AUGUSTUS III, Frederick, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, son of Augustus H : b. Dresden 1696; d. there, 5 Oct. 1763. He succeeded his father as Elector in 1733. A part of the Polish nobility chose Augustus king; and in 1736 he was first generally recognized as such by the Congress assembled at Warsaw to conclude a peace. Although without the great and amiable qualities of has father, in other re spects he closely followed his example, distin guishing himself by the splendor of his feasts and the extravagance of his court. His system of politics consisted in entire dependence upon Russia. He preferred Dresden to Warsaw, and through his long absence from Poland the gov ernment sank into entire inactivity. When Frederick attacked Saxony itself in 1745, Au gustus deserted his capital, and preserved his pictures and porcelain, but lost the archives of the state, which fell into the hands of the victors. By the peace of Dresden, 25 Dec. 1745,
he was reinstated in the possession of Saxony, in the next year. In 1756 he saw himself in volved anew in a war against Prussia, and fled to Konigstein, and afterward to Poland. His authority in this country had always been incon siderable, and after the loss of Saxony, became still more insignificant. The accession of Cath arine to the Russian throne was a source of disquietude, for she sought to deprive the Saxon princes, who were allies of France, of the Polish thrones. The peace of Hubertsberg was hardly concluded when Augustus returned from Warsaw to Dresden, where he died. His son, Frederick Christian, succeeded him as Elector of Saxony, and Stanislaus Poniatowsky as King of Poland. Consult Ruthiere, 'Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne> (Paris 1819).