Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (full name: Emil Leopold August) (23 November 1772 — 17 May 1822), was a Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, and the author of one of the first modern novels to treat of same-sex love. He was the maternal grandfather of Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria.

He was born on 23 November 1772 in Gotha, the second son of Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen. In 1779 the death of his older brother Ernst made him the heir to the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. In his youth he was very well educated, and his environment—sympathetic to the Jacobins—impressed on him the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity.

He was already a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte when he succeeded his father in 1804, which was an advantage in the Napoleonic wars. Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg joined the Rhine Confederation in 1806. When the French Army marched into his duchy in this year, August remained in Gotha and thus prevented a potential escalation. He also stood up for the imprisoned critical journalist Rudolph Zacharias Becker and persuaded the military commander to swiftly set him free.

Napoleon Bonaparte, who always started his letters to Augustus with mon cousin and ended them with votre cousin, visited the Duke several times in Gotha as a sign of his appreciation, but never stayed the night at Friedenstein Castle. The following visits by Napoleon to the town (some of them very short) and meetings with Duke Augustus are known:

From 1811 to 1813 the Duke celebrated Napoleon's birthday on 15 August with a gala reception at Schloss Friedenstein. In 1807 he had acquired one of Napoleon's bicorn hats from his servant Louis Constant Wairy, which is displayed to this day at Friedenstein. On Napoleon's visit on 23 July 1807, August gave the French Emperor an extravagant black carriage, which Napoleon however declined to use, due to its similarity with a death's head. Augustus' Napoleon-fandom peaked when he built a Napoleon room in Schloss Friedenstein in the Empire style, which he had designed personally — still a highlight of the museum today. The room's ceiling shows a starry sky with sun and moon, while the sun shows features of Napoleon, and the moon shows Augustus' face.

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