Augustus III of Poland

Royal titles in Latin: Augustus tertius, Dei gratia rex Poloniae, magnus dux Lithuaniæ, Russiæ, Prussiæ, Masoviæ, Samogitiæ, Kijoviæ, Volhiniæ, Podoliæ, Podlachiæ, Livoniæ, Smolensciæ, Severiæ, Czerniechoviæque, nec non-hæreditarius dux Saxoniæ et princeps elector.

English translation: August III, by the grace of God, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia (i.e. Galicia), Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Podlaskie, Livonia, Smolensk, Severia, Chernihiv, and also hereditary Duke of Saxony and Prince-elector.

Augustus, aged 19 years in 1715 by Nicolas de Largillière

Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Prince-Elector of Saxony and king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. His mother was Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Groomed to succeed his father as king of Poland, Augustus converted to Catholicism in 1712; when publicly announced, this caused discontent among the Protestant Saxon aristocracy. Faced with a hereditary Catholic succession for Saxony, Prussia and Hanover attempted to oust Saxony from the directorship of the Protestant body in the Reichstag, but Saxony managed to retain the directorship.

Royal Monogram Of King Augustus III of Poland.

Upon the death of Augustus II in 1733, Augustus inherited the Saxon electorate and was elected to the Polish throne, with the support of the Russian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. He was opposed by the forces of Stanisław I Leszczyński, who had usurped the throne with Swedish support during the Great Northern War. Reigning from 1706 until 1709, Stanisław was overthrown after the Swedish defeat at Poltava. Returning from exile in 1733 with the support of Louis XV of France, Stanisław sparked the War of the Polish Succession, which concluded in 1738 with a victory for Augustus's Russian and Imperial allies.

As King, Augustus was uninterested in the affairs of his Polish–Lithuanian dominion, focusing instead on hunting, the opera, and the collection of artwork (see Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister). He spent less than three years of his thirty-year reign in Poland, where political feuding between the House of Czartoryski and the Potocki paralysed the Sejm (Liberum Veto), fostering internal political anarchy and weakening the Commonwealth. Augustus delegated most of his powers and responsibilities in the Commonwealth to Heinrich von Brühl, who served in effect as the viceroy of Poland.

Augustus's eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian of Saxony, succeeded his father as Elector. A Russian-supported coup d'état in Poland, instigated by the Czartoryskis, resulted in the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania on 7 September 1764. Reigning under the name Stanisław II, Poniatowski was the son of the elder Stanisław Poniatowski, a powerful Polish noble and a onetime agent of Stanisław I; he was a lover of Catherine II of Russia and as such enjoyed strong support from that Empress's court.

August was portrayed by Ernst Dernburg in the 1941 film Friedemann Bach.

In Dresden on 20 August 1719, Augustus married Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor. They had sixteen children:

• Frederick Augustus Franz Xavier (born Dresden, 18 November 1720 – died Dresden, 22 January 1721)
• Joseph Augustus Wilhelm Frederick Franz Xavier Johann Nepomuk (born Pillnitz, 24 October 1721 – died Dresden, 14 March 1728)
• Frederick Christian Leopold Johann Georg Franz Xavier (born Dresden, 5 September 1722 – died Dresden, 17 December 1763), successor to his father as Elector of Saxony
• Stillborn daughter (Dresden, 23 June 1723)
• Maria Amalia Christina Franziska Xaveria Flora Walburga (born Dresden, 24 November 1724 – died Buen Retiro, 27 September 1760); married on 19 June 1738 to Charles VII, King of Naples, later King Charles III of Spain
• Maria Margaretha Franziska Xaveria (born Dresden, 13 September 1727 – died Dresden, 1 February 1734), died in childhood.
• Maria Anna Sophie Sabina Angela Franziska Xaveria (born Dresden, 29 August 1728 – died Munich, 17 February 1797); married on 9 August 1747 to Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
• Franz Xavier Albert August Ludwig Benno (born Dresden, 25 August 1730 – died Dresden, 21 June 1806), Regent of Saxony (1763–1768)
• Maria Josepha Karolina Eleonore Franziska Xaveria (born Dresden, 4 November 1731 – died Versailles, 13 March 1767); married on 9 February 1747 to Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), son of Louis XV of France (she was the mother of Kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X) of France
• Karl Christian Joseph Ignaz Eugen Franz Xavier (born Dresden, 13 July 1733 – died Dresden, 16 June 1796), Duke of Courland and Zemgale (1758–1763)
• Maria Christina Anna Teresia Salomea Eulalia Franziska Xaveria (born Warsaw, 12 February 1735 – died Brumath, 19 November 1782), Princess-Abbess of Remiremont
• Maria Elisabeth Apollonia Casimira Francisca Xaveria (born Warsaw, 9 February 1736 – died Dresden, 24 December 1818), died unmarried
• Albert Kasimir August Ignaz Pius Franz Xavier (born Moritzburg, near Dresden, 11 July 1738 – died Vienna, 10 February 1822), Duke of Teschen and Governor of the Austrian Netherlands (1781–1793)
• Clemens Wenceslaus August Hubertus Franz Xavier (born Schloss Hubertusburg, Wermsdorf, 28 September 1739 – died Marktoberdorf, Allgäu, 27 July 1812), Archbishop of Trier
• Maria Kunigunde Dorothea Hedwig Franziska Xaveria Florentina (born Warsaw, 10 November 1740 – died Dresden, 8 April 1826), Princess-Abbess of Thorn and Essen; nearly married Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans; Philippe Égalité.

In 1733, the composer Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated the Mass for the Dresden court (Kyrie and Gloria of what would later become his Mass in B Minor) to Augustus in honor of his succession to the Saxon electorate, with the hope of appointment as Court Composer, a title Bach received three years later. Bach's title of 'Koeniglicher Pohlnischer Hoff Compositeur' ('Royal Polish Court Composer,' and court composer to the Kurfuerst of Saxony) is engraved on the title page of Bach's famous Goldberg Variations.