It was in Pretzsch that she brought up her son, who would become Elector August II, or August III
as King of Poland. Though under the Queen her son grew up in the Lutheran faith, after her death
his father sent him to Italy where he adopted Catholicism. She was loved and deeply mourned by the
local Protestants. Hans von Kirchbach, a young nobleman studying at Leipzig's University, proposed
a memorial service in the Paulinerkirche where he would deliver a valedictory address. He hired one
of Bach's librettist, Johann Christoph Gottsched, to write verses for a Mourning Ode, and Bach to set
these verses to music in Cantata 198, the "Trauer Ode". Bells rang all over the city of Leipzig as the
ceremony took place on October 17th, 1727.
A patron of the arts and architecture, Augustus toured France and Italy and built fantastic baroque
palaces at both Dresden and Warsaw. As Elector of Saxony, Augustus turned the Saxon capital of
Dresden into a major cultural center with one of Germany’s finest art collections, attracting artists
and musicians from across Europe to his court. His courts gained a fabulous reputation throughout
Europe and were famous for his lavish balls. Augustus was also known as Augustus II the Strong and
August II der Starke for his immense physical strength in the tradition of his ancestor Cymburgis of
Masovia. Tall for the times at about 5’ 10”, he demonstrated his muscle by breaking iron horseshoes
with his hands. He is also legendary for his numerous offspring, having been said to have fathered
365 or 382 children with various mistresses, only one being a legitimate heir.
An ambitious ruler, Augustus hoped to make the Polish throne hereditary within his family line, and
to impose some order on the politically messy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Soon facing the
possibility of external conquest by Sweden under their young King Charles XII, his plans for reforms
had to wait and he allied himself with Imperial Russia, who financed him through the banking house
of money lender Berend Lehmann. This ended up pulling Poland into the Northern War. Sweden
attacked Poland, deposing Augustus who abdicated after Swedish armies entered Saxony. In 1704,
the Swedes installed Augustus’s rival, Stanisław Leszczyński, on Polish throne.
Ultimately, Augustus regained the crown after Peter the Great 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. In 1709, Augustus II returned to the Polish throne under Russian
auspices, making for an awkward and weak remainder of his reign. Upon his death at Warsaw in
1733, his body was interred in Poland and his heart taken to Dresden's Katholische Hofkirche.
The man most responsible for the Baroque beauty of the city of Dresden was Friedrich Augustus I,
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was born in Dresden, the second and youngest son
of the Elector Johann Georg III and Anne Sophie of Denmark. Upon the unexpected death of his
older brother Elector Johann Georg IV from smallpox, Augustus became Elector of Saxony as
Friedrich Augustus I. of the ancient Saxon House of Wettin, a royal German dynasty which lasted
longer than every other German dynasty and was in power, until 1918; for 829 years,
the longest time any European house ruled a country.
Friedrich Augustus I, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland 1670 – 1733
Although Saxons were traditionally Protestant, Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism in order to
be eligible for the throne of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, disgusting not only his Protestant
Saxon subjects, but alienating his uncrowned wife of only four years, the Electress Christiane
Eberhardine, who refused to accept her husband's actions and remained a staunch Protestant. She
did not attend her husband's coronation in Poland and instead went into self-exile in Pretzsch Castle
on the Elbe where she remained until her death in 1727.
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