Structural and thermodynamic aspects of alkaline earth metal dication (Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+) binding to E coli ribonuclease H1 (RNase H1) have been investigated using both experimental and theoretical methods. The various metal-binding modes of the enzyme were explored using classical molecular dynamics simulations, and relative binding free energies were subsequently evaluated by free energy simulations. The trends in the free energies of model systems based on the simulation structures were subsequently verified using a combination of density functional theory and continuum dielectric methods. The calculations provide a physical basis for the experimental results and suggest plausible role(s) for the metal cation and the catalytically important acidic residues in protein function. Magnesium ion indirectly activates water attack of the phosphorus atom by freeing one of the active site carboxylate residues, D70, to act as a general base through its four first-shell water molecules, which prevent D70 from binding directly to Mg2+. Calcium ion, on the other hand, inhibits enzyme activity by preventing D70 from acting as a general base through bidentate interactions with both carboxylate oxygen atoms of D70. These additional interactions to D70, in addition to the D10 and E48 monodentate interactions found for Mg2+, enable Ca2+ to bind tighter than the other divalent ions. However, a bare Mg2+ ion with two or less water molecules in the first shell could bind directly to the three active-site carboxylates, in particular D70, thus inhibiting enzymatic activity. The present analyses and results could be generalized to other members of the RNase H family that possess the same structural fold and show similar metal-binding site and Mg2+-dependent activity.