December 23, 1750: Birth of Friedrich August I of Saxony

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Confederation of the Rhine, Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, King Stanislas II Augustus of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen of Saxony

From the Emperor’s Desk: In this post I will be just dealing with how Friedrich August became King of Saxony. I will also reference his marriage and other family connections.

Friedrich August I (December 23, 1750 – May 5, 1827) was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 (as Friedrich August III) and as King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was also Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815.

Throughout his political career Friedrich August tried to rehabilitate and recreate the Polish state that was torn apart and ceased to exist after the final partition of Poland in 1795. However he did not succeed, for which he blamed himself for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, his efforts at reestablishing an independent Polish nation did endear him to the Polish people.

Family Background

Friedrich August was the second (but eldest surviving) son of Friedrich Christian, Elector of Saxony and Maria Antonia Walpurgis, Princess of Bavaria, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria and Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria who became Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII between 1742 and 1745.

Because he was underage at the time of his father’s death in 1763, Elector Friedrich August III’s mother served as Regent until 1768. His uncle, Prince Franz Xavier, functioned as his representative. Through his father’s side, he was descended from two kings of Poland, and through his mother’s side Siemowit, the first confirmed duke of Poland.

Friedrich August I, King of Saxony

Renunciation of the Polish throne

In 1765 Prince Franz Xavier ceded the Polish throne to Stanislas II Augustus on behalf of the underage Elector. However, when a Polish Constitution was ratified by the Polish Sejm Elector Friedrich August III was named successor to Stanislas II Augustus.

At the same time, the head of the Saxon Royal House was established as heir to the Polish throne (Article VII of the Polish Constitution). Elector Friedrich August III declined to accept the crown upon Stanislas II Augustus’s death in 1798, because he feared becoming entangled in disputes with Austria, Prussia and Russia, who had begun to partition Poland in 1772.

In fact, a full partition of Poland among the neighboring powers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia had already taken place by 1795.

Foreign policy up to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire

In August 1791, Elector Friedrich August III arranged a meeting with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle. The move was intended partly to offer support for the French monarchy in the face of revolutionary agitation in France.

The Declaration of Pillnitz warned of the possibility of military action against the French revolutionary government, a provocation that provided the latter with grounds to declare war on Austria in April 1792. Friedrich August III himself did not sign the Declaration.

Saxony wanted nothing to do with the defensive alliance against France formed between Austria and Prussia. Nonetheless, a proclamation of the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire issued in March 1793, obliged Elector Friedrich August III to take part.

There was great concern in Saxony in April 1795 when Prussia suddenly concluded a separate peace with France in order to facilitate the partition of Poland. Saxony dropped out of the coalition against France in August 1796 after France had advanced east into the German lands and additional conditions for the Holy Roman Empire to conclude a separate peace were agreed.

Both the peace agreement with France and Saxony’s participation in the Congress of Rastatt in 1797 served to demonstrate Elector Friedrich August III’s loyalty to the conventional constitutional principles of the Holy Roman Empire. The Congress of Rastatt was supposed to authorize the surrender to France of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine in return for compensation for the rulers relinquishing territory.

However, at Rastatt and again in 1803 at the issuance of the Final Report of the Empire Delegation [the law of the Holy Roman Empire that laid out the new order of the Empire], Saxony refused to agree to territorial adjustments, since these were designed to benefit Bavaria, Prussia, Württemberg, and Baden.

Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, Queen of Saxony

Foreign policy until the peace with Napoleon

Elector Friedrich August III also did not participate in the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, which led to the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. With respect to the Prussian idea of a north German empire, within which Saxony was supposed to be raised to a kingdom, he appeared reserved.

However, after September 1806, in response to the Berlin Ultimatum, which demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the left bank of the Rhine, Napoleon advanced as far as Thuringia. At that point, Friedrich August III joined with Prussia.

However, at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 Napoleon inflicted a crushing defeat on the Prusso–Saxon troops. The Prussian government and army then withdrew headlong to the east. Friedrich August III, left without any information concerning Prussian intentions, and with Napoleon’s troops about to occupy Saxony, was forced to conclude peace.

On December 11, 1806 in Poznań a treaty was signed by authorized representatives of both sides. According to its terms, Saxony was forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine and to surrender parts of Thuringia to the recently organized Kingdom of Westphalia.

As compensation, Saxony was given the area around Cottbus and was raised to the status of a kingdom alongside the Confederation states of Bavaria and Württemberg. Elector Friedrich August III of Saxony became King Friedrich August I of Saxony.

Marriage

In Mannheim on January 17, 1769 (by proxy) and again in Dresden on January 29, 1769 (in person), Friedrich August III married the Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, sister of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. During their marriage, Amalia gave birth to four children, but only one daughter, Princess Maria Augusta of Saxony (1782 – 1863) survived to adulthood.

Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld was the daughter of Count Palatine Friedrich Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler and his wife, Countess Palatine Maria Francisca of Palatinate-Sulzbach.

Friedrich August and Amalie (being the sister of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria) were the Aunt and Uncle to the Bavarian Princesses that made important dynastic marriages with two of thier nieces marrying Kings of Saxony.

Maximilian I Joseph’s second wife was Caroline of Baden, eldest child of Charles Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Baden, and his wife Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Elisabeth Ludovika (“Elise”) (1801 – 1873) twin sister of Amalie Auguste. Married King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Princess Amalie Auguste (1801 – 1877) twin sister of Elisabeth Ludovika. Married Johann I of Saxony.

Princess Marie Anne (1805 – 1877) twin sister of Sophie. Married King Friedrich August II of Saxony.

Princess Sophie (1805 – 1872) twin sister of Marie Anna. Married Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Princess Ludovika (1808 – 1892), married Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria. They were the parents of
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary.

November 8, 1877: Death of Princess Amelia of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony

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Amelia Auguste of Bavaria, Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, King Friedrich August II of Saxony, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, King Johann of Saxony, Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony, Sophie of Bavaria

From the Emperor’s Desk: Since I did not find a lot of information about Princess Amalie I decided to also include some information on her sisters.

Amelia Auguste (November 13, 1801 – November 8, 1877) was a Bavarian princess by birth and Queen of Saxony by marriage to King Johann of Saxony.

Princess Amelia of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony

Amalie was the fourth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden. She was the identical twin sister of Elisabeth Louise, later Queen of Prussia as wife of Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Here is a list of her sisters

1. Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (June 21, 1788 – May 13, 1851) was the second child and eldest daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. By marriage, she was a French Princess.

Although promised in marriage to the heir of Baden, Charles, originally, the engagement was broken at the behest of Napoleon I of France. On January 14, 1806 in Munich, Augusta married Eugène de Beauharnais, the only son of Josephine de Beauharnais and Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais and stepson of Napoleon. In return, Napoleon raised Bavaria from an Electoral state to a Kingdom. Although a diplomatic marriage, this union would turn out to be a happy one. In 1817, Augusta’s father raised his son-in-law to the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstädt, with the style Royal Highness.

2. Princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria (February 8, 1792 – February 9, 1873) was Empress of Austria by marriage to FranzI of Austria. She married first Crown Prince Wilhelm of Württemberg, whom she divorced, and then married Emperor Franz I of Austria.

3. Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria (November 13, 1801 – December 14, 1873) was Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William IV. She was known within her family as Elise. The marriage was childless.

Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria twin sister to Princess Amelia Auguste of Bavaria

4. Princess Sophie of Bavaria (January 27, 1805 – 28 May 1872) The identical twin sister of Queen Maria Anna of Saxony, Sophie became Archduchess of Austria by marriage to Archduke Franz Karl of Austria. Her eldest son Franz Joseph reigned as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary; her second son Maximilian briefly reigned as Emperor of Mexico.

5. Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria (January 27, 1805 – September 13, 1877), known as ‘Marie’ was Queen of Saxony from 1836 to 1854 as the second wife of King Friedrich August II of Saxony. Friedrich August II died without an heir was succeeded by his younger brother Johann.

During a journey in Tyrol, he had an accident in Brennbüchel in which he fell in front of a horse that stepped on his head. On August 8, 1854, he died in the Gasthof Neuner.

6. Princess Ludovika of Bavaria (August 30,1808 – January 25,1892). Ludovika married Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria, whose father Duke Pius August in Bavaria was her cousin, on September 9, 1828 in Tegernsee. Ludovika was always frustrated that, unlike her elder sisters who married kings and Austrian archdukes, she would not be marrying someone with a grand title, but rather a peculiar and childish duke who had a fondness for circuses.

However, Ludovika was determined to create dynastic marriages for her daughters. She and her husband had ten children, including Elisabeth, known as Sisi who married her cousin Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Maria Sofia who married King Francisco II of the Two Sicilies.

Princess Maria Sofia of Bavaria

Princess Elisabeth (Sisi) of Bavaria.

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In 1851 Amalie Auguste became chairwoman of Women’s Association of Dresden (Frauenverein zu Dresden), an organisation founded by her sister, the then queen. Three years later, her husband inherited the throne and she became queen. In 1859 she reorganized the association as the Zentralausschuß obererzgebirgischen und der vogtländischen Frauenvereine and established a legal basis for it, under which the organisation continued until 1932.

Marriage and issue

Amalie Auguste married on November 21, 1822 Prince Johann of Saxony, who reigned as King of Saxony between 1854 and 1873. Johann and Amelia had nine children, of whom six died at young ages and predeceased her.