John Ernest II (11 September 1627, in Weimar – 15 May 1683, in Weimar), was a duke of Saxe-Weimar. He was the second but eldest surviving son of William, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Eleonore Dorothea of Anhalt-Dessau.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (September 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,120 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Johann Ernst II. (Sachsen-Weimar)]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Johann Ernst II. (Sachsen-Weimar)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Johann Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar ...

Johann Ernst II
Duke of Saxe-Weimar
Reign	1662–1683
Predecessor	William
Successor	William Ernest
Born	(1627-09-11)11 September 1627 Weimar
Died	15 May 1683(1683-05-15) (aged 55) Weimar
Spouse	Christine Elisabeth of Holstein-Sonderburg
Issue	Anna Dorothea, Abbess of Quedlinburg Wilhelmine Christine, Countess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Eleonore Sophie, Duchess of Saxe-Merseburg-Lauchstädt William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar John Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar
House	Wettin
Father	William, Duke of Saxe-Weimar
Mother	Eleonore Dorothea of Anhalt-Dessau
Religion	Lutheran

Close

After the death of his father on 1662, he became reigning duke. In 1672 John Ernest divided his possessions with his younger brothers. He retained Weimar, his brother John George I received Eisenach, and his other brother, Bernhard, received Jena. Eventually, the partitioned lands, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Eisenach (1741) and Saxe-Jena (1690) were re-combined.

Like his father, John Ernest was particularly interested in the arts (see Fruitbearing Society). He was also an avid hunter. Given his overriding interest in these pursuits, John Ernest entrusted the reigns of government to his chancellor.

In Weimar on 14 August 1656, John Ernest married Christine Elisabeth, (23 June 1638 – 7 June 1679), a daughter of John Christian, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (26 April 1607 – 28 June 1653).^[1] They had five children:^[2]

1. Anna Dorothea (b. Weimar, 12 November 1657 - d. Quedlinburg, 23 June 1704), Abbess of Quedlinburg (1685–1704).
2. Wilhelmine Christine (b. Weimar, 26 January 1658 - d. Sondershausen, 30 June 1712), married on 25 September 1684 to Christian William of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.
3. Eleonore Sophie (b. Weimar, 22 March 1660 - d. Lauchstädt, 4 February 1687), married on 9 July 1684 to Philipp of Saxe-Merseburg-Lauchstädt.
4. William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (b. Weimar, 19 October 1662 - d. Weimar, 26 August 1728).
5. John Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (b. Weimar, 22 June 1664 - d. Weimar, 10 May 1707).