Augustus the Strong snapped horseshoes by hand and bought himself the Polish crown
Frederick Augustus of Saxony was called Iron-Hand, the Saxon Hercules and simply the Strong, reputedly for bending horseshoes apart with his bare hands. His appetites were equally large: contemporaries credited him with somewhere between 360 and 380 children, though only one son was legitimate.
Born in Dresden on 12 May 1670, he was a younger son with no expectation of ruling. Then in 1694 his older brother, the elector, caught smallpox from his mistress during the Venice carnival and died without a legitimate heir, making Augustus Elector of Saxony. The next year he led imperial troops against the Ottomans, with little success.
In 1697 he set his sights on the elected throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. That required abandoning Lutheranism, a shock because Saxony's electors had long been champions of the Reformation, and his wife refused to follow him, skipping his coronation. He spent so heavily bribing Polish nobles and clergy that people mocked the venture as his Polish adventure. The French Prince of Conti actually won more votes, but Augustus marched in with a Saxon army while Conti lingered in France for two months.
Hoping to seize Swedish Livonia, he joined Denmark and Russia against his young cousin Charles XII of Sweden, who proved a brilliant general. Charles took Warsaw and Kraków, installed Stanisław Leszczyński as king, invaded Saxony, and in 1706 forced Augustus to give up the crown. Only after Peter the Great crushed the Swedes at Poltava in 1709 did Augustus return, now leaning on Russia, which increasingly treated the Commonwealth as a protectorate.
His lasting mark was cultural. He turned Dresden into a magnet for European artists, built lavish baroque palaces there and in Warsaw, gathered a great art collection, and founded the Order of the White Eagle, still Poland's highest honour. He died in Warsaw in 1733. His body lies in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, while his heart rests in Dresden. His son became Augustus III, installed by Russian troops.
Source: Augustus II the Strong
