On special request, and before Darth Real Life catches up with me again, I read this biography. Overall impressions: definitely far more informative than the previous August(us) biography we've come across. The subtitle indicates where Blanning is going with this. Another subtitle could have been "His times and life", since there is certainly a lot about contemporaries not August(us) - Charles of Sweden and Peter the Great, most prominently - but since they vehemently influence his life, justifiably so. Still, it is noticeable that the biography starts with our hedonistic hero already an adult and later gives only the briefest of summaries of his childhood and youth. There is more than enough about the Great Northern War to satisfy Mildred, but also, justifying the other part of the title, about Saxony in general and Leipzig and Dresden in particular as cultural hotspots and amazing achievements in that sense under Augustus. In terms of August's private life, Blanning announces he has no intention to cover every mistress and provides just details on the most important ones, Aurora von Königsmarck (his fave), Fatima (the Turkish one) and of course Countess Cosel (he's a bit baffled about the severity of her fate and doesn't think the marriage promise alone explains it). Ditto for the kids, which, alas, means nothing about the Countess Orzelska. (Possibly having deflowered Fritz doesn't compete with having been France's military hero and ancestor of George Sand.)
There are some cross connections I made while reading which aren't pointed out. Young (Frederick) Augustus starts out as a second son, with Big Brother Johann Georg the Prince Elector of Saxony. Johann Georg, not a sympathetic fellow in general, with August's morals (that is, lack of same) but without his style, has a neglected wife but ignores her in favour of an adored teenage mistress. To whom Johann Georg is so devoted that when she has smallpox, of which she eventually dies, he nurses her with his own hands and promptly catches smallpox as well, dying, which makes young Frederick Augustus the next Duke and Elector of Saxony. This sounded familiar, because the neglected wife, about which Blanning says she's from a junior Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern family, is in fact the mother of Caroline of Ansbach, future Queen Caroline of England. It was her second marriage, and the combination of her grief for her first husband and the depressing state of being Johann Georg's wife ensured she completely withdrew into herself and did nothing about Caroline's education which didn't start until young Caroline ended up with the relations in Berlin and Potsdam and got a crash course by Sophie Charlotte.
Anyway, Blanning doesn't say anything abour this , but that's where I knew the story from. What he does tell is young August showing he has one thing in common with young Henry VIII, who when taking over from Dad made a cheap bid for popularity by scapegoating an unpopular leftover from the previous regime. In Augustus' case, this was the mother of his brother's adored mistress. She via her daughter had squeezed as much money out of Saxony as she could, which isn't nice but not illegal. So Augustus put her on trial as a witch, I kid you not. He let it go as far as torture via thumbscrews, and then her sentence was commuted, i.e. she was not executed, but had to wear gloves for the rest of her life, and of course she'd lost her money. This happened to great cheer of the population but illustrates a great ruthlessness on the part of future August the Strong, so unlike Blanning, I'm not baffled by the cruelty of his treatment of Contantia von Cosel, just because otherwise he was nice to his exes.
Anyway, it's the era of the Turkish Wars between the HRE and the Osmanic Empire, complete with siege of Vienna, where in what turns out to be the last glorious event in Polish history for a good while you have the legendary rescue of Vienna by the Polish King Jan Sobieski and his cavalry. August, who was Duke of Saxony and new head of one of the oldest German noble families is owed a big position in the army, is given command of a part of the army some years post Siege of Vienna but really isn't much good at it, but luckily for Emperor Leopold young Eugene of Savoy has shown up and proven his worth in Italy, so Leopold is really happy when he can relieve Augustus of command and give it Eugene. He can do that because the Polish throne has become available, - renember, cahn, Poland, or rather, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwewalth, to give it the official title, elects its King - and Augustus thinks this is a great opportunity, because who wouldn't want to be King? (His campaign links Augustus with Otto III, whom listeners to "History of the Germans" might recall supposedly crowned Boleslaw the Brave of Poland.)
He's in luck in that the biological descendants of the last King, who do exist, can't manage to unite enough of the Polish nobility behind them, and the candidate sponsored by France, a Prince of the Blood, no less, Conti, cousin to Louis XIV, isn't much liked, either. It's not that Augustus can outspend Louis, it's that the Polish magnates would rather take his bribes than those of Louis. France has been invested in whoever is King of Poland because of their rivalry with Team Habsburg, and that served them well as long as memories of the Thirty Years War were still fresh, but at this point, it's Louis who looks like the biggest European menace, what with his endless wars. And then there's the fact the Pope is 100% pro Augustus, which is still important in Poland. Why is the Pope so pro August? Because Augustus converts, and this is a serious PR coup of historic proportions because Saxony is the home of the Reformation, House Wettin is the first German noble house to turn Lutheran, Augustus' ancestor Frederick the Wise was Luther's great Protector without whom Brother Martin might not have survived to start anything major, and so for a Duke of Saxony to become Catholic is really something major. (And it shifts the balance among the Princes Elector from majorly Protestant to majorly Catholic.) Not to mention that sure, Louis XIV (and of course the Prince Conti) is a Catholic, but Louis is really high handed and thinks he can boss the Pope around. So, the Pope is for August, the Emperor is for August, and August gets elected and crowned. Becoming Catholic doesn't bother him much. As has been observed even before all of this, he's never been a particularly ardent Lutheran. He might even be, gasp, a free thinker. While observing the outward pieties, he's never going to become a serious Catholic, either, notoriously putting a rosary the Pope has send him in his last year of life around his dog's neck.
Now, for a long time, the decline of Poland has been blamed by Polish historians on the 60 plus years rule by two Germans in a row, seeing this as a prelude to the catastrophes to follow, i.e. the partitioning. This is no longer the case, but that doesn't mean Augustus is entirely innocent, either. The way Blanning presents it, Poland was already in decline, not least because of its political system (the famous Polish liberty being liberty for the ca. 8 percent of the population who were Catholic nobles). As to what those 8 percent expected of their King: He must not have power over the army, as he might use it against the nation; he must not control the treasury, as access to funds would enable him, not only to corrupt the nation's representatives, but also to raise troops and pursue autonomous policies; he especially must not have the right to impose taxes, as this would enable him to oppress his citizens; he must not have any influence over foreign policy, as he might drag the country into war or make unfavourable alliances; the system of justice must remain outside his realm of influence; under no circumstances should he have any influence over legislation, despite the fact he was the only individual with legistlative initiative.
In other words: they want a constitutional monarch - but for a country which, unlike England, DOESN'T have a strong parliament to do the actual governing instead. They have the Sejim where any noble can block another noble. To make anything out of Poland under these conditions, Blanning thinks, August would have had to be a mixture of Henry VII (of England) (taming the magnates), Henry VIII (getting the Church of the country under his personal control) and Elizabeth I (inspiring the nation), but alas, "he was more Stuart than Tudor". Also not Polish, one might add. Banning thinks ideally Augustus should have gotten acquainted with his new realm and won his new subjects' respect in peace time. But what does he do? Co-starts the Great Northern War.
Now, part of the problem is the spirit of the age. Every prince wants to be Louis XIV. (This includes those at war with Louis XIV.) (Young Augustus did visit Versailles, which is why we have some neat Liselotte quotes about him.) Part of being Louis XIV is getting into building and sponsoring your country's culture, and this part Augustus will manage better than almost any other prince not Louis XIV, but then there's also the expectation of being a mighty warrior King. And this, Augustus is just not good at. It's not that he's not capable of personal bravery (the few times he's in command in person, he's not a master strategist but he's doing his own fighting and risks his life repeatedly), but there's a reason why Leopold was relieved to get rid of him, and it's not just he could trade him in for one of the best military commanders of the age. And not only is August not a good battlefield commander, he's also given to fatal misjudgements. One of this is shared by the far more capable Peter I. of Russia, of course, to wit: that new teenage King of Sweden is a lightweight. Let's take a bite out of Sweden!
Big mistake. Especially since Charles is vengeful, feels personally betrayed by Augustus (who promised not to go to war against him), and also is a devout Protestant to whom August becoming Catholic is personally offensive as well. Augustus' good luck among his bad luck is that Charles is a military genius, but a lousy strategist and just terrible at politics, which leads Charles into making his own fatal mistakes. Chief among those: after defeating Denmark, Saxony-Poland and Russia in a row on the battlefield, not going after the most dangerous guy (i.e. Peter) but going after Augustus instead. Because Peter after being beaten flees the battlefield, Charles thinks he's a coward and can be defeated at any time. And he really wants to punish Augustus. So he wastes the next SIX YEARS (I had forgotten or wasn't aware it took that long) with campaigns in Poland instead of Russia, giving Peter the chance to transform the Russian army and push his naval program forward. Why, despite Charles being a military genius and August being mediocre, does it take so long? Because Poland is big, and Charles never manages to win the population, or the nobles. He's not helping himself by installing Stanislas Lescynski as puppet king, because even mediocre August manages to reconquer Warsaw and kick Stanislas out of same the moment Charles' back is turned, illustrating once and for all Stanislas is entirely dependent on Swedish support. Swedish soldiers were the ones crying "long live King Stanislas" when they forced through his election, which reminded all the nobles they might not be August fans, but omg this is oppression of Polish liberty. Charles finally has enough and instead of wasting more time in the Polish quagmire invades Saxony instead, which is far, far smaller. Unlike in Poland, here Charles being a devout Lutheran is a plus (there are enough Saxons still feeling betrayed by that Catholic conversion). So Charles quickly conquers Saxony and makes it as humiliating for Augustus as possible, forcing him to abdicate as King of Poland, and to agree to Saxony financing the Swedish army staying there for the winter.
But because Charles is such a bad politician and strategist, he's off to Russia next year. Where Peter had six years to prepare, and where Charles finds out the hard way why you just don't invade Russia, especially once the winter arrives. Augustus in Saxony is cheered up to no end by the news that keep coming from Russia. Stanislas Lescynski isn't, and it's not long before he's off to first Pommerania and then France, and Augustus is back to being King of Poland. This doesn't mean he's a better Politician himself. Because Augustus makes no secret of the fact he really wants to keep Poland in the family, and becoming a hereditary monarchy wasn't what the nobles signed up, either. And for every poltical goal Augustus achieves - like securing a Habsburg Archduchess for his son, with the clear aim of giving his son a shot at becoming HRE, and yeah, talking said son into converting to the Catholic faith as well, which is a prerequisite both for becoming King of Poland and for marrying a Habsburg Archduchess - there is a drawback: he pisses off the Polish magnates who start to eye the exiled Stanislas as maybe the better option than another Saxon, and as we all know, it's MT, err, Franz Stephan who will end up as HRE, not future August III.
But all this political failure and/or mediocrity is just one side of the coin. Blanning repeatedly calls Augustus an artist, despite, as he said, the man never having written a book, or composed a piece of music, or painted a painting. Why? Because as bad as his military and political instincts were, he had an unfailing one for art, for culture, for presentation and beauty. It was more than just hiring good architects and painters and musicians etc, it's a matter of hiring the right ones who achieve overall harmony. And certainly Dresden under Augustus became breathtakingly beautiful. "Elbflorenz", Florence at the Elbe, wasn't just a nickname. Even the patriotic Lehndorff who when he finally saw Versailles thought Sanssouci was better was wowed by Dresden. (It's beautiful again today after a long interlude because the city was really flattened in WWII, and most of the buildings had to be reconstructed from scratch, which didn't happen until reunification and some serious money being pumped into it. But even so, it's worth looking at the famous Canaletto paintings to appreciate just what a stunner old Dresden was.) The "Grünes Gewölbe", the Green Vault, was one of the earliest royal art and jewelry collections made open for the public to admire (which Lehndorff did), and it truly is outstanding. And then there's the porcellain. Granted, Augustus lucked out in that it - or rather, the Saxon variation of it - was discovered just at the right time, but pre-Augustus, everyone collected Asian porcellain, and post Augustus, Saxon porcellain was one of the top exports which everyone wanted to have.
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
The university of Leipzig was THE German university to be before the Hannover cousins (GII and successors) sponsored Göttingen, and Saxony had the leading German musicians as long as Augustus was still alive. In whort, Blanning makes the argument for Augustus creating a Gesamtkunstwerk (he uses the German term) in Saxony on a level that could compete with any other European capital, Versailles included, and that he therefore deserves to be acknowledged as an artist.
Biographers of F1: Yeah, yeah, but then why gets our guy bashed?
Blanning: Because Augustus didn't have Fritz as a grandson.
Liselotte (another not enthusiastic Protestant-to-Catholic convert) about attending mass at Versailles: It may be a great honour to sit next to the King in church, but I would gladly relinquish it because His Majesty won't let me sleep. AS soon as I doze off, he nudges me with his elbow and wakes me up again, so that I am neither wholly asleep nor wholly awake. It gives me a headache.
Liselotte about August having become King of Poland: That the Elector of Saxony could not be satisfied with being an Elector only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness, for this Elector would have been a thousand times happier if he had gone on enjoying a quiet and peaceful life as Elector of Saxony instead of becoming King of such a factious and volatile nataion, o fwhich he will never be the absolute Lord and Master but will only ever be king in name only and not in reality
(indeed.)
Charles: There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted. His hands were now free, at least for a slong as Charles was stuck in the Polish morass. Had he the gift of prophecy he might wel have anticipated the words recorded by Winston Churchill when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour: 'I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved.'
Charles has Patkul the Livonian executed so gruesomely even the executor (who never had to perform a wheel and quarter type of execution before) can't stand it:
(...)Patkul was tied to the wheel. The executioner then began his gruesome task, using a sledgehammer. AS it fell for the first time, Patkul screamed 'Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" Every bone in his body was then broken, including his spine. Hagen recorded that the clumsiness of the inexperienced executioner meant that the agony was prolonged. It only ended when Patkul pleaded 'Cut my head off! Cut my head off! (Kopf ab! Kopf ab!) Perhaps sickened by what he was having to do, the executioner deviated from Charles' script and boliged, although it took four attempts before the head was severed. A frustrated Charles promptly cashiered him. (...) It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707. That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
Charles loses the Swedish Empire partly by not realising he should have paid attention to the navy:
Many were the causes of his daownful, but top of the list must stand his obtuse failure to recognize the importance of the navy. His thalassophobia would have been less damaging if it had not been countered by the equally passionate thalassohilia of his great enemy, Tsar Peter.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important, indeed it was the most populous and prosperous city of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That its budget was twenty times that of the Polish state in the first half of the seventeenth century testifies both to its own strength and the weakness of its host. Its population of around 40,000 was almost double that of Warsaw. But Danzig was Polish only in a limited sense, for its inhabitants were predominantly German by language and Lutheran by religion.
Augustus and Poland aren't even consulted when Peter makes finally officially peace with Sweden when the Great Northern War ends:
After this fiasco, Augustus II and the Poles went their separate ways, he promoting the interests of the House of Wettin, the szlachta, lulled by a false sense of security, eating, drinking, makijng merry and cultivating their garden of anarchy, ignorance and religious intolerance. (...) Poland was turning into a wayside inn open for unwanted and non-paying guests.
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
AS soon as I doze off, he nudges me with his elbow and wakes me up again, so that I am neither wholly asleep nor wholly awake.
Aww, that's my girl Liselotte!
only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness
Heh. Liselotte is so wise.
There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted.
Hee, this is a fun passage.
one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century
Liselotte (another not enthusiastic Protestant-to-Catholic convert) about attending mass at Versailles: It may be a great honour to sit next to the King in church, but I would gladly relinquish it because His Majesty won't let me sleep. AS soon as I doze off, he nudges me with his elbow and wakes me up again, so that I am neither wholly asleep nor wholly awake. It gives me a headache.
Lol, Liselotte!
It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707
Oh, yeah, having read Hatton, I can confirm that she is a fangirl. Most biographers are, you know. I find balanced, warts-and-all treatments rare.
That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
And let us not forget that Patkul's execution inspired young Manteuffel to write a "Down with absolute monarchy!" diatribe.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
He did. I think if he hadn't been a monarch, he would have joined the navy.
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important
Indeed, and remember that during the first Polish partition, Fritz fights hard to get it, but fails, mostly because the other powers of Europe don't want Prussia getting that much of an advantage. But when Lehndorff visits it, he's miffed that the inhabitants of Danzig don't want to be Prussian. (Prussia will later acquire it in the second partition, 1793, after Fritz is dead.)
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
And I shall! In the meantime, heartfelt thanks for satisfying my curiosity in your usual extremely speedy manner. <3
Liselotte (another not enthusiastic Protestant-to-Catholic convert) about attending mass at Versailles: It may be a great honour to sit next to the King in church, but I would gladly relinquish it because His Majesty won't let me sleep. AS soon as I doze off, he nudges me with his elbow and wakes me up again, so that I am neither wholly asleep nor wholly awake. It gives me a headache.
Liselotte about August having become King of Poland: That the Elector of Saxony could not be satisfied with being an Elector only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness, for this Elector would have been a thousand times happier if he had gone on enjoying a quiet and peaceful life as Elector of Saxony instead of becoming King of such a factious and volatile nataion, o fwhich he will never be the absolute Lord and Master but will only ever be king in name only and not in reality
(indeed.)
Charles: There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted. His hands were now free, at least for a slong as Charles was stuck in the Polish morass. Had he the gift of prophecy he might wel have anticipated the words recorded by Winston Churchill when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour: 'I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved.'
Charles has Patkul the Livonian executed so gruesomely even the executor (who never had to perform a wheel and quarter type of execution before) can't stand it:
(...)Patkul was tied to the wheel. The executioner then began his gruesome task, using a sledgehammer. AS it fell for the first time, Patkul screamed 'Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" Every bone in his body was then broken, including his spine. Hagen recorded that the clumsiness of the inexperienced executioner meant that the agony was prolonged. It only ended when Patkul pleaded 'Cut my head off! Cut my head off! (Kopf ab! Kopf ab!) Perhaps sickened by what he was having to do, the executioner deviated from Charles' script and boliged, although it took four attempts before the head was severed. A frustrated Charles promptly cashiered him. (...) It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707. That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
Charles loses the Swedish Empire partly by not realising he should have paid attention to the navy:
Many were the causes of his daownful, but top of the list must stand his obtuse failure to recognize the importance of the navy. His thalassophobia would have been less damaging if it had not been countered by the equally passionate thalassohilia of his great enemy, Tsar Peter.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important, indeed it was the most populous and prosperous city of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That its budget was twenty times that of the Polish state in the first half of the seventeenth century testifies both to its own strength and the weakness of its host. Its population of around 40,000 was almost double that of Warsaw. But Danzig was Polish only in a limited sense, for its inhabitants were predominantly German by language and Lutheran by religion.
Augustus and Poland aren't even consulted when Peter makes finally officially peace with Sweden when the Great Northern War ends:
After this fiasco, Augustus II and the Poles went their separate ways, he promoting the interests of the House of Wettin, the szlachta, lulled by a false sense of security, eating, drinking, makijng merry and cultivating their garden of anarchy, ignorance and religious intolerance. (...) Poland was turning into a wayside inn open for unwanted and non-paying guests.
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
There is more than enough about the Great Northern War to satisfy Mildred
Excellent! I look forward to reading this as soon as I have the time.
In terms of August's private life, Blanning announces he has no intention to cover every mistress and provides just details on the most important ones...Ditto for the kids, which, alas, means nothing about the Countess Orzelska.
Understandable, but too bad!
So Augustus put her on trial as a witch, I kid you not. He let it go as far as torture via thumbscrews, and then her sentence was commuted, i.e. she was not executed, but had to wear gloves for the rest of her life, and of course she'd lost her money.
Yikes. I see what you mean about the Countess Cosel, but if he was otherwise so nice to his exes, there's still the open question of why her? Not, what made him capable of treating someone badly, but what made him decide to do it on this occasion? If Blanning doesn't think the marriage promise was sufficient, I can see why he's still baffled.
While observing the outward pieties, he's never going to become a serious Catholic, either, notoriously putting a rosary the Pope has send him in his last year of life around his dog's neck.
Lolololol!
So he wastes the next SIX YEARS (I had forgotten or wasn't aware it took that long) with campaigns in Poland instead of Russia
YEP. He delivered a knockout punch to Peter's army pretty quickly at Narva in 1700, and his invasion of Russia wasn't until the great winter of 1708, with Poltava in 1709. Peter had all that time to recover, build an army, occupy the area around St. Petersburg (coastal terrain! a port!), and generally get ready to demote Sweden from major power to has-been.
Blanning repeatedly calls Augustus an artist, despite, as he said, the man never having written a book, or composed a piece of music, or painted a painting. Why? Because as bad as his military and political instincts were, he had an unfailing one for art, for culture, for presentation and beauty. It was more than just hiring good architects and painters and musicians etc, it's a matter of hiring the right ones who achieve overall harmony.
That makes a lot of sense!
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
Lol. They also agreed Michael Gabriel was one of the wittiest, most charming men ever!
Fredersdorf: As for me, I had a thing for intense blue eyes.
Biographers of F1: Yeah, yeah, but then why gets our guy bashed?
Blanning: Because Augustus didn't have Fritz as a grandson.
Hahaha, well, F1, you should see how Augustus's son Augustus III gets bashed! All thanks to Fritz.
Oh, does A3 get covered at all, or is he Sir Not Appearing in This Book?
No, he shows up, as his conversion and marriage are big deals. But there‘s nothing new, so I didn‘t mention it. (I.e. he‘s nice, also has good taste re: art, but a good politician, he‘s not, either, though as opposed to Dad a good husband and a sincere (Catholic) Christian. Basically the bland second act to Dad‘s flamboyant first act.)
Countess Cosel: to be fair, his other exes didn‘t insist he had promised to marry them. And didn‘t have her interest in politics. Aurora von Königsmarck did, and went on diplomatic missions for Augustus long after she was an ex, but she didn‘t voice political opinions other than his own. At a guess, Cosel was perceived as dangerous in a way the others weren’t, not just by August but by Flemming who was her enemy No.1 and the most important politician at court, and maybe either or both were afraid that if if she did get free again, she’d either be able to charm Augustus once more if she got into his presence or work against him in a way that hurt. Or: if we accept the marriage pledge as genuine, a good lawyer could use this to legitimize her kids and thus muddy the Saxonian succession, hence also A3 not letting her out. BTW, all of this is me speculating, not Blanning. Blanning is especially baffled since Cosel survived even A3, i.e. her imprisonment didn‘t even end when Augustus died. (He doesn‘t mention it did technically end years before her death - see also Heinrich showing up mid war - but that at this point she didn‘t want to leave anymore.) So he just says he can‘t explain.
and Augustus thinks this is a great opportunity, because who wouldn't want to be King?
Poniatowski: Well, as to that...
He must not have power over the army, as he might use it against the nation; he must not control the treasury, as access to funds would enable him, not only to corrupt the nation's representatives, but also to raise troops and pursue autonomous policies; he especially must not have the right to impose taxes, as this would enable him to oppress his citizens; he must not have any influence over foreign policy, as he might drag the country into war or make unfavourable alliances; the system of justice must remain outside his realm of influence; under no circumstances should he have any influence over legislation, despite the fact he was the only individual with legistlative initiative.
Holy crap. Yeah, I can see that this king must have had an uphill job. To put it mildly!
but there's a reason why Leopold was relieved to get rid of him, and it's not just he could trade him in for one of the best military commanders of the age.
Burn!
But because Charles is such a bad politician and strategist, he's off to Russia next year. Where Peter had six years to prepare, and where Charles finds out the hard way why you just don't invade Russia, especially once the winter arrives.
...whoops.
And certainly Dresden under Augustus became breathtakingly beautiful. "Elbflorenz", Florence at the Elbe, wasn't just a nickname. Even the patriotic Lehndorff who when he finally saw Versailles thought Sanssouci was better was wowed by Dresden. (It's beautiful again today after a long interlude because the city was really flattened in WWII, and most of the buildings had to be reconstructed from scratch, which didn't happen until reunification and some serious money being pumped into it. But even so, it's worth looking at the famous Canaletto paintings to appreciate just what a stunner old Dresden was.)
Huh. I didn't know it was known for being beautiful, though I did know it was flattened in WWII. Guess I better add it to my very long list of things to see...
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
You're welcome, and here is another link, which tells about the rebuilding of Dresden and shows pictures from before the bombing, after, and now: this vid.
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timeasmymeasure
Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-04 03:19 pm (UTC)Overall impressions: definitely far more informative than the previous August(us) biography we've come across. The subtitle indicates where Blanning is going with this. Another subtitle could have been "His times and life", since there is certainly a lot about contemporaries not August(us) - Charles of Sweden and Peter the Great, most prominently - but since they vehemently influence his life, justifiably so. Still, it is noticeable that the biography starts with our hedonistic hero already an adult and later gives only the briefest of summaries of his childhood and youth. There is more than enough about the Great Northern War to satisfy Mildred, but also, justifying the other part of the title, about Saxony in general and Leipzig and Dresden in particular as cultural hotspots and amazing achievements in that sense under Augustus. In terms of August's private life, Blanning announces he has no intention to cover every mistress and provides just details on the most important ones, Aurora von Königsmarck (his fave), Fatima (the Turkish one) and of course Countess Cosel (he's a bit baffled about the severity of her fate and doesn't think the marriage promise alone explains it). Ditto for the kids, which, alas, means nothing about the Countess Orzelska. (Possibly having deflowered Fritz doesn't compete with having been France's military hero and ancestor of George Sand.)
There are some cross connections I made while reading which aren't pointed out. Young (Frederick) Augustus starts out as a second son, with Big Brother Johann Georg the Prince Elector of Saxony. Johann Georg, not a sympathetic fellow in general, with August's morals (that is, lack of same) but without his style, has a neglected wife but ignores her in favour of an adored teenage mistress. To whom Johann Georg is so devoted that when she has smallpox, of which she eventually dies, he nurses her with his own hands and promptly catches smallpox as well, dying, which makes young Frederick Augustus the next Duke and Elector of Saxony. This sounded familiar, because the neglected wife, about which Blanning says she's from a junior Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern family, is in fact the mother of Caroline of Ansbach, future Queen Caroline of England. It was her second marriage, and the combination of her grief for her first husband and the depressing state of being Johann Georg's wife ensured she completely withdrew into herself and did nothing about Caroline's education which didn't start until young Caroline ended up with the relations in Berlin and Potsdam and got a crash course by Sophie Charlotte.
Anyway, Blanning doesn't say anything abour this , but that's where I knew the story from. What he does tell is young August showing he has one thing in common with young Henry VIII, who when taking over from Dad made a cheap bid for popularity by scapegoating an unpopular leftover from the previous regime. In Augustus' case, this was the mother of his brother's adored mistress. She via her daughter had squeezed as much money out of Saxony as she could, which isn't nice but not illegal. So Augustus put her on trial as a witch, I kid you not. He let it go as far as torture via thumbscrews, and then her sentence was commuted, i.e. she was not executed, but had to wear gloves for the rest of her life, and of course she'd lost her money. This happened to great cheer of the population but illustrates a great ruthlessness on the part of future August the Strong, so unlike Blanning, I'm not baffled by the cruelty of his treatment of Contantia von Cosel, just because otherwise he was nice to his exes.
Anyway, it's the era of the Turkish Wars between the HRE and the Osmanic Empire, complete with siege of Vienna, where in what turns out to be the last glorious event in Polish history for a good while you have the legendary rescue of Vienna by the Polish King Jan Sobieski and his cavalry. August, who was Duke of Saxony and new head of one of the oldest German noble families is owed a big position in the army, is given command of a part of the army some years post Siege of Vienna but really isn't much good at it, but luckily for Emperor Leopold young Eugene of Savoy has shown up and proven his worth in Italy, so Leopold is really happy when he can relieve Augustus of command and give it Eugene. He can do that because the Polish throne has become available, - renember,
He's in luck in that the biological descendants of the last King, who do exist, can't manage to unite enough of the Polish nobility behind them, and the candidate sponsored by France, a Prince of the Blood, no less, Conti, cousin to Louis XIV, isn't much liked, either. It's not that Augustus can outspend Louis, it's that the Polish magnates would rather take his bribes than those of Louis. France has been invested in whoever is King of Poland because of their rivalry with Team Habsburg, and that served them well as long as memories of the Thirty Years War were still fresh, but at this point, it's Louis who looks like the biggest European menace, what with his endless wars. And then there's the fact the Pope is 100% pro Augustus, which is still important in Poland. Why is the Pope so pro August? Because Augustus converts, and this is a serious PR coup of historic proportions because Saxony is the home of the Reformation, House Wettin is the first German noble house to turn Lutheran, Augustus' ancestor Frederick the Wise was Luther's great Protector without whom Brother Martin might not have survived to start anything major, and so for a Duke of Saxony to become Catholic is really something major. (And it shifts the balance among the Princes Elector from majorly Protestant to majorly Catholic.) Not to mention that sure, Louis XIV (and of course the Prince Conti) is a Catholic, but Louis is really high handed and thinks he can boss the Pope around. So, the Pope is for August, the Emperor is for August, and August gets elected and crowned. Becoming Catholic doesn't bother him much. As has been observed even before all of this, he's never been a particularly ardent Lutheran. He might even be, gasp, a free thinker. While observing the outward pieties, he's never going to become a serious Catholic, either, notoriously putting a rosary the Pope has send him in his last year of life around his dog's neck.
Now, for a long time, the decline of Poland has been blamed by Polish historians on the 60 plus years rule by two Germans in a row, seeing this as a prelude to the catastrophes to follow, i.e. the partitioning. This is no longer the case, but that doesn't mean Augustus is entirely innocent, either. The way Blanning presents it, Poland was already in decline, not least because of its political system (the famous Polish liberty being liberty for the ca. 8 percent of the population who were Catholic nobles). As to what those 8 percent expected of their King: He must not have power over the army, as he might use it against the nation; he must not control the treasury, as access to funds would enable him, not only to corrupt the nation's representatives, but also to raise troops and pursue autonomous policies; he especially must not have the right to impose taxes, as this would enable him to oppress his citizens; he must not have any influence over foreign policy, as he might drag the country into war or make unfavourable alliances; the system of justice must remain outside his realm of influence; under no circumstances should he have any influence over legislation, despite the fact he was the only individual with legistlative initiative.
In other words: they want a constitutional monarch - but for a country which, unlike England, DOESN'T have a strong parliament to do the actual governing instead. They have the Sejim where any noble can block another noble. To make anything out of Poland under these conditions, Blanning thinks, August would have had to be a mixture of Henry VII (of England) (taming the magnates), Henry VIII (getting the Church of the country under his personal control) and Elizabeth I (inspiring the nation), but alas, "he was more Stuart than Tudor". Also not Polish, one might add. Banning thinks ideally Augustus should have gotten acquainted with his new realm and won his new subjects' respect in peace time. But what does he do? Co-starts the Great Northern War.
Now, part of the problem is the spirit of the age. Every prince wants to be Louis XIV. (This includes those at war with Louis XIV.) (Young Augustus did visit Versailles, which is why we have some neat Liselotte quotes about him.) Part of being Louis XIV is getting into building and sponsoring your country's culture, and this part Augustus will manage better than almost any other prince not Louis XIV, but then there's also the expectation of being a mighty warrior King. And this, Augustus is just not good at. It's not that he's not capable of personal bravery (the few times he's in command in person, he's not a master strategist but he's doing his own fighting and risks his life repeatedly), but there's a reason why Leopold was relieved to get rid of him, and it's not just he could trade him in for one of the best military commanders of the age. And not only is August not a good battlefield commander, he's also given to fatal misjudgements. One of this is shared by the far more capable Peter I. of Russia, of course, to wit: that new teenage King of Sweden is a lightweight. Let's take a bite out of Sweden!
Big mistake. Especially since Charles is vengeful, feels personally betrayed by Augustus (who promised not to go to war against him), and also is a devout Protestant to whom August becoming Catholic is personally offensive as well. Augustus' good luck among his bad luck is that Charles is a military genius, but a lousy strategist and just terrible at politics, which leads Charles into making his own fatal mistakes. Chief among those: after defeating Denmark, Saxony-Poland and Russia in a row on the battlefield, not going after the most dangerous guy (i.e. Peter) but going after Augustus instead. Because Peter after being beaten flees the battlefield, Charles thinks he's a coward and can be defeated at any time. And he really wants to punish Augustus. So he wastes the next SIX YEARS (I had forgotten or wasn't aware it took that long) with campaigns in Poland instead of Russia, giving Peter the chance to transform the Russian army and push his naval program forward. Why, despite Charles being a military genius and August being mediocre, does it take so long? Because Poland is big, and Charles never manages to win the population, or the nobles. He's not helping himself by installing Stanislas Lescynski as puppet king, because even mediocre August manages to reconquer Warsaw and kick Stanislas out of same the moment Charles' back is turned, illustrating once and for all Stanislas is entirely dependent on Swedish support. Swedish soldiers were the ones crying "long live King Stanislas" when they forced through his election, which reminded all the nobles they might not be August fans, but omg this is oppression of Polish liberty. Charles finally has enough and instead of wasting more time in the Polish quagmire invades Saxony instead, which is far, far smaller. Unlike in Poland, here Charles being a devout Lutheran is a plus (there are enough Saxons still feeling betrayed by that Catholic conversion). So Charles quickly conquers Saxony and makes it as humiliating for Augustus as possible, forcing him to abdicate as King of Poland, and to agree to Saxony financing the Swedish army staying there for the winter.
But because Charles is such a bad politician and strategist, he's off to Russia next year. Where Peter had six years to prepare, and where Charles finds out the hard way why you just don't invade Russia, especially once the winter arrives. Augustus in Saxony is cheered up to no end by the news that keep coming from Russia. Stanislas Lescynski isn't, and it's not long before he's off to first Pommerania and then France, and Augustus is back to being King of Poland. This doesn't mean he's a better Politician himself. Because Augustus makes no secret of the fact he really wants to keep Poland in the family, and becoming a hereditary monarchy wasn't what the nobles signed up, either. And for every poltical goal Augustus achieves - like securing a Habsburg Archduchess for his son, with the clear aim of giving his son a shot at becoming HRE, and yeah, talking said son into converting to the Catholic faith as well, which is a prerequisite both for becoming King of Poland and for marrying a Habsburg Archduchess - there is a drawback: he pisses off the Polish magnates who start to eye the exiled Stanislas as maybe the better option than another Saxon, and as we all know, it's MT, err, Franz Stephan who will end up as HRE, not future August III.
But all this political failure and/or mediocrity is just one side of the coin. Blanning repeatedly calls Augustus an artist, despite, as he said, the man never having written a book, or composed a piece of music, or painted a painting. Why? Because as bad as his military and political instincts were, he had an unfailing one for art, for culture, for presentation and beauty. It was more than just hiring good architects and painters and musicians etc, it's a matter of hiring the right ones who achieve overall harmony. And certainly Dresden under Augustus became breathtakingly beautiful. "Elbflorenz", Florence at the Elbe, wasn't just a nickname. Even the patriotic Lehndorff who when he finally saw Versailles thought Sanssouci was better was wowed by Dresden. (It's beautiful again today after a long interlude because the city was really flattened in WWII, and most of the buildings had to be reconstructed from scratch, which didn't happen until reunification and some serious money being pumped into it. But even so, it's worth looking at the famous Canaletto paintings to appreciate just what a stunner old Dresden was.) The "Grünes Gewölbe", the Green Vault, was one of the earliest royal art and jewelry collections made open for the public to admire (which Lehndorff did), and it truly is outstanding. And then there's the porcellain. Granted, Augustus lucked out in that it - or rather, the Saxon variation of it - was discovered just at the right time, but pre-Augustus, everyone collected Asian porcellain, and post Augustus, Saxon porcellain was one of the top exports which everyone wanted to have.
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
The university of Leipzig was THE German university to be before the Hannover cousins (GII and successors) sponsored Göttingen, and Saxony had the leading German musicians as long as Augustus was still alive. In whort, Blanning makes the argument for Augustus creating a Gesamtkunstwerk (he uses the German term) in Saxony on a level that could compete with any other European capital, Versailles included, and that he therefore deserves to be acknowledged as an artist.
Biographers of F1: Yeah, yeah, but then why gets our guy bashed?
Blanning: Because Augustus didn't have Fritz as a grandson.
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco: Quotes
Date: 2025-01-04 03:22 pm (UTC)Liselotte about August having become King of Poland: That the Elector of Saxony could not be satisfied with being an Elector only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness, for this Elector would have been a thousand times happier if he had gone on enjoying a quiet and peaceful life as Elector of Saxony instead of becoming King of such a factious and volatile nataion, o fwhich he will never be the absolute Lord and Master but will only ever be king in name only and not in reality
(indeed.)
Charles: There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted. His hands were now free, at least for a slong as Charles was stuck in the Polish morass. Had he the gift of prophecy he might wel have anticipated the words recorded by Winston Churchill when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour: 'I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved.'
Charles has Patkul the Livonian executed so gruesomely even the executor (who never had to perform a wheel and quarter type of execution before) can't stand it:
(...)Patkul was tied to the wheel. The executioner then began his gruesome task, using a sledgehammer. AS it fell for the first time, Patkul screamed 'Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" Every bone in his body was then broken, including his spine. Hagen recorded that the clumsiness of the inexperienced executioner meant that the agony was prolonged. It only ended when Patkul pleaded 'Cut my head off! Cut my head off! (Kopf ab! Kopf ab!) Perhaps sickened by what he was having to do, the executioner deviated from Charles' script and boliged, although it took four attempts before the head was severed. A frustrated Charles promptly cashiered him. (...) It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707. That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
Charles loses the Swedish Empire partly by not realising he should have paid attention to the navy:
Many were the causes of his daownful, but top of the list must stand his obtuse failure to recognize the importance of the navy. His thalassophobia would have been less damaging if it had not been countered by the equally passionate thalassohilia of his great enemy, Tsar Peter.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important, indeed it was the most populous and prosperous city of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That its budget was twenty times that of the Polish state in the first half of the seventeenth century testifies both to its own strength and the weakness of its host. Its population of around 40,000 was almost double that of Warsaw. But Danzig was Polish only in a limited sense, for its inhabitants were predominantly German by language and Lutheran by religion.
Augustus and Poland aren't even consulted when Peter makes finally officially peace with Sweden when the Great Northern War ends:
After this fiasco, Augustus II and the Poles went their separate ways, he promoting the interests of the House of Wettin, the szlachta, lulled by a false sense of security, eating, drinking, makijng merry and cultivating their garden of anarchy, ignorance and religious intolerance. (...) Poland was turning into a wayside inn open for unwanted and non-paying guests.
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco: Quotes
Date: 2025-01-05 06:30 am (UTC)Aww, that's my girl Liselotte!
only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness
Heh. Liselotte is so wise.
There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted.
Hee, this is a fun passage.
one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century
:(
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco: Quotes
Date: 2025-01-06 12:55 pm (UTC)Lol, Liselotte!
It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707
Oh, yeah, having read Hatton, I can confirm that she is a fangirl. Most biographers are, you know. I find balanced, warts-and-all treatments rare.
That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
And let us not forget that Patkul's execution inspired young Manteuffel to write a "Down with absolute monarchy!" diatribe.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
He did. I think if he hadn't been a monarch, he would have joined the navy.
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important
Indeed, and remember that during the first Polish partition, Fritz fights hard to get it, but fails, mostly because the other powers of Europe don't want Prussia getting that much of an advantage. But when Lehndorff visits it, he's miffed that the inhabitants of Danzig don't want to be Prussian. (Prussia will later acquire it in the second partition, 1793, after Fritz is dead.)
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
And I shall! In the meantime, heartfelt thanks for satisfying my curiosity in your usual extremely speedy manner. <3
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco: Quotes
Date: 2025-01-04 03:23 pm (UTC)Liselotte about August having become King of Poland: That the Elector of Saxony could not be satisfied with being an Elector only goes to show what I have long observed, that no one can be really happy in this world and everyone foolishily sets about throwing away his happiness, for this Elector would have been a thousand times happier if he had gone on enjoying a quiet and peaceful life as Elector of Saxony instead of becoming King of such a factious and volatile nataion, o fwhich he will never be the absolute Lord and Master but will only ever be king in name only and not in reality
(indeed.)
Charles: There is no doubt that his decision to depose Augustus is the great lunacy of Charles XII's life, corresponding to Napoleon's Spanish hallucination. It condemned him to a Sisyphean struggle whose scope he could hardly have imagined. When the news finally filtered back to Russia, Peter was understandably delighted. His hands were now free, at least for a slong as Charles was stuck in the Polish morass. Had he the gift of prophecy he might wel have anticipated the words recorded by Winston Churchill when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour: 'I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved.'
Charles has Patkul the Livonian executed so gruesomely even the executor (who never had to perform a wheel and quarter type of execution before) can't stand it:
(...)Patkul was tied to the wheel. The executioner then began his gruesome task, using a sledgehammer. AS it fell for the first time, Patkul screamed 'Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" Every bone in his body was then broken, including his spine. Hagen recorded that the clumsiness of the inexperienced executioner meant that the agony was prolonged. It only ended when Patkul pleaded 'Cut my head off! Cut my head off! (Kopf ab! Kopf ab!) Perhaps sickened by what he was having to do, the executioner deviated from Charles' script and boliged, although it took four attempts before the head was severed. A frustrated Charles promptly cashiered him. (...) It is some measure of Ragnild Hatton's determination always to present her hero in the best possible light that her only reference comes in a terse footnote: 'Patkul was executed in September 1707. That is not the way to present what became one of the most notorious quasi-judical atrocities of the eighteeenth century, rivalled only by the equally ghastly end of Louis XV's would be assassin Damiens in 1757. Voltaire's verdict on Patkul's demise was 'there is no civilian in all Eurpoe, nay even the vilest slave ,but must feel the whole horror of this barbarous injustice.'
Charles loses the Swedish Empire partly by not realising he should have paid attention to the navy:
Many were the causes of his daownful, but top of the list must stand his obtuse failure to recognize the importance of the navy. His thalassophobia would have been less damaging if it had not been countered by the equally passionate thalassohilia of his great enemy, Tsar Peter.
(I never heard the term "thalassophilia" before, but yeah, Peter sure did love the sea. And sea trade. And having an open harbor.)
The commercial hotspot of Poland wasn't Warsaw but the free city of Danzig (Gdansk):
The latter was by far the most important, indeed it was the most populous and prosperous city of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That its budget was twenty times that of the Polish state in the first half of the seventeenth century testifies both to its own strength and the weakness of its host. Its population of around 40,000 was almost double that of Warsaw. But Danzig was Polish only in a limited sense, for its inhabitants were predominantly German by language and Lutheran by religion.
Augustus and Poland aren't even consulted when Peter makes finally officially peace with Sweden when the Great Northern War ends:
After this fiasco, Augustus II and the Poles went their separate ways, he promoting the interests of the House of Wettin, the szlachta, lulled by a false sense of security, eating, drinking, makijng merry and cultivating their garden of anarchy, ignorance and religious intolerance. (...) Poland was turning into a wayside inn open for unwanted and non-paying guests.
Lastly: the battles are described in detail, but this, Mildred, you'll have to look up on your own.
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-04 04:37 pm (UTC)There is more than enough about the Great Northern War to satisfy Mildred
Excellent! I look forward to reading this as soon as I have the time.
In terms of August's private life, Blanning announces he has no intention to cover every mistress and provides just details on the most important ones...Ditto for the kids, which, alas, means nothing about the Countess Orzelska.
Understandable, but too bad!
So Augustus put her on trial as a witch, I kid you not. He let it go as far as torture via thumbscrews, and then her sentence was commuted, i.e. she was not executed, but had to wear gloves for the rest of her life, and of course she'd lost her money.
Yikes. I see what you mean about the Countess Cosel, but if he was otherwise so nice to his exes, there's still the open question of why her? Not, what made him capable of treating someone badly, but what made him decide to do it on this occasion? If Blanning doesn't think the marriage promise was sufficient, I can see why he's still baffled.
While observing the outward pieties, he's never going to become a serious Catholic, either, notoriously putting a rosary the Pope has send him in his last year of life around his dog's neck.
Lolololol!
So he wastes the next SIX YEARS (I had forgotten or wasn't aware it took that long) with campaigns in Poland instead of Russia
YEP. He delivered a knockout punch to Peter's army pretty quickly at Narva in 1700, and his invasion of Russia wasn't until the great winter of 1708, with Poltava in 1709. Peter had all that time to recover, build an army, occupy the area around St. Petersburg (coastal terrain! a port!), and generally get ready to demote Sweden from major power to has-been.
Blanning repeatedly calls Augustus an artist, despite, as he said, the man never having written a book, or composed a piece of music, or painted a painting. Why? Because as bad as his military and political instincts were, he had an unfailing one for art, for culture, for presentation and beauty. It was more than just hiring good architects and painters and musicians etc, it's a matter of hiring the right ones who achieve overall harmony.
That makes a lot of sense!
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
Lol. They also agreed Michael Gabriel was one of the wittiest, most charming men ever!
Fredersdorf: As for me, I had a thing for intense blue eyes.
Biographers of F1: Yeah, yeah, but then why gets our guy bashed?
Blanning: Because Augustus didn't have Fritz as a grandson.
Hahaha, well, F1, you should see how Augustus's son Augustus III gets bashed! All thanks to Fritz.
Oh, does A3 get covered at all, or is he Sir Not Appearing in This Book?
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Countess Cosel: to be fair, his other exes didn‘t insist he had promised to marry them. And didn‘t have her interest in politics. Aurora von Königsmarck did, and went on diplomatic missions for Augustus long after she was an ex, but she didn‘t voice political opinions other than his own. At a guess, Cosel was perceived as dangerous in a way the others weren’t, not just by August but by Flemming who was her enemy No.1 and the most important politician at court, and maybe either or both were afraid that if if she did get free again, she’d either be able to charm Augustus once more if she got into his presence or work against him in a way that hurt. Or: if we accept the marriage pledge as genuine, a good lawyer could use this to legitimize her kids and thus muddy the Saxonian succession, hence also A3 not letting her out. BTW, all of this is me speculating, not Blanning. Blanning is especially baffled since Cosel survived even A3, i.e. her imprisonment didn‘t even end when Augustus died. (He doesn‘t mention it did technically end years before her death - see also Heinrich showing up mid war - but that at this point she didn‘t want to leave anymore.) So he just says he can‘t explain.
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-05 06:30 am (UTC)Eek! Yeah, that's pretty ruthless.
and Augustus thinks this is a great opportunity, because who wouldn't want to be King?
Poniatowski: Well, as to that...
He must not have power over the army, as he might use it against the nation; he must not control the treasury, as access to funds would enable him, not only to corrupt the nation's representatives, but also to raise troops and pursue autonomous policies; he especially must not have the right to impose taxes, as this would enable him to oppress his citizens; he must not have any influence over foreign policy, as he might drag the country into war or make unfavourable alliances; the system of justice must remain outside his realm of influence; under no circumstances should he have any influence over legislation, despite the fact he was the only individual with legistlative initiative.
Holy crap. Yeah, I can see that this king must have had an uphill job. To put it mildly!
but there's a reason why Leopold was relieved to get rid of him, and it's not just he could trade him in for one of the best military commanders of the age.
Burn!
But because Charles is such a bad politician and strategist, he's off to Russia next year. Where Peter had six years to prepare, and where Charles finds out the hard way why you just don't invade Russia, especially once the winter arrives.
...whoops.
And certainly Dresden under Augustus became breathtakingly beautiful. "Elbflorenz", Florence at the Elbe, wasn't just a nickname. Even the patriotic Lehndorff who when he finally saw Versailles thought Sanssouci was better was wowed by Dresden. (It's beautiful again today after a long interlude because the city was really flattened in WWII, and most of the buildings had to be reconstructed from scratch, which didn't happen until reunification and some serious money being pumped into it. But even so, it's worth looking at the famous Canaletto paintings to appreciate just what a stunner old Dresden was.)
Huh. I didn't know it was known for being beautiful, though I did know it was flattened in WWII. Guess I better add it to my very long list of things to see...
(Fritz and Caroline Fredersdorf in rare unitiy: Absolutely!)
Hee!
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-05 06:47 am (UTC)https://www.kunst-fuer-alle.de/index.php?mid=76&lid=1&stext=canaletto+dresden
Tiny glimpse at restored Dresden today:
https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/585020.html
And yes. It really was one of Europe‘s most beautiful cities.
Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-09 03:50 am (UTC)Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-09 09:06 am (UTC)Re: Tim Blanning: Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
Date: 2025-01-11 11:34 pm (UTC)