Augustus II the Strong

Augustus II the Strong  of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin 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.

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 in 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.

Augustus was born in Dresden on 12 May 1670, the younger son of the Elector John George III and Anne Sophie of Denmark.

As the second son, Augustus had no expectation of inheriting the electorate, since his older brother, John George IV, assumed the post after the death of their father on 12 September 1691.

Augustus married Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in Bayreuth on 20 January 1693. They had a son, Frederick Augustus II (1696–1763), who succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony and King of Poland as Augustus III.

While disporting himself during the carnival season in Venice, his older brother, the Elector John George IV, contracted smallpox from his mistress Magdalene Sybille of Neidschutz. On 27 April 1694, John George died without legitimate issue and Augustus became Elector of Saxony, as Frederick Augustus I.

To be eligible for election to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697, Augustus had to convert to Roman Catholicism. The Saxon dukes had traditionally been called "champions of the Reformation." The duchy had been a stronghold of German Protestantism and Augustus' conversion was therefore considered shocking in Protestant Europe. The electors of Saxony had to cede its prestigious role as leader of the Protestant Estates in the Imperial Diet to Brandenburg-Prussia. Since the prince-elector guaranteed Saxony's religious status quo, Augustus' conversion alienated many of his Protestant subjects. As a result of the enormous expenditure of money used to bribe the Polish nobility and clergy, Augustus' contemporaries derisively referred to the Saxon duke's royal ambitions as his "Polish adventure."

Throughout all of this, the directorate of the Corpus Evangelicorum, which was the official imperial board of the Protestant Estates and the counterpart of the Corpus Catholicorum, remained under Saxon auspices with the Roman Catholic Augustus, paradoxically, at its head. His church policy within the Holy Roman Empire followed orthodox Lutheranism and ran counter to his new-found religious and absolutist convictions. The Protestant princes of the empire and the two remaining Protestant electors (of Hanover and Prussia) were anxious to keep Saxony well-integrated in their camp. According to the Peace of Augsburg, Augustus theoretically had the right to re-introduce Roman Catholicism (see Cuius regio, eius religio), or at least grant full religious freedom to his fellow Catholics in Saxony, but this never happened. Saxony remained Lutheran and the few Roman Catholics residing in Saxony lacked any political or civil rights.

In 1717, it became clear just how awkward the situation was: to realize his ambitious dynastic plans in Poland and Germany, it was necessary for Augustus' heirs to become Roman Catholic. After five years as a convert, his son—the future Augustus III—publicly avowed his Roman Catholicism. The Saxon Estates were outraged and revolted. It was becoming clearer that the conversion to Roman Catholicism was not only a matter of form, but of substance as well.

The wife of Augustus I, the Electress Christiane Eberhardine, refused to follow her husband's example and remained a staunch Protestant. She did not attend her husband's coronation in Poland and led a rather quiet life outside Dresden, gaining some popularity for her stubbornness.

King of Poland for the first time

Following the death of Polish King John III Sobieski and having converted to Catholicism, Augustus was elected King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697 with the backing of Imperial Russia and Austria, which financed him through the banker, Berend Lehmann. At the time, some questioned the legality of Augustus' elevation, since another candidate, François Louis, Prince of Conti, had received more votes. Both candidates, Conti and Augustus, were proclaimed as king by different ecclesiastical authorities (by Primate Michaŀ Radziejowski and Bishop of Kujawy Stanisław Dąmbski, respectively, with Jacob Heinrich von Flemming swearing to the pacta conventa in Augustus's place). However, Augustus hurried to the Commonwealth with a Saxon army, while Conti stayed in France for two months.

Augustus continued the war of the Holy League against Turkey, and after a campaign in Moldavia, his Polish army eventually defeated the Tatar expedition in the Battle of Podhajce in 1698. This victory compelled the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Podolia and Kamieniec Podolski returned to Poland. An ambitious ruler, Augustus hoped to make the Polish throne hereditary within his family, and to use his resources as Elector of Saxony to impose some order on the chaotic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was, however, soon distracted from his internal reform projects by the possibility of external conquest. He formed an alliance with Denmark's Frederick IV and Russia's Peter I to strip Sweden's young King Charles XII (who was Augustus' cousin) of his possessions. Poland's reward for participation in the Great Northern War was to have been the Swedish territory of Livonia. Charles proved an able military commander, however, quickly forcing the Danes out of the war and then driving back the Russians at Narva, thereby allowing him to focus on the struggle with Augustus. However, this war ultimately proved as disastrous for Sweden as for Poland.

Charles defeated Augustus' army at Riga in July 1701, forcing the Polish-Saxon army to withdraw from Livonia, and followed this up with an invasion of Poland. He captured Warsaw on 14 May 1702, defeated the Polish-Saxon army again at the Battle of Kliszów, and took Kraków. He defeated another of Augustus' armies under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Adam Heinrich von Steinau at the Battle of Pułtusk in spring 1703, and besieged and captured Thorn (Toruń).

By this time, Augustus was certainly ready for peace, but Charles felt that he would be more secure if he could establish someone with whom he had more influence on the Polish throne. In 1704 the Swedes installed Stanisław Leszczyński and tied the commonwealth to Sweden, which compelled Augustus to initiate military operations in Poland alongside Russia (an alliance was concluded in Narva in summer 1704). The resulting civil war in Poland (1704-1706) and Grodno campaign did not go well for August. Following the Battle of Fraustadt, on 1 September 1706, Charles invaded Saxony, forcing Augustus to yield the Polish throne to Leszczyński by the Treaty of Altranstädt.

Meanwhile, Russia's Tsar Peter the Great had reformed his army, and dealt a crippling defeat to the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava. This spelled the end of the Swedish Empire and the rise of the Russian Empire.

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 by the Russian army in the War of the Polish Succession.

Legacy

Augustus II and the arts

Augustus is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He loved fine arts and architecture, and he had beautiful palaces built in Dresden, a city that became renowned for extraordinary cultural brilliance. He introduced the first public museums, such as the Green Vault in 1723, and started systematic collection of paintings that are now on display in the Old Masters Gallery.

From 1687 to 1689, Augustus toured France and Italy. The extravagant court in Versailles—perfectly tailored to fit the needs of an absolute monarch—impressed him deeply. In accordance with the spirit of the baroque age, Augustus invested heavily in the representative splendor of Dresden Castle, his major residence, to advertise his wealth and power.

With strict building regulations, major urban development plans, and a certain feeling for art, the king began to transform Dresden into a renowned cultural center with one of Germany's finest art collections, though most of the city's famous sights and landmarks were completed during the reign of his son Augustus III. The most famous building started under Augustus the Strong was the Zwinger. Also known are Pillnitz Castle, his summer residence, Moritzburg Castle and Hubertusburg Castle, his hunting lodges.

A man of pleasure, the king sponsored lavish court balls, Venetian-style balli in maschera, and luxurious court gatherings, games, and garden festivities. His court acquired a reputation for extravagance throughout Europe. He held a famous animal-tossing contest in Dresden at which 647 foxes, 533 hares, 34 badgers and 21 wildcats were tossed and killed. Augustus himself participated, reportedly demonstrating his strength by holding the end of his sling by just one finger, with two of the strongest men in his court on the other end.