August III.

Augustus III of Poland, known in the Holy Roman Empire as Frederick Augustus II, was born in Dresden on 17 October 1696 and died there on 5 October 1763. He was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 to 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony. As the only legitimate son of Augustus the Strong, he was prepared from an early age for future rule. His mother, Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, remained a committed Protestant throughout her life and was never crowned queen in Poland, which aroused resentment among the Polish nobility. Augustus was initially raised under the care of his Lutheran grandmother, but received a comprehensive education in Polish, German, French and Latin, as well as mathematics, chemistry, geography and horsemanship. To improve his prospects of inheriting the Polish throne, his father took him on journeys through Catholic countries. During a stay in Venice, an attempt to kidnap him organized by British agents was thwarted. In 1711, Augustus attended the coronation of Charles VI. In November 1712, during an extensive journey through Italy, he converted to Catholicism. This decision caused discontent among the Protestant Saxon aristocracy, but enabled him to strengthen his dynastic claims in Poland and his relations with Catholic powers. In 1714, he was received at the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. There he attended court festivities, deepened his knowledge of French, and learned the conventions of political and diplomatic life. On a subsequent journey through France, he also gained insights into life in cities and villages. On 20 August 1719, Augustus married Maria Josepha of Austria in Vienna, a daughter of Emperor Joseph I and niece of Charles VI. The marriage was politically arranged and intended to secure Saxony’s position within the Empire. Shortly beforehand, Maria Josepha had renounced her claim to the Austrian succession in favor of her uncle’s daughter, Maria Theresa. The wedding celebrations in Dresden were among the most elaborate of the European Baroque. Augustus and Maria Josepha had a close marriage and sixteen children, several of whom later held important dynastic or ecclesiastical positions. After his father’s sudden death on 1 February 1733, Augustus inherited the Saxon electorate without difficulty. His election as Polish king, however, was disputed. Austria and Russia supported him after he made political concessions and recognized the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. Russian troops entered Poland to secure his succession. Although Stanisław Leszczyński received the majority of votes in the election, Augustus was supported by influential magnates and was elected king on 5 October 1733. After the ensuing War of the Polish Succession, Leszczyński was driven out, and a parliament in 1736 effectively confirmed Augustus as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The opposition between the two candidates gave rise to the Polish expression “od Sasa do Lasa,” which is still used to describe two opposing things. Augustus showed little personal interest in the political affairs of the Polish–Lithuanian state. During his thirty-year reign, he spent less than three years in Poland and preferred hunting, opera and collecting works of art. He left much of the government to his influential adviser Heinrich von Brühl. In Poland, Brühl exercised almost vice-regal authority and in turn left administration largely to powerful noble families, especially the Czartoryski. Conflicts among aristocratic groups paralyzed the parliament, while the liberum veto made political decisions more difficult. Corruption, internal disorder and interference by Russia, Prussia and Austria increased. Augustus was unable to establish his family permanently on the Polish throne; Russia instead later supported Stanisław August Poniatowski, who was connected with Catherine the Great. In European politics, Augustus stood closely alongside Austria. During the War of the Austrian Succession, Saxony initially changed alliances but ultimately supported Maria Theresa. After military defeats by Prussia, Saxony had to pay heavy reparations under the Treaty of Dresden in 1745. The conflict placed a severe burden on Saxony’s finances. In the Seven Years’ War, Saxony was invaded by Prussia in 1756 and exploited as a theater of war and to support the Prussian war effort. The Treaty of Hubertusburg in 1763 ended the war with a Prussian victory, and Saxony had to renounce its claim to Silesia. Despite his political weaknesses, Augustus was an important patron of art, music and architecture. He expanded the Dresden art collection, completed the enlargement of the Saxon Palace in Warsaw, and ordered alterations to the Royal Castle in Warsaw. During his reign, the Catholic Court Church and other cultural institutions were established in Dresden. In 1748, he founded an opera house in Warsaw and the first medical school in Dresden. The artists supported by him or his court included Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Adolph Hasse and Johann David Heinichen. In Poland, Augustus was often criticized as an awkward, overweight ruler with little interest in affairs of state. Contemporary descriptions from Dresden, however, also portray him as an honest, warm-hearted and respected man. He was regarded as a devoted husband and a charitable person. He supported the Warsaw orphanage founded by Gabriel Piotr Baudouin and in 1758 elevated it to the General Hospital of the Infant Jesus, which cared not only for orphans but also for the poor and sick. In April 1763, Augustus returned to Dresden from Poland, ill and weakened. He died there of a stroke on 5 October of the same year. Unlike his father, he was not buried in Kraków but in Dresden Cathedral. His eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian, succeeded him as Elector of Saxony but died only two and a half months later. In Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected king in 1764 with Russian support.