Kong Friedrich August, af Polen[1]
1670 - 1733 (62 år)-
Navn Friedrich August Titel Kong Suffiks af Polen Kælenavn Den stærke Født 12 maj 1670 Sachsen, Tyskland 
Adresse:
DresdenKøn Mand Beskæftigelse kurfyrste Død 1 feb. 1733 Polen Adresse:
Warszawa, MasovienPerson-ID I12120 My Family Genealogy | Familen Ravnholdt & Hansen Sidst ændret 13 apr. 2023
Far Kurfyrste Johann Georg III., af Sachen, f. 20 jun. 1647, Dresden, Sachsen, Tyskland , d. 12 sep. 1691, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Tyskland (Alder 44 år) Mor Prinsesse Anna Sophie, af Danmark og Norge, f. 1 sep. 1647, København (Staden), Københavns Amt, Danmark , d. 1 jul. 1717, Prettin, Wittenberg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Tyskland (Alder 69 år) Gift 9 okt. 1666 København-, Sokkelund Herred, Københavns Amt, Danmark Familie-ID F3459 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 1 Markgrevinde Christiane Eberhardine, af Brandenburg-Bayreuth, f. 29 dec. 1671, Bayern, Tyskland , d. 5 sep. 1727, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 55 år) Gift 1693 Børn 1. Kong August III., af Polen, f. 17 okt. 1696, Dresden, Sachsen, Tyskland , d. 5 okt. 1763, Dresden, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 66 år)+ 2. Kong Frederick Augustus III., af Polen, f. 17 okt. 1696, Dresden, Sachsen, Tyskland , d. 5 okt. 1763, Dresden, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 66 år)3. Friedrich August, af Rutowsky, f. 1702, d. 1764 (Alder 62 år) 4. Katharina, af Rutowsky, d. Ja, dato ukendt Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3460 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 2 Grevinde Anna Constantia von Brockdorff, af Cosel, f. 18 okt. 1680, Schleswig-Holstein, Tyskland , d. 31 mar. 1765, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 84 år) Børn 1. Grevinde Augusta Constantia von Cosel, f. 24 feb. 1708, d. 3 feb. 1728 (Alder 19 år) 2. Grevinde Friederike Alexandrine von Cosel, f. 27 okt. 1709, d. 16 dec. 1784 (Alder 75 år) 3. Greve Friedrich August von Cosel, f. 27 aug. 1712, d. 15 okt. 1770 (Alder 58 år) Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3461 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 3 Henriette Rénard, f. 1685, d. 1724 (Alder 39 år) Børn 1. Grevinde Anna Karolina Orzelska, f. 23 nov. 1707, Polen , d. 27 sep. 1769, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Frankrig (Alder 61 år)Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3462 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 4 Grevinde Maria Aurora, af Königsmarck, f. 28 aug. 1662, Niedersachsen, Tyskland , d. 16 feb. 1728, Sachsen-Anhalt, Tyskland (Alder 65 år) Børn 1. Greve Hermann Maurice, af Sachen, f. 28 okt. 1696, Neder Sachsen, Tyskland , d. 30 nov. 1750, Centre-Val de Loire, Frankrig (Alder 54 år)Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3463 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 5 Prinsesse Ursula Katharina Lubomirska, af Altenbockum, f. 25 nov. 1680, Polen , d. 4 maj 1743, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 62 år) Børn 1. Greve Johann Georg, af Sachsen, f. 21 aug. 1704, d. 25 feb. 1774, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 69 år)Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3464 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
Familie 6 Maria Aurora (Fatima), af Speigel, d. 1733 Børn 1. Greve Frederick Augustus Rutowsky, f. 19 jun. 1702, Sachsen, Tyskland , d. 16 mar. 1764, Sachsen, Tyskland (Alder 61 år)2. Grevinde Maria Anna Katharina Rutowska, f. 1706, d. 1746 (Alder 40 år) Sidst ændret 1 aug. 2018 Familie-ID F3465 Gruppeskema | Familietavle
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Notater - Kurfürst von Sachsen (Friedrich August I, 1694-1733), król Polski (1697 - 24. september 1706, 1709-1733), roi de Pologne (1697 - 24. september 1706, 1709-1733), 597 Knight of the Order of the Golden
Fleece - 1697.
- Augustus was born in Dresden, the second and youngest son of the Elector Johann Georg III and Anne Sophie of Denmark.
As the second son, Augustus had no expectation to inherit the Electorate since his older brother, Johann Georg IV, assumed the post after the death of their father, on 12 September 1691.
In Bayreuth on 20 January 1693, Augustus married Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. 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 at the Carnival in Venice, his older brother, the Elector Johann Georg IV, contracted smallpox from his mistress Magdalene Sybille of Neidschutz. On 27 April 1694 Johann Georg died without legitimate issue and Augustus became Elector of Saxony, as Frederick Augustus I.
In order to be eligible for the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus had to convert to Roman Catholicism. Saxon dukes had traditionally been called "champions of the Reformation." The duchy was a stronghold of German Protestantism and therefore, Augustus's conversion was spectacular and not without controversy. The Roman Catholic electors of Saxony lost the prestigious leading role of the Protestant estates in the Imperial Diet (see Reichstag) to Brandenburg-Prussia. Since the prince-elector guaranteed Saxony's religious status quo, Augustus's conversion alienated some of his Protestant subjects. Finally, as a result of the enormous expenditure of money used to bribe the Polish nobility and clergy at the expense of the Saxon treasury, Augustus's contemporaries derisively referred to the Saxon duke's royal ambitions as his "Polish adventure."
It is noteworthy that the directorate of the Corpus Evangelicorum, which was the official Imperial board of the Protestant estates and the counterpart of the Corpus Catholicorum, remained with Saxony and thus, paradoxically, with the Roman Catholic Augustus as its head. His church policy within the Holy Roman Empire was orthodox Lutheran 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 give religious freedom to his fellow Catholics to the full extent, but this never happened. Saxony remained Lutheran and the few Roman-Catholics residing in Saxony were without any political or civil rights. In 1717 it became clear just how awkward the issue was: For his ambitious family-plans in Poland and Germany it was necessary that Augustus's heirs 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 of Dresden, gaining for herself some popularity and notoriety for her stubbornness.
Following the death of Polish King John III Sobieski and having successfully 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 Jewish banker, Berend Lehmann.
It is sometimes incorrectly stated that Augustus defeated the other leading candidates, Jakub Ludwik Sobieski, son of the previous king, and the French candidate, François Louis, Prince of Conti. Augustus actually received fewer votes than Conti (despite a massive bribery campaign), but he rushed to Poland and had himself crowned before the French candidate could set foot in the Commonwealth. Some Poles questioned the legality of Augustus's elevation.
He continued the war of the Holy League against Turkey: After a Moldavian campaign his Polish army defeated the Tatar expedition eventually in the Battle of Podhajce in 1698. It 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 of his possessions. Poland's reward from this 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. Charles' decision ultimately proved as disastrous to Sweden as to Poland.
Charles defeated Augustus at Riga on 17 June 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 Kliszów, and took Kraków. He defeated another of Augustus's armies under command of Generalfeldmarschall Adam Heinrich von Steinau at the Pultusk in spring 1703, and besieged and captured Torun.
By this time, Augustus was certainly ready for peace, but Charles felt that he would be more secure if he could establish someone more pliable on the Polish throne. In 1704 the Swedes installed Stanislaw Leszczynski on Polish throne, it compelled Augustus II to introduce Poland to war alongside with Russia (alliance was concluded in Narva summer 1704). On 1 September 1706, Charles invaded Saxony, forcing Augustus to yield up the Polish throne to Leszczynski by the Treaty of Altranstadt.
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.
The weakened Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soon came to be regarded 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. After the Silent Sejm, he gave up his ambitions and finally settled on attempts to strengthen the Polish-Lithuanian 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.
Augustus II was called "the Strong" for his bear-like physical strength and for his numerous offspring (only one of them was the legitimate child and heir). The most famous of the king’s bastards was Maurice de Saxe who was a brilliant strategist and reached the highest military ranks in Ancien Régime France. In the War of the Polish Succession he remained loyal to his employer Louis XV of France, who was married to the daughter of Augustus's rival Stanislaw Leszczynski and hence an opponent of Augustus III. In recognition of his service, Maurice de Saxe was eventually made one of only six maréchaux généraux in French history. He was the great-grandfather of French novelist George Sand, the longtime companion of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.
August was 1.76 meters (5’ 9½”) tall, above average height for that time, but despite his extraordinary physical strength he did not look big. In his final years he suffered from diabetes mellitus and became obese, at his death weighing some 110 kg (242 lbs). August II's body was interred in Poland — all but his heart, which rests at Dresden's Katholische Hofkirche.
In Warsaw, the Saxon Garden (Polish: Ogród Saski) commemorates the role of August II in expanding the city's public places.
Augustus loved fine arts and architecture. During his reign, palaces were built, mainly in Dresden, known for centuries of extraordinary cultural and artistic splendor.
From 1687 to 1689 Augustus toured France and Italy. Especially the lavish and extravagant court in Versailles--which was perfectly tailored to fit the needs of an absolute monarch--impressed him deeply. In an absolute monarchy a flamboyantly splendid residence was symbolically most important as it publicly displayed and celebrated the princely power and thus legitimated the prince's claim of governance: The court was an open arena to bind, entertain and eventually domesticate the aristocracy--which was vital for a monarch with absolutistic ambitions, as it turned independent nobles into fawning courtiers. Completely in accordance with the spirit of the baroque age Augustus--who was holding not just one but two highly prestigious princely titles--invested heavily in the representative splendor of his residence to show off--as did most absolute monarchs of that time, depending on their resources. On the one hand he started to create an adequate architectural and cultural background for his reign: With strict edificial regulations, major urban development plans and a certain feeling for art the king began to transform Dresden into a renowned baroque ensemble with one of Germany’s finest art collections, though most of the famous sights and landmarks of Dresden were completed during the reign of his son Augustus III. On the other hand Augustus II perfectly stage-managed his reign in Dresden. Being a man of pleasure the king used every excuse to throw a party: His lavish court balls, Venetian-style balli in maschera, gatherings, games and garden festivities were numerous, most luxurious and legendary. They are well documented by Saxon and Polish courtiers and they gave his court a fabulous reputation throughout Europe.
Augustus II successfully set out to discover the secret of "white gold," as the porcelain that he produced at Dresden and Meissen was described. In 1701 he rescued the young alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who was fleeing from Fredrick the First's expectation that he produce gold as he had boasted he could. King Augustus II imprisoned Böttger and forced him to reveal the secret of manufacturing gold. Böttger's transition from alchemist to potter was orchestrated as an attempt to avoid the impossible demands of the king. Being an alchemist by profession rather than a potter gave Böttger an advantage in the quest for the secret of porcelain. He realized that the current approaches which involved mixing fine white substances like crushed egg shells into clay was not the answer, but rather his approach was to attempt to bake the clay at higher temperatures than ever before created in a kiln in Europe. He intended to melt the structure of the clay so as to transmute it into a new substance. That approach yielded the breakthrough which had eluded European potters for a century. Today the manufacture of fine porcelain continues at the Meissen porcelain Factory. Augustus II also gathered together in Dresden many of the best architects and painters from all over Europe, and his reign marked the beginning of Dresden's development as a leading center of technology and art.
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 Anna 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 Fredierike, a black woman.
Some contemporary sources, including Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, claimed that Augustus had as many as 365 or 382 children. The number is extremely difficult to verify; Augustus officially recognized only a tiny fraction of that number as his bastards (the mothers of these "chosen ones," with the possible exception of Fatima, were all aristocratic ladies):
- Kurfürst von Sachsen (Friedrich August I, 1694-1733), król Polski (1697 - 24. september 1706, 1709-1733), roi de Pologne (1697 - 24. september 1706, 1709-1733), 597 Knight of the Order of the Golden
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Kilder - [S999] www.finnholbek.dk, Finn Holbek, Friedrich August (the Strong) King of Poland (Troværdighed: 3), 28 okt. 2010.
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- [S999] www.finnholbek.dk, Finn Holbek, Friedrich August (the Strong) King of Poland (Troværdighed: 3), 28 okt. 2010.