Frederick Augustus I of Saxony

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony.

Frederick Augustus I (full name: Frederick Augustus Joseph Maria Anton Johann Nepomuk Aloys Xavier) (Template:Lang-de; b. Dresden, 23 December 1750 - d. Dresden, 5 May 1827) was King of Saxony (1805-1827) from the House of Wettin. He was also Elector Frederick Augustus III (Friedrich August III.) of Saxony (1763-1806) and Duke Frederick Augustus I (Template:Lang-pl) of Warsaw (1807-1813).

He was the second but eldest surviving son of Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony, and Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria, Princess of Bavaria.

Elector of Saxony and Elect King of Poland

Early Years

Frederick Augustus succeeded his father as Elector when he died, on 17 December 1763. Because he was only thirteen-years-old, by the first five years of his reign (1763-68) his mother, the Dowager Electress Maria Antonia was the regent and his paternal uncle Franz Xavier was the administrator of the Electorate.

Renunciation of the Polish Throne

In 1765 the Prince Franz Xavier expressed the renunciation of the Polish Crown in favour of Stanislaus Poniatowski in name of the young Elector. However, with the discharge of the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791 by the Sejm, Frederick Augustus was appointed the successor of the King Stanislaus II and was fixed at the same time the hereditary succession of the Electorate House of Saxony for the Polish throne (Article VII of the Polish Constitution). In view of the difficult times in the foreign politics, Frederick Augustus declined the crown, because he feared to be involved, as a King of Poland, in warlike discussions with Austria, Prussia and Russia, which had some areas of the coutry since the First Partition of 1772. Actually, after the deposition of the King Stanislaus II the complete subdivision of Poland took place on 1795. Poland remain divided under the powers of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

The Declaration of Pillnitz and War against the France Revolution

In 1791 Frederick Augustus arranged a meeting between the Emperor Leopold II and king Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia on Schloss Pillnitz with the purprose, which among other things, the support of the French monarchy. The Declaration of Pillnitz also contained the view of a military action against the French Revolution and gave to France the occasion to declared the war to Austria in April 1792. Frederick Augustus refused to sign the Declaration.

In July 1792 when Austria and Prussia formed a closed defensive alliance against France, the Electorate of Saxony didn't join. The Proclamation of War was made in the Reichstag of March 1793; this obliged Frederick Augustus, of course, to participated in the war. When Prussia concluded a separate peace with France in April 1795 suddenly at the expenses of the empire to be able to break uphindered the resistance against the subdivision of Poland, this also cared in the Electorate. After other imperial states had come separate peace alliances with France and moved forward the Frenchmen to the east, Saxony left the coalition in August 1796. With his peace with France, as well as on the Rastatter Congress which should approve the transfer of the imperial area on the left of the Rhine to France since 1797, allowed to demonstrate Frederick August the weak and obsolet constitutional principles of the Empire. Neither in Rastatt nor with the German Mediatisation of 1803 Saxony received any compensation in the general national haggling whose main beneficiaries were Bavaria, Prussia, Würtemberg and Baden.

Peace Treaty with Napoleon

Frederick Augustus also didn't participate in the Confederation of the Rhine which led to the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Opposite the Prussian idea of a North German Empire within whose Saxony should be raised to the empire he appeared also reserved. As Napoleon, however, in reaction to a Berlin Ultimatum which demanded the retreat of the French troops on the area on the left of the Rhine, since September 1806 advanced to Thuringia, Frederick Augustus united with Prussia. In the Double Battle of Jena and Auerstädt in October 1806 the Prussian-Saxon troops against Napoleon suffered, of course, a devastating defeat. From Prussia whose state guidance and army guidance retreated headlessly to the east, completely only and also without every news calmly, Frederick Augustus with Napoleon -whose troops occupied directly Saxony- had to conclude the peace. On the 11 December 1806 the Treaty was signed in Posen by the authorized persons of both sides: Saxon had to join to the Confederation of the Rhine and leave the Thuringian areas to the new Austrian Empire to be established the Kingdom of Westphalia; however, the area got for it as a compensation around Cottbus promised and was raised near the Rhine union governments of Bavaria and Württemberg to the Empire.

King of Saxony and Duke of Warsaw

Elevation to the Saxon-Polish Ruler

Coat of arms of Saxony.

On 20 December 1806 Frederick Augustus was proclaimed King of Saxony (de: König von Sachsen). Also, after the Treaty of Tilsit signed between Prussia, Russia and Napoleon in July 1807, Frederick Augustus was appointed as Duke of Warsaw (pl: Księstwo Warszawskie). This time Frederick Augustus — who had rejected the Polish throne offered by the Sejm in 1791 — accepted immediately.

File:Duchy of Warsaw 11.PNG

Coat of arms of the Duchy of Warsaw.

In Dresden on 22 July 1807 Napoleon dictated the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw who, in the Article V (like the Polish Constitution of 1791) the Duchy of Warsaw was declared heredity in the now Saxon Royal House. Geopolitically the Duchy of Warsaw was the areas of the 2nd and 3rd Prussian partitions (1795), with the exception of Danzig (Gdańsk), which was made into the Free City of Danzig under joint French and Saxon "protection", and the district around Białystok, which was given to Russia. The Prussian territory was made up of territory from the former Prussian provinces of New East Prussia, Southern Prussia, New Silesia, and West Prussia. In addition, the new state was given the area along the Noteć river and the "Land of Chełmno".

Altogether, the Duchy had an initial area of around 104,000 km², with a population of approximately 2,600,000. The bulk of its inhabitants were Poles.

When in 1809 Austria tried to seize of the Duchy, it was hit by Saxon-Polish troops successfully and had to resign to a part of the lands retained by him since 1795, who then were added to the Duchy of Warsaw: Galicia, Zamość and the old capital of the defunct Kingdom of Poland, Kraków (Cracow). In July 1812 Frederick Augustus confirmed a proclamation of the Warsaw Reichstag with the purprose of resucite the Kingdom of Poland, but Napoleon refused.

State of Affairs and Situation during the War of Liberation

In 1813 during the War of Liberation Saxony found itself in a more difficult situation than the other warring states. The country was still solidly in Napoleon’s grip and at the same time had become the central arena of the war. In the autumn of 1813 at the start of the Battle of Leipzig [Battle of Nations] the local population of Saxony, which tallied about 2 million, faced almost a million soldiers. Napoleon openly threatened the King that he would consider Saxony as enemy territory and treat it accordingly should Frederick Augustus change sides. Frederick Augustus’ room for maneuver was consequently greatly limited. He did not want to put the country’s well-being into play frivolously. At the same time the memory was still vivid to the King that in 1806 Prussia had simply abandoned him.

In this difficult situation the King attempted during 1813 to cautiously enter into an alliance with the Great Coalition without risking publicly offending Napoleon and a declaration of war by the Corsican. In the spring as the Prussian and Russian troops entered Saxony the King first moved to the south in order to avoid a direct encounter and pursued secretly from Regensburg the completion of an alliance with Austria. The Saxon-Austrian Pact was concluded on April 20 and the King made the Prussian and Russian allies aware of it at the same time. Napoleon, from whom Frederick Augustus was not able to keep the disengagement concealed, summoned the King urgently to Saxony after he had defeated the Prussian-Russian troops at Grossgoerschen [Germany] on May 2. Without expectation of concrete help from Austria, which entered the war in August and in view of the defeat of the Prussian – Russian coalition, which now sent peace signals to France, Frederick Augustus decided to comply with the ultimatum.

Frederick Augustus’ decision brought the country scarcely any relief. Napoleon, angered at the near defection of the King and at the same time dependent upon the full mobilization of all available forces against the Coalition troops, harshly demanded the full resources of Saxony. In addition the country suffered under the changing fortunes of war and associated movements and quartering. At the end of August the Allies failed again to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden. Meanwhile Saxony was the principal arena of war and Dresden the mid-point of the French Army movements. Not until September 9 in Teplice [Czech Republic] did Austria conclude its alliance with Prussia and Russia. As Napoleon’s troops in Saxony formed up for the retreat before the expanded coalition, there came in September the first defectors from the Saxon Army to the allies.

Frederick Augustus mistrustful of Prussia in view of the experiences of the spring and arguably disappointed as well by Austria preferred not to immediately join the Coalition, especially while the country was exposed as before to the French grip. In the Battle of Leipzig [Battle of Nations] the Saxon as well as the Polish troops fought on the side of Napoleon. In view of the apparent defeat of the French even larger Saxon troop formations went over to the Coalition during the battle, whereas the Polish troops were largely annihilated.

Destiny of the Kingdom during the Congress of Vienna

More still than the difficult geopolitical position, the changing war luck, the missing support of Austria and finally also the hesitant attitude of the Saxon King became Frederick Augustus like the country probably the fact the calamity that the Prussian-Russian allies possessed no honest tendency to win Saxony for the antinapoleonic alliance. Since still before Prussia in France 17 March 1813 expressed the war and called his people to the weapons, it had communicated in Kalisch on 22 February with Russia on an alliance contract to weights of Saxony and Poland: the Duchy of Warsaw should fall mainly in Russia, be compensated Prussia for the Polish areas in Russia on the contrary with the annexation of Saxony. Grasping of Prussia at the rich, cultural and economically country of Saxony resulted, of course, not from any necessity for overcoming the Napoleonic foreign rule, but corresponded only to the old annexation dream which Frederick II develops in hispolitical testament of 1752 and had already tried to realize in the Seven Years' War mercilessly.

After the Battle of Leipzig the Prussian-Russian allies showed then also no interest in an alliance with the Saxon King in other battle against Napoleon, in spite of appropriate offers Frederick Augustus. Rather the King was led immediately in captivity in the town of Friedrichsfelde near Berlin, and Saxony was put under Russian-Prussian guardianship in the form a "General Government of the High Allied Powers" (Generalgouvernements der Hohen Verbündeten Mächte). Not from the Russian monarch Repnin up to the 8 November 1814 carried out the Government, probably, however, the subsequent, up to the 6 June 1815 lasting Prussian occupying and the steep appearance of the Freiherr von Stein cared in Saxony for sullenness.

On the Congress of Vienna Frederick Augustus who (in a different way than possibly to the representatives of France) which was prohibited participation simultaneously on behalf for the allies of Napoleon should be punished. Behind this reprimand nothing else stood, of course, than the intention of Prussia and Russia to put through their annexation plans arranged in Kalisch. The fact that it didn't come then, nevertheless, to the complete task of Saxony, lay with the fear of Austria and France before excessive growing stronger of Prussia. After the Congress threatened to break in the Saxon question, finally, one agreed on mediation of the tsar on the 7 January 1815 divided Saxony.

Acceptance of the Post War Order of the Vienna Conference

Frederick Augustus who was released from the Prussian prison in February 1815 delayed before agreeing to the division of his country. Since the King to be sure had no choice he finally gave in and on May 18 consented to the peace treaty laid before him by Prussia and Russia. With the signing of the treaty on May 21, 1815 a good 57% of the Saxon territory and 42% of the Saxon population fell to the northern neighbor.

Places and areas, which for hundreds of years had been connected to the Saxon landscape, became completely foreign, absorbed in part into artificially created administrative regions: for example, Wittenberg, the old capital of the Saxon Elector State [Holy Roman Empire] and seat of the National University made famous by Luther and Melanchthon (which was already done away with in 1817 through merger with the Prussian University of Halle), or Torgau, birthplace and place of residence of the Elector Frederick the Wise [Holy Roman Empire], was incorporated into one of the new hybrids created by Prussia by the name of Province Saxony. Lower Lusatia, which like Upper Lusatia had its constitutional autonomy conserved under Saxon rule, was incorporated into Province Brandenburg and ceased to exist as a state. Upper Lusatia was arbitrarily divided: the area assigned to Prussia, including Gorlitz next to the capital city Bautzen (which remained with Saxony), the center of the land for centuries was separated and added to Province Silesia; these areas, other than the territory remaining under Saxon rule, also lost their constitutional autonomy.

On May 22, 1815 Frederick Augustus rendered abdication of the Duchy of Warsaw, whose territory was primarily annexed by Russia, but also Prussia and Austria. In the area assigned to Russia, a Kingdom of Poland was created, that was joined in a hereditary union with the Czars. Facing the 1807 established Duchy and comparing more with the old Polish kingdom was this Congress Poland, arranged in Vienna, an appendage that no longer belonged to the old royal city of Cracow. The internal autonomy that the kingdom at first enjoyed was abolished in 1831 after a Polish revolt.

King of Saxony

Standing Among the People upon Return Home

When Frederick returned home to Saxony in July 1815 he was enthusiastically greeted throughout the land. Also numerous expressions of loyalty reached the King from the ceded territories where the populace regarded the new rulers coolly; shortly thereafter the notion of the “mandatory-Prussian” went around. In Liege where the majority of the regiments of the Saxon Army had been stationed since the beginning of 1815 there was a revolt at the end of April. At the behest of the Prussian King Blucher was to discharge the soldiers who came from the annexed territories, but Frederick Augustus’ men had not yet made their departure, and the Saxon soldiers rioted over it. Blucher had to flee the city and was able to put down the revolt only with additional Prussian troops that were called up.

Upon the King’s return sympathy of public opinion lay significantly on Frederick Augustus’ side. In Saxony the Prussian politics seemed all too ruthless against the country as well as against the King. The pathos of the Berlin special interests came across all too unpleasantly, as the rewards of the War of Liberation were distributed. For example, on top of Prussia’s compensation of the Rhineland Hardenberg attempted to legitimize the only half-won Saxony after the annexation plan arranged principally by him, Stein and Russia in Kalisz [Poland] was not able to be achieved at the Congress of Vienna.

Future generations have been taught to reject the position of Frederick Augustus in the War of Liberation. This is largely due to the influence of Heinrich von Treitschke whose imagery and assessments determined the academic discourse, political journalism and scholastic teaching of history for a long time, up to the time of the partition of Germany and even in the GDR [German Democratic Republic].

Disposition and Esteem during the Final Years of Reign

The last twelve years of Frederick Augustus’ government passed largely quietly. The conservative character of the King, which in foreign policy up to 1806 had manifested itself unconditionally true to Saxony, hardened even more after the experience of the ravaging years of Napoleonic hegemony. With respect to reform of the constitution or administration and politics the King achieved little. Until his death in 1827, little came forward for the constitutional regulation of the Saxon State, which to be sure, the King failed to do out of respect for the rights of the remaining Lusatian upper classes, just as little came of the wish of many people for the extension of the existing political system to a genuine parliament. There was scarcely a break in the admiration for the old nobleman, who determined the destiny of Saxony for more than half a century. During his lifetime he gained the name “The Just.” The resentment by comparison over the delayed economic and social rebuilding of the country was to be felt by his brother, King Anton, upon his accession, who to be sure was likewise an old man.

Frederick Augustus was entombed in the Roman Catholic Cathedral [Dresden].

Marriage and Issue

In Mannheim on 17 January 1769 (by proxy) and again in Dresden on 29 January 1769 (in person), Frederick Augustus married with the Countess Palatine (Pfalzgräfin) Maria Amalia Augusta of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, sister of the —since 1805— King Maximilian I of Bavaria. During their marriage, Amalia gave birth four children, but only a daughter survive adulthood:

1. Stillborn child (1771).
2. Stillborn child (1775).
3. Maria Augusta Nepomucena Antonia Franziska Xaveria Aloysia (b. Dresden, 21 June 1782 - d. Dresden, 14 March 1863). [1]
4. Stillborn child (1797).

Without surviving male issue, Frederick Augustus was succeeded as King of Saxony by his younger brother Anton.

Ancestors

Frederick Augustus I's ancestors in three generations

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony	Father: Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony	Paternal Grandfather: Augustus III of Poland	Paternal Great-grandfather: Augustus II the Strong
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
		Paternal Grandmother: Maria Josepha of Austria	Paternal Great-grandfather: Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick
	Mother: Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria	Maternal Grandfather: Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor	Maternal Great-grandfather: Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska
		Maternal Grandmother: Maria Amalia of Austria	Maternal Great-grandfather: Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick