The Stealing of the Princes).
In 1464, he succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony, and annexed Thuringia in 1482, and three years later (Treaty of Leipzig, 1485) shared his territory with his brother Albert, until he arranged the division of the common possession.
According to the Treaty of Leipzig he received an area around Wittenberg, the southern Thuringian part, the Vogtland and parts of the Pleissnerland. As a residence he selected Wittenberg. He provided for the welfare of the country and introduced the constitution.
One year after the division, Ernest died in Colditz, at the age of 46 years, the consequence of a fall from a horse.
In Leipzig on 19 November 1460 Ernst married Elisabeth of Bavaria. They had seven children: