Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony

Augustus III
Augustus III by Louis de Silvestre
King of Poland Grand Duke of Lithuania
Reign	1734 – 5 October 1763
Coronation	17 January 1734 Wawel Cathedral, Kraków
Predecessor	Stanisław I
Successor	Stanisław II Augustus
Elector of Saxony
Predecessor	Frederick Augustus I
Successor	Frederick Christian
Born	17 October 1696 Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Died	5 October 1763(1763-10-05) (aged 66) Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Burial	Dresden, family vault at Katholische Hofkirche
Spouse	Maria Josepha of Austria
Issue More	Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony Maria Amalia, Queen of Spain Princess Maria Margaretha Maria Anna Sophia, Electress of Bavaria Prince Franz Xavier Maria Josepha, Dauphine of France Carl, Duke of Courland Maria Christina, Abbess of Remiremont Princess Maria Elisabeth Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen Clemens Wenceslaus, Archbishop of Trier Maria Kunigunde, Abbess of Essen
House	House of Wettin
Father	Augustus II the Strong
Mother	Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
Signature

Augustus III (Polish: August III Sas, Lithuanian: Augustas III; 17 October 1696 – 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1734 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire from 1733 until 1763 where he was known as Frederick Augustus II (German: Friedrich August II).

The only legitimate son of Augustus II of Poland, he followed his father’s example by joining the Roman Catholic Church in 1712. In 1719 he married Maria Josepha, daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph I and became elector of Saxony on his father’s death in 1733. As a candidate for the Polish crown, he secured the support of the emperor Charles VI by assenting to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, designed to preserve the integrity of the Habsburg inheritance, and that of the Russian empress Anna by supporting Russia’s claim to Courland. Chosen king by a small minority of electors on 5 October 1733, he drove his rival, the former Polish king Stanisław I, into exile. He was crowned in Kraków on 17 January 1734, and was generally recognised as king in Warsaw in June 1736.

Augustus gave Saxon support to Austria against Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession (1742) and again in the Seven Years’ War (1756). His last years were marked by the increasing influence of the Czartoryski and Poniatowski families, and by the intervention of Catherine the Great in Polish affairs. His rule deepened the anarchy in Poland and increased the country’s dependence on its neighbours. The Russian Empire, which had assisted him in his bid to succeed his father, prevented him from installing his family on the Polish throne, supporting instead the aristocrat Stanisław August Poniatowski. During his reign, Augustus spent little time in Poland and more interested in ease and pleasure than in affairs of state, this notable patron of the arts left the administration of Saxony and Poland to his chief adviser, Heinrich von Brühl, who in turn left Polish administration chiefly to the powerful Czartoryski family.