Augustus II the Strong

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Augustus II the Strong bigraphy, stories - Monarchs

Augustus II the Strong : biography

12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733

Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong ( ; 12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733) was Elector of Saxony (as Frederick Augustus I), Imperial Vicar and became King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (as Augustus II).

Augustus’ great physical strength earned him the nicknames "the Strong", "the Saxon Hercules" and "Iron-Hand." He liked to show that he lived up to his name by breaking horseshoes with his bare hands and engaging in fox tossing by holding the end of his sling with just one finger while two of the strongest men in his court held the other end.Sacheverell Sitwell. The Hunters and the Hunted, p. 60. Macmillan, 1947.

In order to be elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism. He owed allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

As Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He established the Saxon capital of Dresden as a major cultural centre, attracting artists from across Europe to his court. Augustus also amassed an impressive art collection and built lavish baroque palaces at Dresden and Warsaw.

As King of Poland, his reign was not successful. He embroiled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War, which led to the Russian Empire strengthening its influence over the Commonwealth, and he failed to achieve internal reforms and to bolster royal power in the Commonwealth.

Portraits by

  • Rosalba Carriera
  • Louis de Silvestre

Notes

Royal titles

  • In
  • English translation: Augustus II, by the grace of God, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernihiv, and Hereditary Duke and Prince-Elector of Saxony, etc.

King of Poland for the second time

The weakened Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth soon came to be regarded as almost a protectorate of Russia. In 1709 Augustus II returned to the Polish throne under Russian auspices. Once again he attempted to establish an absolute monarchy in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but was faced with opposition from the nobility (szlachta, see Tarnogród Confederation). Peter the Great seized on this opportunity to pose as mediator, threatened the Commonwealth militarily, and in 1717 forced Augustus and the nobility to sign an accommodation favorable to Russian interests, at the Silent Sejm (Sejm Niemy).

For the remainder of his reign, in an uneasy relationship, Augustus was more or less dependent on Russia (and to a lesser extent, on Austria) to maintain his throne. He gave up his dynastic ambitions and concentrated instead on attempts to strengthen the Commonwealth. Faced with both internal and foreign opposition, however, he achieved little.

Augustus died at Warsaw in 1733. Although he had failed to make the Polish throne hereditary in his house, his eldest son, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, did succeed him to the Polish throne as Augustus III of Poland—although he had to be installed there by a Russian army in the War of the Polish Succession.

Film

In 1936 Augustus was the subject of a Polish-German film Augustus the Strong directed by Paul Wegener. Augustus was portrayed by the actor Michael Bohnen.

Ancestry

Illegitimate issue

The Electress Christiane, who remained Protestant and refused to move to Poland with her husband, preferred to spend her time in the mansion in Pretzsch on the Elbe, where she died.

August, a voracious womanizer, never missed his wife, spending his time with a series of mistresses:..

  • 1694–1696 with Countess Maria Aurora of Königsmarck
  • 1696–1699 with Countess Anna Aloysia Maximiliane von Lamberg
  • 1698–1704 with Ursula Katharina of Altenbockum, later Princess of Teschen
  • 1701–1706 with Fatima, Turkish woman, renamed later as Maria Aurora of Spiegel
  • 1704–1713 with Anna Constantia of Brockdorff, later Countess of Cosel
  • 1706–1707 with Henriette Rénard
  • 1708 with Angélique Duparc, French dancer and actress
  • 1713–1719 with Maria Magdalena of Bielinski, by her first marriage Countess of Dönhoff and by the second Princess Lubomirska
  • 1720–1721 with Erdmuthe Sophie of Dieskau, by marriage of Loß
  • 1721–1722 with Baroness Christine of Osterhausen, by marriage of Stanislawski
  • ?–? with Friederike, a black woman.