Augustus II The Strong

Augustus II[a] (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in the years 1697–1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin.

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.[1] He is also notable for fathering a very large number of children.

In order to be elected King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism. As a Catholic, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece from the Holy Roman Emperor and established the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest distinction. As Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He transformed the Saxon capital of Dresden into 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. In 1717 he served as the Imperial vicar of the Holy Roman Empire.

His reigns brought Poland some troubled times. He led the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War, which allowed the Russian Empire to strengthen its influence in Europe, especially within Poland. His main pursuit was bolstering royal power in the Commonwealth, characterized by broad decentralization in comparison with other European monarchies. He tried to accomplish this goal using foreign powers and thus destabilized the state. Augustus ruled Poland with an interval; in 1704 the Swedes installed nobleman Stanisław Leszczyński as king, who officially reigned from 1706 to 1709 and after Augustus' death in 1733 which sparked the War of the Polish Succession.

Augustus' body was buried in Poland's royal Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, but his heart rests in the Dresden Cathedral. His only legitimate son, Augustus III of Poland, became king in 1733.

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.[3]

Augustus, a voracious womanizer, never missed his wife, spending his time with a series of mistresses:[13][14]

1694–1696 with Countess Maria Aurora von 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 von Spiegel
1704–1713 with Anna Constantia von 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 Kristiane of Osterhausen, by marriage of Stanisławski
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. Perhaps the number refers not to the king's children but to the nights that he spent with his mistresses. Augustus officially recognised only a tiny fraction of that number as his bastards (the mothers of these "chosen ones," with the possible exception of Fatima,[b] were all aristocratic ladies):

With Maria Aurora von Königsmarck
Hermann Maurice (Goslar, 28 October 1696 – Château de Chambord, 30 November 1750), Comte de Saxe.
With Ursula Katharina of Altenbockum
Johann Georg (21 August 1704 – 25 February 1774), Chevalier de Saxe, later Governor of Dresden.
With the Turk Fatima, later Maria Aurora von Spiegel
Frederick Augustus (Warsaw/Dresden [?], 19 June 1702 – Pillnitz, 16 March 1764), Count Rutowsky
Maria Anna Katharina (1706–1746), Countess Rutowska; married firstly in January 1728 to Michał, Count Bieliński, divorced in early 1732; secondly, in February 1732, to Claude Marie Noyel, Comte du Bellegarde et d'Entremont.
With Anna Constantia von Brockdorff
Augusta Anna Constantia (24 February 1708 – 3 February 1728), Countess of Cosel; married on 3 June 1725 to Heinrich Friedrich, Count of Friesen
Fredericka Alexandrine (27 October 1709 – 1784), Countess of Cosel; married on 18 February 1730 to Jan Kanty, Count Moszyński
Frederick Augustus (27 August 1712 – 15 October 1770), Count of Cosel; married on 1 June 1749 to Countess Friederike Christiane of Holtzendorff. They had four children. The two sons, Gustav Ernst and Segismund, died unmarried. One of the two daughters, Constantia Alexandrina, married Johann Heinrich, Lehnsgraf Knuth. The other, named Charlotte, first married Count Rudolf of Bünau and then married Charles de Riviere.
With Henriette Rénard
Anna Karolina (26 November 1707 – Avignon, 27 September 1769), Countess Orzelska; married on 10 August 1730 to Karl Ludwig Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck. They divorced in 1733.