Christian Ernst of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (6 August 1644 in Bayreuth – 20 May 1712 in Erlangen) was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
He was the only son of Erdmann August, Hereditary Margrave (Erbmarkgraf) of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, by his wife and first cousin, Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach.
The death of his father (6 February 1651) made Christian Ernst the new heir to the margraviate of Bayreuth. At the age of ten, he succeeded his grandfather Christian as margrave when he died on 30 May 1655. His uncle Georg Albrecht acted as regent until 1664, when Christian Ernst was declared an adult and assumed the government of his principality.
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Life
Christian Ernst took bold decisions in centralizing the regional authorities in Bayreuth, settling Huguenots in Erlangen, and creating a Knight's Academy (German: Ritterakademie), the basis for the Regional University of Erlangen (German: Landesuniversität Erlangen).
As margrave, he served Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, whom he supported with war supplies during wars against France in support of the Dutch Republic and Lorraine and the liberation of Vienna from the Turks. On 12 February 1664 he was designated a colonel of the Franconian Circle. From 1668 the arming of his own dominion (which was intended originally to aid the emperor) strained state finances and exposed Bayreuth to military dangers. The principality suffered the first of several financial crises in 1672.